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 CHAPTER VI

English Captives in Arabia

HE scene now changes from the fertile fields of Guzerat and the picturesque environment of the Mogul Court to the arid wastes of Aden and the Yemen. By some strange aberration, the directors of the East India Company at this early period gave directions to two of their fleets in succession to establish trade relations with Aden and with the Turkish fort of Mocha in the Red Sea. They seem to have anticipated a profitable opening at these centres for commerce, and to have been keenly desirous of forming a permanent connexion with either or both places. But there could hardly have been a more serious miscalculation. Aden had played a great part in ancient times as an incomparable strategical position, and it was centuries later again to figure prominently on the stage of the world's history. At the time of which we are writing, however, it was a mere outpost of the feeble Ottoman power. It had been captured from the Portuguese a few years previously and had been maintained largely on the dues from the 91