The King Was Ready At
The Shore To Receive Him, In An Orange-Tawny Tent, Attended By The
Principal Of His People, Being Arabs, And A Guard Of Small Shot.
He
thankfully received the present, promised water free, and any thing else
the island afforded at reasonable price; but they had suffered a two
years drought, and consequently had little to spare.
He had no aloes for
sale, having sent the whole produce to the Red Sea. He informed Mr
Femell, that the Ascension and her pinnace came there in February, and
went in company with a Guzerat ship to the Red Sea, whence both returned
to Socotora and took in water, departing for Cambaya. That his own
frigate being afterwards at Basseen, near Damaun, in India, was informed
by the Portuguese, that the Ascension and pinnace were both lost, but
the men saved, having come too soon upon the coast, before the bad
weather of winter was over. After a conference of more than an hour, the
king sent the general a present of twelve goats.
This king of Socotora was named Muley Amor ebn Sayd, being only
viceroy under his father, who is King of Fartak, in Arabia, not far from
Aden, and comes into the sea at Camricam..[351] He said his father was
at war with the Turks of Aden in his own defence, for which reason he
refused to give us a letter for the governor of Aden, as it would do us
harm. The people in Socotora on which the king depends are Arabs, the
original natives of the island being kept under a most servile slavery.
The merchandise of this island consists of Aloes Socotarina, of which
they do not make above a ton yearly; a small quantity of Sanguis
draconis, some of which our factors bought at twelve-pence a pound;
dates, which serve them instead of bread, and which the king sells at
five dollars the hundred [weight?] Bulls and cows we bought at twelve
dollars a-piece; goats for a dollar; sheep half a dollar; hens half a
dollar; all exceedingly small conformable with the dry rocky barrenness
of the island; wood cost twelve-pence for a man's burden; every thing in
short was very dear. I know of nothing else the island produces, except
rocks and stones, the whole country being very dry and bare.
[Footnote 351: We cannot tell what to make of this remark in the text.
Purchas, who has probably omitted something in the text, puts in the
margin, King of Fartak, or Canacaym; which does not in the least
elucidate the obscurity, unless we suppose Canacaym an error for
Carasem, the same with Kassin, or rather Kushem, to which Fartak now
belongs. - Astl. I. 395. b.]
Sec. 2. Of Abdal Kuria, Arabia Felix, Aden, and Mokha, and the treacherous
Proceedings of both Places.
After saluting the king, we took our departure from Socotora for Aden,
taking our course along the north side of Abdal Kuria[352] for Cape
Guar-da-fui, which is the eastermost point of Abax [Habesh, or
Abyssinia], and is about thirty-four leagues west from the western
point of Socotora; from which the eastern point of Abdal Kuria is
fourteen leagues off.
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