Here Grow Poppies, Of Which They Make Opium, But It Is Not Good.
The 26th We Came To A Coughe[333] House, Called Merfadine, In The
Middle Of A Plain, Sixteen Miles.
The 27th, Tayes, a city half as big
as Zenan, surrounded by a mud wall.
We staid here two days, in which
time I did all I could to recover Mr Pemberton's boy, whom Hamet aga the
governor had forced to become Mahometan, and would on no account part
with him. Walter Talbot, who spoke the Turkish language, was allowed to
converse with him in a chamber among other boys. He told Talbot that he
was no Turk, but had been deluded by them, saying that I and all my
people were put to death at Zenan, and that he must change his religion
if he would save his life, but he refused: yet they carried him to a
bagnio, where he was circumcised by force. Finding the aga would not
deliver the boy, I gave him the kiahya's letter, desiring him to be
given up if not turned; so he was refused. This city stands in a valley
under very high hills, on the top of one of which is a fair strong
castle. All kinds of provisions are here plentiful and cheap, and in the
neighbourhood some indigo is made, but I could not learn what quantity
or quality. This city is very populous, as indeed are all the cities and
districts we passed through.
[Footnote 333: It should rather be Kahwah house, signifying a house
where they sell coffee. - Astl. I. 373. c.]
The 1st March we came to Eufras, sixteen miles through a mountainous
and stony country. This is a small town on the side of a hill, to which
many people resort from afar about the 5th of January, where they do
some foolish ceremonies at the grave of one of their saints who is
buried here, after which they all go on pilgrimage to Mecca. The
governor of this town, though a Turk, used me very civilly on my going
up to Zenan; and, on the present occasion, sent a person six miles to
meet us at a place where two roads meet, to bring us to this town, where
he used us kindly. The 2d we lodged at a sensor called Assambine,
eleven miles, where were only a few poor cottages. The 3d to another
sensor called Accomoth, in a barren common, with a few cottages,
thirteen miles. The 4th to Mousa,[334] seventeen miles, through a
barren plain with few inhabitants. Mousa is a small unwalled town, but
very populous, standing in a moderately fertile plain, in which some
indigo is made. We departed from Mousa at midnight, and rested two or
three hours at a church, or coughe house,[335] called Dabully, built
by a Dabull merchant Our stop was to avoid coming to Mokha before
day.[336]
[Footnote 334: Probably the same place called Mowssi on the journey
inland.
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