It Stands On A Tolerably
Level Plain, Having Walls On Two Sides:
All the rest being inclosed by
mountains, on which there are five fortresses.
This city contains 6000
houses, and only a stone's throw from the city there is a mountain
having a castle on its summit, the shipping being anchored at the foot
of the mountain. Aden is an excellent city, and the chief place in all
Arabia Felix, of which it is the principal mart, to which merchants
resort from India, Ethiopia, Persia, and the Red Sea; but owing to the
intolerable heat during the day, the whole business of buying and
selling takes place at night, beginning two hours after sunset. As soon
as our brigantines came to anchor in the haven, the customers and
searchers came off, demanding what we were, whence we came, what
commodities we had on board, and how many men were in each vessel? After
being satisfied on these heads they took away our mast, sails, and other
tackle, that we might not depart without paying the customs.
The day after our arrival at Aden, the Mahometans took me prisoner, and
put shackles on my legs in consequence of an _idolater_ calling after me
that I was a Christian dog[49]. Upon this the Mahometans laid hold of
me, and carried me before the lieutenant of the sultan, who assembled
his council, to consult with them if I should be put to death as a
Christian spy. The sultan happened to be absent from the city, and as
the lieutenant had not hitherto adjudged any one to death, he did not
think fit to give sentence against me till my case were reported to the
sultan.
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