I Requested That
He Would Not Detain So Many Of Us; But He Answered, "Thirty Have I Said,
And Thirty Shall Remain." I Then Asked If Our Goods Should Be Returned.
He Answered No, For They Were All Put To The Account Of The Grand
Signior.
I asked if all my people should be allowed to depart at the
time appointed.
To which he answered, that not one should be detained,
not even if I had a Turkish slave, and I might depend on his word.
Having given him thanks for his kindness, as counselled by the kiahya,
he began to excuse himself; and to praise his own clemency, saying, it
was happy for us we had fallen into his hands, as if it had been in the
time of any of his predecessors, we had all suffered death for presuming
to come so near their holy city. He said, what had been done was by
order of the grand signior, proceeding upon the complaints of the pachas
of Cairo and Swaken, and the sharif of Mecca, who represented that, when
the Ascension and her pinnace were in the Red Sea, they had bought up
all the choice goods of India, by which the Turkish customs were much
diminished; and, if allowed to continue, it would ruin the trade of the
Red Sea. Wherefore the grand signior had given orders, if any more
Englishmen or other Christians came into these parts, to confiscate
their ships and goods, and to kill or reduce to slavery all their men
they could get hold of.
In the mean time many of our people fell sick, and became weak through
grief, cold, bad air, bad diet, wretched lodging, and heavy irons. I
never ceased urging the kiahya, till he procured their liberations from
the loathsome prison; so that on the 11th February they were freed from
their irons, and had a house in the town to live in, with liberty to
walk about. Next day the kiahya sent me six bullocks for my men, so that
in a few days, with wholesome food and exercise, they recovered their
former health and strength. The kiahya informed me, that Regib aga had
written to the pacha to send us all down to Aden, to be there taken on
board his ships; by which means his town of Mokha, and the India ships
in passing the bab[331] would be freed from the danger of suffering
any harm from our ships. This advice had nearly prevailed with the
pacha, but was counteracted for our good by the kiahya.
[Footnote 331: This is the gate or straits of Bab-al-Mondub, or Babel
Mandel, as corruptly called by Europeans. - Astl I. 372. a,]
Early in the morning of the 17th February, I and Mr Femell and others
were sent for by the kiahya, and told that we were all to depart next
morning for Mokha. After breakfast, he took us to the pacha to take
leave. After again extolling his clemency and magnifying the power of
the grand signior, he strictly enjoined me to come no more into those
seas; saying, that no Christian or Lutheran should be allowed to come
thither, even if they had the grand signior's pass.
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