Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/121

 for small vessels. Pliny's 'Portus Isidis,' marked by four islands, seems to answer to the description of Rackmah, and in his time myrrh was brought down to it by the Troglodytes, or Bedowee, (vide Nat. Hist. p. 143;) it is also in all probability the port often mentioned by the Portuguese, under the name of the harbour of Veila or Beila. Thermometer at mid-day 78°.

December 9th. We got under way at sun-rise, and with a cool refreshing gale continued to coast along the shore. We passed the Abaiels, and steered our course inside the southern Island of Kudaly; and at two in the afternoon came to an anchor off the village of Ayth. There scarcely can exist a worse place for anchorage than Ayth, the road lying perfectly open, and, when the wind blows from the southern quarter, a heavy sea running along the coast, which, as the ground is foul, makes the riding extremely dangerous. Soon after our arrival we sent a boat on shore, and gained intelligence, that the gelve I had dispatched from Mocha still remained at Amphila, that Yunus was dead, (having, as was generally reported, been poisoned,) and that my messenger had failed in obtaining an intercourse with the Ras, owing to the interference of the nayib of Massowa, and that the latter had sent down two armed doors to attempt the seizure of Yunus's boat, and to prevent the English from opening a communication with Abyssinia, by the way of Amphila.

This information was given me by Wursum, the son of Yunus, who on the death of his father had succeeded, according to the customs of the Somanil, to the command of the boat. This young man had come down to Ayth, for the purpose of performing the last duties to his deceased father, who having married a woman of a Dankali tribe, belonging to this village, had, on his being taken ill, retired to her house to die. The death of this faithful Somauli considerably affected me, as the valuable services he had rendered us in the Panther, and the gratitude he had shewn for some slight favours since conferred, had given me more confidence in his attachment than in that of any other of the natives in my employ.

The village of Ayth, which consists of about forty huts only, forms the capital of a district governed by a Sheik,