Galinier and Ferret,
published tables of the commerce in its present state, quoting as
authority the celebrated Arabicist M. Fresnel.[FN#9] These
[p.269] have been translated by the author of “Life in Abyssinia.” Abd
al-Karim, writing in 1742, informs us that the French had a factory at
Jeddah; and in 1760, when Bruce revisited the port, he found the East
India Company in possession of a post whence they dispersed their
merchandise over the adjoining regions. But though the English were at
an early epoch of their appearance in the East received here with
especial favour, I failed to procure a single ancient document.
Jeddah, when I visited it, was in a state of commotion, owing to the
perpetual passage of pilgrims, and provisions were for the same reason
scarce and dear. The two large Wakalahs, of which the place boasts,
were crowded with travellers, and many were reduced to encamping upon
the squares. Another subject of confusion was the state of the
soldiery. The Nizam, or Regulars, had not been paid for seven months,
and the Arnauts could scarcely sum up what was owing to them. Easterns
are wonderfully amenable to discipline; a European army, under the
circumstances, would probably have helped itself. But the Pasha knew
that there is a limit to a man’s endurance, and he was anxiously casting
about for some contrivance that would replenish the empty pouches of
his troops. The worried dignitary must have sighed for those beaux
jours when privily firing the town and allowing the soldiers to
plunder, was the Oriental style of settling arrears of pay.[FN#10]
[p.270] Jeddah displays all the license of a seaport and garrison town.
Fair Corinthians establish themselves even within earshot of the
Karakun, or guard-post; a symptom of excessive laxity in the
authorities, for it is the duty of the watch to visit all such
irregularities with a bastinado preparatory to confinement. My
guardians and attendants at the Wakalah used to fetch Araki in a clear
glass bottle, without even the decency of a cloth, and the messenger
twice returned from these errands decidedly drunk. More extraordinary
still, the people seemed to take no notice of the scandal.
The little “Dwarka” had been sent by the Bombay Steam Navigation Company to
convey pilgrims from Al-Hijaz to India. I was still hesitating about my
next voyage, not wishing to coast the Red Sea in this season without a
companion, when one morning Omar Effendi appeared at the door, weary,
and dragging after him an ass more weary than himself. We supplied him
with a pipe and a cup of hot tea, and, as he was fearful of pursuit, we
showed him a dark hole full of grass under which he might sleep
concealed.
The student’s fears were realised; his father appeared early the next
morning, and having ascertained from the porter that the fugitive was
in the house, politely called upon me.
