Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/111

 to my attempting to penetrate into Abyssinia, I therefore hired at Mocha a trusty servant, named Hadjee Alli, and sent him over immediately to the Abyssinian coast with letters for the Ras and Mr. Pearce, in a country boat belonging to Yunus Beralli, a faithful Somauli, who had before rendered important services to the English. In these letters I announced my arrival with his Majesty's letter and presents for the Emperor Ayto Egwala Sion, (or Ayto Guaio, as he is commonly called) expressing my anxiety to advance as soon as possible to the presence; and requesting that the Ras would send down Mr. Pearce, with a proper number of mules and people, to whatever point of the coast he might judge it most advisable for me to land. This dispatch was sent off on the 14th of October, and as I conceived it advisable, on account of many necessary preparations for my journey, I determined to wait at Mocha for an answer. During the time which this delay afforded me, I several times visited the Dola, (styled Sultaun Hassan,) the Baskatib, and other natives of rank, and I found them, in general, more favourably inclined to the English than they appeared to have been during our former residence at Mocha. The Dola granted me an unlimited permission to hire whatever servants I might require, and otherwise facilitated my views as much as lay in his power, and frequently sent presents of fruits and vegetables to the factory, which were at this time peculiarly acceptable, owing to the unsettled state of affairs in the town. That the reader may become acquainted with the situation to which I allude, it will be necessary to take a retrospective view of the events which had occurred in Yemen from the time of our residence at Mocha in 1805, which being connected with the transactions of the Wahabee in this part of Arabia, and with the general history of Yemen, may not prove unworthy of his attention.

It appered at the time we left Arabia, that the political affairs of Yemen were drawing to a crisis. The weakness of the old Imaum, Ali Mansoor, and the incapacity of his minister, had occasioned the loss of some of its most valuable possessions, particularly Loheia and