The 12th We Were In Sight Of The High Land Of Aden, Bearing W. By
S. Ten Leagues Off.
The 13th, in the evening, we were fourteen leagues
eastwards of the entry of the straits, and sixteen leagues west from
Aden, and came here to anchor on a fine sandy bottom.
The 14th, we
weighed in the morning, steering for the straits, having a small gale at
W. by N. with rain, being the first we had seen for four months. In the
evening, believing ourselves off the straits, we stood off and on under
easy sail all night, constantly heaving the lead, being eight or nine
leagues off the Arabian coast. About noon of the 15th we opened the
straits, and at night anchored in fifteen and a half fathom, on black
oose, three leagues from the Arabian, and ten from the Abyssinian shore,
the weather being so clear that we could distinctly see both.
[Footnote 410: The island or islands of Demiti or Mete, are in lat. 11 deg.
45' N. - E.]
The 16th we weighed in the morning, and stood for Mokha, where we came
to anchor in five and a half fathoms. Not long after anchoring, the
governor sent off a poor old slave in a small canoe, to know the cause
of our coming. I used this man kindly, who told me the English had been
lately here, and were ill used by Regib aga, then governor, who was
therefore cashiered, and the government was now in the hands of Ider
[Hayder] aga, a Greek by birth, who was the friend of strangers and
merchants. Giving him a present of two dollars, I sent him back to his
master to tell him we were Englishmen, and friends to the Grand Signior,
and, upon sending us a worthy person, we should acquaint him farther of
the cause of our coming. Soon afterwards there came off an Italian
renegado, well dressed, with a similar message, and to know if we had
the Grand Signior's pass. I told him we had not only such a pass, but
letters from the king of Great Britain to the pacha, which the Italian
desired to see; but, holding him a base fellow for changing from the
Christian religion, I refused,[411] and desired him to acquaint the
governor with these things, and that we were appointed, in honour of the
said pass, to fire fifty-one pieces of artillery on our arrival in these
roads, which we meant presently to do. The Italian requested he might be
allowed in the first place to inform his master of our intended salute,
which was granted, and the purser directed to give him five dollars, and
one to his boat's crew. His name was Mustafa Trudgeman.[412] We shot
off nineteen pieces from the Clove, seventeen from the Hector, and
fifteen from the Thomas, which the town answered with five pieces of
excellent ordnance, and three each from two gallies. These were stout
vessels, having twenty-five oars of a side, and were well fitted, having
their yards up.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 396 of 424
Words from 206910 to 207424
of 221842
