Remarks on the Island of Hinzuan or Johanna

HinzuˊAˊN (a name, which has been gradually corrupted into Anzuame, Anjuan, Juanny, and Johanna) has been governed about two centuries by a colony of Arabs, and exhibits a curious instance of the slow approaches toward civilization, which are made by a small community, with many natural advantages, but with few means of improving them. An account of this African island, in which we hear the language and see the manners of Arabia, may neither be uninteresting in itself, nor foreign to the objects of inquiry proposed at the institution of our Society.

On Monday the 28th of July 1783, after a voyage, in the Crocodile, of ten weeks and two days from the rugged islands of Cape Verd, our eyes were delighted with a prospect so beautiful, that neither a painter nor a poet could perfectly represent it, and so cheering to us, that it can justly be conceived by such only, as have been in our preceding situation. It was the sun rising in full splendour on the isle of Mayáta (as the seamen called it) which we had joyfully distinguished the preceding afternoon by the height of its peak, and which now appeared at no great distance from the windows of our cabin; while Hinzúàn, for which we had so long panted, was plainly discernible a-head, where its high lands presented themselves with remarkable boldness. The weather was fair; the water, smooth; and a gentle breeze drove us easily before dinner-time round a rock, on which the Brilliant struck just a year before, into a commodious road11Lat. 12°. 10′. 47″. S. Long. 44°. 25′. 5″. E. by the Master., where we dropped our anchor early in the evening: we had seen Mohíla, another sister island, in the course of the day.

The frigate was presently surrounded with canoes, and the deck soon crowded with natives of all ranks, from the high born chief, who washed linen, to the half-naked slave, who only paddled. Most of them had letters of recommendation from Englishmen, which none of them were able to read, though they spoke English intelligibly; and some appeared vain of titles, which our countrymen had given them in play, according to their supposed stations: we had Lords, Dukes, and Princes on board, soliciting our custom and importuning us for presents. In fact they were too sensible to be proud of empty sounds, but justly imagined, that those ridiculous titles would serve as marks of distinction, and, by attracting notice, procure for them something substantial. The only men of real consequence in the island, whom we saw before we landed, were the Governor Abdullah, second cousin to the king, and his brother Alwiˊ, with their several sons; all of whom will again be particularly mentioned: they understood Arabick, seemed zealots in the Mohammedan faith, and admired my copies of the Alkoran; some verses of which they read, whilst Alwiˊ perused the opening of another Arabian manuscript, and explained it in English more accurately than could have been expected.

The next morning showed us the island in all its beauty; and the scene was so diversified, that a distinct view of it could hardly have been exhibited by the best pencil: you must, therefore, be satisfied with a mere description, written on the very spot and compared attentively with the natural landscape. We were at anchor in a fine bay, and before us was a vast amphitheatre, of which you may form a general notion by picturing in your minds a multitude of hills infinitely varied in size and figure, and then supposing them to be thrown together, with a kind of artless symmetry, in all imaginable positions. The back ground was a series of mountains, one of which is pointed, near half a mile perpendicularly high from the level of the sea, and little more than three miles from the shore: all of them were richly clothed with wood, chiefly fruit-trees, of an exquisite verdure. I had seen many a mountain of a stupendous height in Wales and Swisserland, but never saw one before, round the bosom of which the clouds were almost continually rolling, while its green summit rose flourishing above them, and received from them an additional brightness. Next to this distant range of hills was another tier, part of which appeared charmingly verdant, and part rather barren; but the contrast of colours changed even this nakedness into a beauty: nearer still were innumerable mountains, or rather cliffs, which brought down their verdure and fertility quite to the beech; so that every shade of green, the sweetest of colours, was displayed at one view by land and by water. But nothing conduced more to the variety of this enchanting prospect, than the many rows of palm-trees, especially the tall and graceful Areca's, on the shores, in the valleys, and on the ridges of hills, where one might almost suppose them to have been planted regularly by design. A more beautiful appearance can scarce be conceived, than such a number of elegant palms in such a situation, with luxuriant tops, like verdant plumes, placed at just intervals, and showing between them part of the remoter landscape, while they left the rest to be supplied by the beholder's imagination. The town of Matsamúdò lay on our left, remarkable at a distance for the tower of the principal mosque, which was built by Haliˊmah, a queen of the island, from whom the present king is descended: a little on our right was a small town, called Bantámi. Neither the territory of Nice, with its olives, date-trees, and cypresses, nor the isles of Hieres, with their delightful orange-groves, appeared so charming to me, as the view from the road of Hinzúàn; which, nevertheless, is far surpassed, as the Captain of the Crocodile assured us, by many of the islands in the southern ocean. If life were not too short for the complete discharge of all our respective duties, publick and private, and for the acquisition even of necessary knowledge in any degree of perfection, with how much pleasure and improvement might a great part of it be spent in admiring the beauties of this wonderful orb, and contemplating the nature of man in all its varieties!

We hastened to tread on firm land, to which we had been so long disused, and went on shore, after breakfast, to see the town, and return the Governor's visit. As we walked, attended by a crowd of natives, I surprized them by reading aloud an Arabick inscription over the gate of a mosque, and still more, when I entered it, by explaining four sentences, which were written very distinctly on the wall, signifying, “that the world was given us for our own edification, not for the purpose of raising sumptuous buildings; life, for the discharge of moral and religious duties, not for pleasurable indulgences; wealth, to be liberally bestowed, not avaritiously hoarded; and learning, to produce good actions, not empty disputes.” We could not but respect the temple even of a false prophet, in which we found such excellent morality: we saw nothing better among the Romish trumpery in the church at Madera. When we came to Abdullah's house, we were conducted through a small court-yard into an open room, on each side of which was a large and convenient sofa, and above it a high bed-place in a dark recess, over which a chintz counterpoint hung down from the ceiling: this is the general form of the best rooms in the island; and most of the tolerable houses have a similar apartment on the opposite side of the court, that there may be at all hours a place in the shade for dinner or for repose. We were entertained with ripe dates from Yemen, and the milk of cocoa-nuts; but the heat of the room, which seemed accessible to all, who chose to enter it, and the scent of musk or civet, with which it was perfumed, soon made us desirous of breathing a purer air; nor could I be detained long by the Arabick manuscripts, which the Governor produced, but which appeared of little use, and consequently of no value, except to such as love mere curiosities: one of them, indeed, relating to the penal law of the Mohammedans, I would gladly have purchased at a just price; but he knew not what to ask, and I knew, that better books on that subject might be procured in Bengal. He then offered me a black boy for one of my Alkorans, and pressed me to barter an Indian dress, which he had seen on board the ship, for a cow and calf: the golden slippers attracted him most, since his wife, he said, would like to wear them; and, for that reason, I made him a present of them; but had destined the book and the robe for his superior. No high opinion could be formed of Sayyad Abdullah, who seemed very eager for gain, and very servile where he expected it.

Our next visit was to Shaikh Saˊlim, the king's eldest son; and, if we had seen him first, the state of civilization in Hinzúàn would have appeared at its lowest ebb: the worst English hackney in the worst stable is better lodged, and looks more princely than this heir apparent; but, though his mien and apparel were extremely savage, yet allowance should have been made for his illness; which, as we afterwards learned, was an abscess in the spleen, a disorder not uncommon in that country, and frequently cured, agreeably to the Arabian practice, by the actual cautery. He was incessantly chewing pieces of the Areca-nut with shell-lime; a custom borrowed, I suppose, from the Indians, who greatly improve the composition with spices and betel-leaves, to which they formerly added camphor: all the natives of rank chewed it, but not, I think, to so great an excess. Prince Saˊlim from time to time gazed at himself with complacency in a piece of broken looking-glass, which was glued on a small board; a specimen of wretchedness, which we observed in no other house; but many circumstances convinced us, that the apparently low condition of his royal highness, who was not on bad terms with his father, and seemed not to want authority, proceeded wholly from his avarice. His brother Hamdullah, who generally resides in the town of Domóni, has a very different character, being esteemed a man of worth, good sense, and learning: he had come, the day before, to Matsamúdo, on hearing that an English frigate was in the road; and I, having gone out for a few minutes to read an Arabick inscription, found him, on my return, devouring a manuscript, which I had left with some of the company. He is a Kádì, or Mohammedan judge; and, as he seemed to have more knowledge than his countrymen, I was extremely concerned, that I had so little conversation with him. The king, Shaikh Ahmed, has a younger son, named Abdullah, whose usual residence is in the town of Wáni, which he seldom leaves, as the state of his health is very infirm. Since the succession to the title and authority of Sultàn is not unalterably fixed in one line, but requires confirmation, by the chiefs of the island, it is not improbable, that they may hereafter be conferred on prince Hamdullah.

A little beyond the hole, in which Saˊlim received us, was his Haram, or the apartment of his women, which he permitted us all to see, not through politeness to strangers, as we believed at first, but, as I learned afterwards from his own lips, in expectation of a present: we saw only two or three miserable creatures with their heads covered, while the favourite, as we supposed, stood behind a coarse curtain, and showed her ankles under it loaded with silver rings; which, if she was capable of reflection, she must have considered as glittering fetters rather than ornaments; but a rational being would have preferred the condition of a wild beast, exposed to perils and hunger in a forest, to the splendid misery of being wife or mistress to Saˊlim.

Before we returned, Alwiˊ was desirous of showing me his books; but the day was too far advanced, and I promised to visit him some other morning. The governor, however, prevailed on us to see his place in the country, where he invited us to dine the next day: the walk was extremely pleasant from the town to the side of a rivulet, which formed in one part a small pool very convenient for bathing, and thence, through groves and alleys, to the foot of a hill; but the dining-room was little better than an open barn, and was recommended only by the coolness of its shade. Abdullah would accompany us on our return to the ship, together with two Mufti's, who spoke Arabick indifferently, and seemed eager to see all my manuscripts; but they were very moderately learned, and gazed with stupid wonder on a fine copy of the Hamásah and on other collections of ancient poetry.

Early the next morning a black messenger, with a tawny lad as his interpreter, came from prince Saˊlim; who, having broken his perspective-glass, wished to procure another by purchase or barter: a polite answer was returned, and steps taken to gratify his wishes. As we on our part expressed a desire to visit the king at Domóni, the prince's messenger told us, that his master would, no doubt, lend us palanquins (for there was not a horse in the island) and order a sufficient number of his vassals to carry us, whom we might pay for their trouble, as we thought just: we commissioned him, therefore, to ask that favour, and begged, that all might be ready for our excursion before sunrise; that we might escape the heat of the noon, which, though it was the middle of winter, we had found excessive. The boy, whose name was Combo Madi, stayed with us longer than his companion: there was something in his look so ingenuous, and in his broken English so simple, that we encouraged him to continue his innocent prattle. He wrote and read Arabick tolerably well, and set down at my desire the names of several towns in the island, which, He first told me, was properly called Hinzúàn. The fault of begging for whatever he liked, he had in common with the governor and other nobles; but hardly in a greater degree: his first petition for some lavender-water was readily granted; and a small bottle of it was so acceptable to him, that, if we had suffered him, he would have kissed our feet; but it was not for himself that he rejoiced so extravagantly: he told us with tears starting from his eyes, that his mother would be pleased with it, and the idea of her pleasure seemed to fill him with rapture: never did I see filial affection more warmly felt or more tenderly and, in my opinion, unaffectedly expressed; yet this boy was not a favourite of the officers, who thought him artful. His mother's name, he said, was Faˊtima; and he importuned us to visit her; conceiving, I suppose, that all mankind must love and admire her: we promised to gratify him; and, having made him several presents, permitted him to return. As he reminded me of Aladdin in the Arabian tale, I designed to give him that name in a recommendatory letter, which he pressed me to write, instead of St. Domingo, as some European visiter had ridiculously called him; but, since the allusion would not have been generally known, and since the title of Aláu'ldin, or Eminence in Faith, might have offended his superiors, I thought it advisable for him to keep his African name. A very indifferent dinner was prepared for us at the house of the Governor, whom we did not see the whole day, as it was the beginning of Ramadàn, the Mohammedan lent, and he was engaged in his devotions, or made them his excuse; but his eldest son sat by us, while we dined, together with Muˊsa, who was employed, jointly with his brother Husain, as purveyor to the Captain of the frigate.

Having observed a very elegant shrub, that grew about six feet high in the court-yard, but was not then in flower, I learned with pleasure, that it was hinnà, of which I had read so much in Arabian poems, and which European Botanists have ridiculously named Lawsonia: Muˊsa bruised some of the leaves, and, having moistened them with water, applied them to our nails, and the tips of our fingers, which in a short time, became of a dark orange-scarlet. I had before conceived a different idea of this dye, and imagined, that it was used by the Arabs to imitate the natural redness of those parts in young and healthy persons, which in all countries must be considered as a beauty: perhaps a less quantity of hinnà, or the same differently prepared, might have produced that effect. The old men in Arabia used the same dye to conceal their grey hair, while their daughters were dying their lips and gums black, to set off the whiteness of their teeth; so universal in all nations and ages are personal vanity, and a love of disguising truth; though in all cases, the farther our species recede from nature, the farther they depart from true beauty; and men at least should disdain to use artifice or deceit for any purpose or on any occasion: if the women of rank at Paris, or those in London who wish to imitate them, be inclined to call the Arabs barbarians; let them view their own head-dresses and cheeks in a glass, and, if they have left no room for blushes, be inwardly at least ashamed of their censure.

In the afternoon I walked a long way up the mountains in a winding path amid plants and trees no less new than beautiful, and regretted exceedingly, that very few of them were in blossom; as I should then have had leisure to examine them. Curiosity led me from hill to hill; and I came at last to the sources of a rivulet, which we had passed near the shore, and from which the ship was to be supplied with excellent water. I saw no birds on the mountains but Guinea-fowl, which might have been easily caught: no insects were troublesome to me, but mosquitos; and I had no fear of venomous reptiles, having been assured, that the air was too pure for any to exist in it; but I was often unwillingly a cause of fear to the gentle and harmless lizard, who ran among the shrubs. On my return I missed the path, by which I had ascended; but, having met some blacks laden with yams and plantains, I was by them directed to another, which led me round, through a charming grove of cocoa-trees, to the Governor's country-seat, where our entertainment was closed by a sillabub, which the English had taught the Muselmans to make for them.

We received no answer from Saˊlim; nor, indeed, expected one; since we took for granted, that he could not but approve our intention of visiting his father; and we went on shore before sunrise, in full expectation of a pleasant excursion to Domóni: but we were happily disappointed. The servants, at the prince's door, told us coolly, that their master was indisposed, and, as they believed, asleep; that he had given them no orders concerning his palanquins, and that they durst not disturb him. Alwiˊ soon came to pay us his compliments; and was followed by his eldest son, Ahmed, with whom we walked to the gardens of the two princes Saˊlim and Hamdullah; the situation was naturally good, but wild and desolate; and, in Saˊlim's garden, which we entered through a miserable hovel, we saw a convenient bathing-place, well-built with stone, but then in great disorder, and a shed, by way of summer-house, like that under which we dined at the governor's, but smaller and less neat. On the ground lay a kind of cradle about six feet long, and little more than one foot in breadth, made of cords twisted in a sort of clumsy network, with a long thick bambu fixed to each side of it: this, we heard with surprize, was a royal palanquin, and one of the vehicles, in which we were to have been rocked on men's shoulders over the mountains. I had much conversation with Ahmed, whom I found intelligent and communicative: he told me, that several of his countrymen composed songs and tunes; that he was himself a passionate lover of poetry and musick; and that, if we would dine at his house, he would play and sing to us. We declined his invitation to dinner; as we had made a conditional promise, if ever we passed a day at Matsamúdo, to eat our curry with Bánà Gibu, an honest man, of whom we purchased eggs and vegetables, and to whom some Englishman had given the title of lord, which made him extremely vain: we could, therefore, make Sayyad Ahmed only a morning visit. He sung a hymn or two in Arabick, and accompanied his drawling, though pathetick, psalmody with a kind of mandoline, which he touched with an awkard quill: the instrument was very imperfect, but seemed to give him delight. The names of the strings were written on it in Arabian or Indian figures, simple and compounded; but I could not think them worth copying. He gave Captain Williamson, who wished to present some literary curiosities to the library at Dublin, a small roll containing a hymn in Arabick letters, but in the language of Mombaza, which was mixed with Arabick; but it hardly deserved examination, since the study of languages has little intrinsick value, and is only useful as the instrument of real knowledge, which we can scarce expect from the poets of the Mozambique. Ahmed would, I believe, have heard our European airs (I always except French melody) with rapture, for his favourite tune was a common Irish jig, with which he seemed wonderfully affected.

On our return to the beech I thought of visiting old Alwiˊ, according to my promise, and prince Saˊlim, whose character I had not then discovered: I resolved for that purpose to stay on shore alone, our dinner with Gibu having been fixed at an early hour. Alwiˊ showed me his manuscripts, which chiefly related to the ceremonies and ordinances of his own religion; and one of them, which I had formerly seen in Europe, was a collection of sublime and elegant hymns in praise of Mohammed, with explanatory notes in the margin: I requested him to read one of them after the manner of the Arabs, and he chanted it in a strain by no means unpleasing; but I am persuaded, that he understood it very imperfectly. The room, which was open to the street, was presently crowded with visiters, most of whom were Mufti's, or Expounders of the Law; and Alwiˊ desirous, perhaps, to display his zeal before them at the expense of good breeding, directed my attention to a passage in a commentary on the Koràn, which I found levelled at the Christians. The commentator, having related with some additions (but, on the whole, not inaccurately) the circumstances of the temptation, puts this speech into the mouth of the tempter: “though I am unable to delude thee, yet I will mislead, by thy means, more human creatures, than thou wilt set right”. ‘Nor was this menace vain, (says the Mohammedan writer) for the inhabitants of a region many thousand leagues in extent are still so deluded by the devil, that they impiously call Iˊsa the son of God: heaven preserve us, he adds, from blaspheming Christians as well as blaspheming Jews.’ Although a religious dispute with those obstinate zealots would have been unseasonable and fruitless, yet they deserved, I thought, a slight reprehension, as the attack seemed to be concerted among them. ‘The commentator, said I, was much to blame for passing so indiscriminate and hasty a censure: the title, which gave your legislator, and gives you, such offence, was often applied in Judea, by a bold figure agreeable to the Hebrew idiom, though unusual in Arabick, to angels, to holy men, and even to all mankind, who are commanded to call God their Father; and in this large sense, the Apostle to the Romans calls the elect the children of God, and the Messiah the first-born among many brethren; but the words only begotten are applied transcendently and incomparably to him alone22Rom. 8. 29. See 1. John 3. 1. II. Barrow, 231, 232, 251.; and, as for me, who believe the scriptures, which you also profess to believe, though you assert without proof that we have altered them, I cannot refuse him an appellation, though far surpassing our reason, by which he is distinguished in the Gospel; and the believers in Muhammed, who expressly names him the Messiah, and pronounces him to have been born of a virgin, which alone might fully justify the phrase condemned by this author, are themselves condemnable for cavilling at words, when they cannot object to the substance of our faith consistently with their own.’ The Muselmans had nothing to say in reply; and the conversation was changed.

I was astonished at the questions, which Alwiˊ put to me concerning the late peace and the independence of America; the several powers and resources of Britain and France, Spain and Holland; the character and supposed views of the Emperor; the comparative strength of the Russian, Imperial, and Othman armies, and their respective modes of bringing their forces to action: I answered him without reserve, except on the state of our possessions in India; nor were my answers lost; for I observed, that all the company were variously affected by them; generally with amazement, often with concern; especially when I described to them the great force and admirable discipline of the Austrian army, and the stupid prejudices of the Turks, whom nothing can induce to abandon their old Tartarian habits, and exposed the weakness of their empire in Africa, and even in the more distant provinces of Asia. In return he gave me clear, but genéral, information concerning the government and commerce of his island: “his country, he said, was poor, and produced few articles of trade; but, if they could get money, which they now preferred to play things (those were his words) they might easily, he added, procure foreign commodities, and exchange them advantageously with their neighbours in the islands and on the continent: thus with a little money, said he, we purchase muskets, powder, balls, cutlasses, knives, cloths, raw cotton, and other articles brought from Bombay, and with those we trade to Madagascar for the natural produce of the country or for dollars, with which the French buy cattle, honey, butter, and so forth, in that island. With gold, which we receive from your ships, we can procure elephants' teeth from the natives of Mozambique, who barter them also for ammunition and bars of iron, and the Portugueze in that country give us cloths of various kinds in exchange for our commodities: those cloths we dispose of lucratively in the three neighbouring islands; whence we bring rice, cattle, a kind of bread-fruit, which grows in Comara, and slaves, which we buy also at other places, to which we trade; and we carry on this traffick in our own vessels.”

Here I could not help expressing my abhorrence of their slave-trade, and asked him by what law they claimed a property in rational beings; since our creator had given our species a dominion, to be moderately exercised, over the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, but none to man over man. “By no law, answered he, unless necessity be a law. There are nations in Madagascar and in Africa, who know neither God, nor his Prophet, nor Moses, nor David, nor the Messiah: those nations are in perpetual war, and take many captives; whom, if they could not sell, they would certainly kill. Individuals among them are in extreme poverty, and have numbers of children; who, if they cannot be disposed of, must perish through hunger, together with their miserable parents: by purchasing these wretches, we preserve their lives, and, perhaps, those of many others, whom our money relieves. The sum of the argument is this: if we buy them, they will live; if they become valuable servants, they will live comfortably; but, if they are not sold, they must die miserably.” ‘There may be, said I, such cases; but you fallaciously draw a general conclusion from a few particular instances; and this is the very fallacy, which, on a thousand other occasions, deludes mankind. It is not to be doubted, that a constant and gainful traffick in human creatures foments war, in which captives are always made, and keeps up that perpetual enmity, which you pretend to be the cause of a practice in itself reprehensible, while in truth it is its effect; the same traffick encourages laziness in some parents, who might in general support their families by proper industry, and seduces others to stifle their natural feelings: at most your redemption of those unhappy children can amount only to a personal contract, implied between you, for gratitude and reasonable service on their part, for kindness and humanity on yours; but can you think your part performed by disposing of them against their wills with as much indifference, as if you were selling cattle; especially as they might become readers of the Korán, and pillars of your faith? The law, said he, forbids our selling them, when they are believers in the Prophet; and little children only are sold; nor they often, or by all masters.’ “You, who believe in Muhammed, said I, are bound by the spirit and letter of his laws to take pains, that they also may believe in him; and, if you neglect so important a duty for sordid gain, I do not see how you can hope for prosperity in this world, or for happiness in the next.” My old friend and the Mufti's assented, and muttered a few prayers; but probably forgot my preaching, before many minutes had passed.

So much time had slipped away in this conversation, that I could make but a short visit to prince Saˊlim; and my view in visiting him was to fix the time of our journey to Domóni as early as possible on the next morning. His appearance was more savage than ever; and I found him in a disposition to complain bitterly of the English: “No acknowledgement, he said, had been made for the kind attentions of himself and the chief men in his country to the officers and people of the Brilliant, though a whole year had elapsed since the wreck.” I really wondered at the forgetfulness, to which alone such a neglect could be imputed; and assured him, that I would express my opinion both in Bengal and in letters to England. “We have little, said he, to hope from letters; for, when we have been paid with them instead of money, and have shown them on board your ships, we have commonly been treated with disdain, and often with imprecations.” I assured him, that either those letters must have been written coldly and by very obscure persons, or shown to very ill-bred men, of whom there were too many in all nations; but that a few instances of rudeness ought not to give him a general prejudice against our national character. “But you, said he, are a wealthy nation; and we are indigent: yet, though all our groves of cocoa-trees, our fruits, and our cattle, are ever at your service, you always try to make hard bargains with us for what you chuse to dispose of, and frequently will neither sell nor give those things, which we principally want.” “To form, said I, a just opinion of Englishmen, you must visit us in our own island, or at least in India; here we are strangers and travellers: many of us have no design to trade in any country, and none of us think of trading in Hínzuàn, where we stop only for refreshment. The clothes, arms, or instruments, which you may want, are commonly necessary or convenient to us; but, if Sayyad Alwiˊ or his sons were to be strangers in our country, you would have no reason to boast of superior hospitality.” He then showed me, a second time, a part of an old silk vest with the star of the order of the Thistle, and begged me to explain the motto; expressing a wish, that the order might be conferred on him by the King of England in return for his good offices to the English. I represented to him the impossibility of his being gratified, and took occasion to say, that there was more true dignity in their own native titles, than in those of prince, duke, and lord, which had been idly given them, but had no conformity to their manners or the constitution of their government.

This conversation being agreeable to neither of us, I changed it by desiring, that the palanquins and bearers might be ready next morning as early as possible: he answered, that his palanquins were at our service for nothing, but that we must pay him ten dollars for each set of bearers; that it was the stated price; and that Mr. Hastings had paid it, when he went to visit the king. This, as I learned afterwards, was false; but, in all events, I knew, that he would keep the dollars himself, and give nothing to the bearers, who deserved them better, and whom he would compel to leave their cottages, and toil for his profit. “Can you imagine, I replied, that we would employ four and twenty men to bear us so far on their shoulders without rewarding them amply? But since they are free men (so he had assured me) and not your slaves, we will pay them in proportion to their diligence and good behaviour; and it becomes neither your dignity nor ours to make a previous bargain.” I showed him an elegant copy of the Koràn, which I destined for his father, and described the rest of my present; but he coldly asked, “if that was all:” had he been king, a purse of dry dollars would have given him more pleasure than the finest or holiest manuscript. Finding him, in conversing on a variety of subjects, utterly void of intelligence or principle, I took my leave, and saw him no more; but promised to let him know for certain whether we should make our intended excursion.

We dined in tolerable comfort, and had occasion, in the course of the day, to observe the manners of the natives in the middle rank, who are called Bánas, and all of whom have slaves constantly at work for them: we visited the mother of Combomaˊdi, who seemed in a station but little raised above indigence; and her husband, who was a mariner, bartered an Arabick treatise on astronomy and navigation, which he had read, for a sea compass, of which he well knew the use.

In the morning I had conversed with two very old Arabs of Yemen, who had brought some articles of trade to Hinzuàn; and in the afternoon I met another, who had come from Maskat (where at that time there was a civil war) to purchase, if he could, an hundred stand of arms. I told them all that I loved their nation, and they returned my compliments with great warmth; especially the two old men, who were near fourscore, and reminded me of Zohair and Haˊreth.

So bad an account had been given me of the road over the mountains, that I disuaded my companions from thinking of the journey, to which the Captain became rather disinclined; but, as I wished to be fully acquainted with a country, which I might never see again, I wrote the next day to Saˊlim, requesting him to lend me one palanquin and to order a sufficient number of men: he sent me no written answer; which I ascribe rather to his incapacity than to rudeness; but the Governor, with Alwiˊ and two of his sons, came on board in the evening, and said, that they had seen my letter; that all should be ready; but that I could not pay less for the men than ten dollars. I said I would pay more, but it should be to the men themselves, according to their behaviour. They returned somewhat dissatisfied, after I had played at chess with Alwiˊ's younger son, in whose manner and address there was something remarkably pleasing.

Before sunrise on the 2d of August I went alone on shore, with a small basket of such provisions, as I might want in the course of the day, and with some cushions to make the prince's palanquin at least a tolerable vehicle; but the prince was resolved to receive the dollars, to which his men were entitled; and he knew, that, as I was eager for the journey, he could prescribe his own terms. Old Alwiˊ met me on the beech, and brought excuses from Saˊlim; who, he said, was indisposed. He conducted me to his house; and seemed rather desirous of persuading me to abandon my design of visiting the king; but I assured him, that, if the prince would not supply me with proper attendants, I would walk to Domóni with my own servants and a guide. ‘Shaikh Saˊlim, he said, was miserably avaritious; that he was ashamed of a kinsman with such a disposition; but that he was no less obstinate than covetous; and that, without ten dollars paid in hand, it would be impossible to procure bearers.’ I then gave him three guineas, which he carried, or pretended to carry, to Saˊlim, but returned without the change, alledging that he had no silver, and promising to give me on my return the few dollars that remained. In about an hour the ridiculous vehicle was brought by nine sturdy blacks, who could not speak a word of Arabick; so that I expected no information concerning the country, through which I was to travel; but Alwiˊ assisted me in a point of the utmost consequence. ‘You cannot go, said he, without an interpreter; for the king speaks only the language of this island; but I have a servant, whose name is Tumuˊni, a sensible and worthy man, who understands English, and is much esteemed by the king: he is known and valued all over Hinzuàn. This man shall attend you; and you will soon be sensible of his worth.’

Tumuˊni desired to carry my basket, and we set out with a prospect of fine weather, but some hours later than I had intended. I walked, by the gardens of the two princes, to the skirts of the town, and came to a little village consisting of several very neat huts made chiefly with the leaves of the cocoa-tree; but the road a little farther was so stony, that I sat in the palanquin, and was borne with perfect safety over some rocks: I then desired my guide to assure the men, that I would pay them liberally; but the poor peasants, who had been brought from their farms on the hills, were not perfectly acquainted with the use of money, and treated my promise with indifference.

About five miles from Matsamúdo lies the town of Wánì, where Shaikh Abdullah, who has already been mentioned, usually resides: I saw it at a distance, and it seemed to be agreeably situated. When I had passed the rocky part of the road, I came to a stony beech, where the sea appeared to have lost some ground, since there was a fine sand to the left, and beyond it a beautiful bay, which resembled that of Weymouth, and seemed equally convenient for bathing; but it did not appear to me, that the stones, over which I was carried, had been recently covered with water. Here I saw the frigate, and, taking leave of it for two days, turned from the coast into a fine country very neatly cultivated, and consisting partly of hillocks exquisitely green, partly of plains, which were then in a gaudy dress of rich yellow blossoms: my guide informed me, that they were plantations of a kind of vetch, which was eaten by the natives. Cottages and farms were interspersed all over this gay champaign, and the whole scene was delightful; but it was soon changed for beauties of a different sort. We descended into a cool valley, through which ran a rivulet of perfectly clear water; and there, finding my vehicle uneasy, though from the laughter and merriment of my bearers I concluded them to be quite at their ease, I bade them set me down, and walked before them all the rest of the way. Mountains, clothed with fine trees and flowering shrubs, presented themselves on our ascent from the vale; and we proceeded for half an hour through pleasant woodwalks, where I regretted the impossibility of loitering a while to examine the variety of new blossoms, which succeeded one another at every step, and the virtues, as well as names, of which seemed familiar to Tumuˊni. At length we descended into a valley of greater extent than the former: a river or large wintry torrent ran through it, and fell down a steep declivity at the end of it, where it seemed to be lost among rocks. Cattle were grazing on the banks of the river, and the huts of their owners appeared on the hills: a more agreeable spot I had not before seen even in Swisserland or Merionethshire; but it was followed by an assemblage of natural beauties, which I hardly expected to find in a little island twelve degrees to the south of the Line. I was not sufficiently pleased with my solitary journey to discover charms, which had no actual existence, and the first effect of the contrast between St. Jago and Hinzuàn had ceased; but, without any disposition to give the landscape a high colouring, I may truly say, what I thought at the time, that the whole country, which next presented itself, as far surpassed Emeronville or Blenheim, or any other imitations of nature, which I had seen in France or England, as the finest bay surpasses an artificial piece of water. Two very high mountains, covered to the summit with the richest verdure, were at some distance on my right hand, and separated from me by meadows diversified with cottages and herds, or by vallies resounding with torrents and water-falls; on my left was the sea, to which there were beautiful openings from the hills and woods; and the road was a smooth path naturally winding through a forest of spicy shrubs, fruit-trees, and palms. Some high trees were spangled with white blossoms equal in fragrance to orange-flowers: my guide called them Monongo's, but the day was declining so fast, that it was impossible to examine them: the variety of fruits, flowers, and birds, of which I had a transient view in this magnificent garden, would have supplied a naturalist with amusement for a month; but I saw no remarkable insect, and no reptile of any kind. The woodland was diversified by a few pleasant glades, and new prospects were continually opened: at length a noble view of the sea burst upon me unexpectedly; and, having passed a hill or two, we came to the beech, beyond which were several hills and cottages. We turned from the shore; and, on the next eminence, I saw the town of Domoni at a little distance below us: I was met by a number of natives, a few of whom spoke Arabick, and thinking it a convenient place for repose, I sent my guide to apprize the king of my intended visit. He returned in half an hour with a polite message; and I walked into the town, which seemed large and populous. A great crowd accompanied me, and I was conducted to a house built on the same plan with the best houses at Matsamúdo: in the middle of the court-yard stood a large Monongo-tree, which perfumed the air; the apartment on the left was empty; and, in that on the right, sat the king on a sofa or bench covered with an ordinary carpet. He rose, when I entered, and, grasping my hands, placed me near him on the right; but, as he could speak only the language of Hinzuàn, I had recourse to my friend Tumuˊni, than whom a readier or more accurate interpreter could not have been found. I presented the king with a very handsome Indian dress of blue silk with golden flowers, which had been worn only once at a masquerade, and with a beautiful copy of the Koràn, from which I read a few verses to him: he took them with great complacency, and said, “he wished I had come by sea, that he might have loaded one of my boats with fruit and with some of his finest cattle. He had seen me, he said, on board the frigate, where he had been, according to his custom, in disguise, and had heard of me from his son Shaikh Hamdullah.” I gave him an account of my journey, and extolled the beauties of his country: he put many questions concerning mine, and professed great regard for our nation. “But I hear, said he, that you are a magistrate, and consequently profess peace: why are you armed with a broad sword?” “I was a man, I said, before I was a magistrate; and, if it should ever happen, that law could not protect me, I must protect myself.” He seemed about sixty years old, had a very cheerful countenance, and great appearance of good nature mixed with a certain dignity, which distinguished him from the crowd of ministers and officers, who attended him. Our conversation was interrupted by notice, that it was the time for evening prayers; and, when he rose, he said: “this house is yours, and I will visit you in it, after you have taken some refreshment.” Soon after, his servants brought a roast fowl, a rice-pudding, and some other dishes, with papayas and very good pomegranates: my own basket supplied the rest of my supper. The room was hung with old red cloth, and decorated with pieces of porcelain and festoons of English bottles; the lamps were placed on the ground in large sea-shells; and the bed place was a recess, concealed by a chintz hanging, opposite to the sofa, on which we had been sitting: though it was not a place that invited repose, and the gnats were inexpressibly troublesome, yet the fatigue of the day procured me very comfortable slumber, I was waked by the return of the king and his train; some of whom were Arabs; for I heard one of them say huwa rákid, or he is sleeping: there was immediate silence, and I passed the night with little disturbance, except from the unwelcome songs of the mosquitos. In the morning all was equally silent and solitary; the house appeared to be deserted; and I began to wonder what had become of Tumuˊni: he came at length with concern on his countenance, and told me, that the bearers had run away in the night; but that the king, who wished to see me in another of his houses, would supply me with bearers, if he could not prevail on me to stay, till a boat could be sent for. I went immediately to the king, whom I found sitting on a raised sofa in a large room, the walls of which were adorned with sentences from the Koràn in very legible characters: about fifty of his subjects were seated on the ground in a semicircle before him; and my interpreter took his place in the midst of them. The good old king laughed heartily, when he heard the adventure of the night, and said: “you will now be my guest for a week, I hope; but seriously if you must return soon, I will send into the country for some peasants to carry you.” He then apologized for the behaviour of Shaikh Saˊlim, which he had heard from Tumuˊni, who told me afterwards, that he was much displeased with it, and would not fail to express his displeasure: he concluded with a long harangue on the advantage, which the English might derive, from sending a ship every year from Bombay to trade with his subjects, and on the wonderful cheapness of their commodities, especially of their cowries. Ridiculous as this idea might seem, it showed an enlargement of mind, a desire of promoting the interest of his people, and a sense of the benefits arising from trade, which could hardly have been expected from a petty African chief, and which, if he had been sovereign of Yemen, might have been expanded into rational projects proportioned to the extent of his dominions. I answered, that I was imperfectly acquainted with the commerce of India; but that I would report the substance of his conversation, and would ever bear testimony to his noble zeal for the good of his country, and to the mildness with which he governed it. As I had no inclination to pass a second night in the island, I requested leave to return without waiting for bearers: he seemed very sincere in pressing me to lengthen my visit, but had too much Arabian politeness to be importunate. We, therefore, parted; and, at the request of Tumuˊni, who assured me that little time would be lost in showing attention to one of the worthiest men in Hinzuàn, I made a visit to the Governor of the town, whose name was Mutekka; his manners were very pleasing, and he showed me some letters from the officers of the Brilliant, which appeared to flow warm from the heart, and contained the strongest eloge of his courtesy and liberality. He insisted on filling my basket with some of the finest pomegranates I had ever seen; and I left the town, impressed with a very favourable opinion of the king and his governor. When I reascended the hill, attended by many of the natives, one of them told me in Arabick, that I was going to receive the highest mark of distinction, that it was in the king's power to show me; and he had scarce ended, when I heard the report of a single gun: Shaikh Ahmed had saluted me with the whole of his ordnance. I waved my hat, and said Allah Acbar: the people shouted, and I continued my journey, not without fear of inconvenience from excessive heat and the fatigue of climbing rocks. The walk, however, was not on the whole unpleasant: I sometimes rested in the valleys and forded all the rivulets, which refreshed me with their coolness, and supplied me with exquisite water to mix with the juice of my pomegranates, and occasionally with brandy. We were overtaken by some peasants, who came from the hills by a nearer way, and brought the king's present of a cow with her calf, and a she-goat with two kids: they had apparently been selected for their beauty, and were brought safe to Bengal. The prospects, which had so greatly delighted me the preceding day, had not yet lost their charms, though they wanted the recommendation of novelty; but I must confess, that the most delightful object in that day's walk of near ten miles was the black frigate, which I discerned at sunset from a rock near the Prince's Gardens. Close to the town I was met by a native, who, perceiving me to be weary, opened a fine cocoa-nut, which afforded me a delicious draught: he informed me, that one of his countrymen had been punished that afternoon for a theft on board the Crocodile, and added, that, in his opinion, the punishment was no less just, than the offence was disgraceful to his country. The offender, as I afterwards learned, was a youth of a good family, who had married a daughter of old Alwiˊ, but, being left alone for a moment in the cabin, and seeing a pair of blue morocco slippers, could not resist the temptation, and concealed them so ill under his gown, that he was detected with the mainer. This proves, that no principle of honour is instilled by education into the gentry of this island: even Alwiˊ, when he had observed, that, “in the month of Ramadán, it was not lawful to paint with hinna or to tell lies;” and when I asked, whether both were lawful all the rest of the year, answered, that “lies were innocent, if no man was injured by them.” Tumuˊni took his leave, as well satisfied as myself with our excursion: I told him, before his master, that I transferred also to him the dollars, which were due to me out of the three guineas; and that, if ever they should part, I should be very glad to receive him into my service in India. Mr. Roberts, the master of the ship, had passed the day with Sayyad Ahmed, and had learned from him a few curious circumstances concerning the government of Hinzuàn; which he found to be a monarchy limited by an aristocracy. The king, he was told, had no power of making war by his own authority; but, if the assembly of nobles, who were from time to time convened by him, resolved on a war with any of the neighbouring islands, they defrayed the charges of it by voluntary contributions, in return for which they claimed as their own all the booty and captives, that might be taken. The hope of gain or the want of slaves is usually the real motive for such enterprizes, and ostensible pretexts are easily found: at that very time, he understood, they meditated a war, because they wanted hands for the following harvest. Their fleet consisted of sixteen or seventeen small vessels, which they manned with about two thousand five hundred islanders armed with muskets and cutlasses, or with bows and arrows. Near two years before they had possessed themselves of two towns in Mayáta, which they still kept and garrisoned. The ordinary expenses of the government were defrayed by a tax from two hundred villages; but the three principal towns were exempt from all taxes, except that they paid annually to the Chief Mufti a fortieth part of the value of all their moveable property, and from that payment neither the king nor the nobles claimed an exemption. The kingly authority, by the principles of their constitution, was considered as elective, though the line of succession had not in fact been altered since the first election of a Sultan. He was informed, that a wandering Arab, who had settled in the island, had, by his intrepidity in several wars, acquired the rank of a chieftain, and afterwards of a king with limited powers; and that he was the Grand-father of Shaikh Ahmed: I had been assured that Queen Haliˊmah was his Grand-mother; and, that he was the sixth king; but it must be remarked, that the words jedd and jeddah in Arabick are used for a male and female ancestor indefinitely; and, without a correct pedigree of Ahmed's family, which I expected to procure but was disappointed, it would scarce be possible to ascertain the time, when his forefather obtained the highest rank in the government. In the year 1600 Captain John Davis, who wrote an account of his voyage, found Mayáta governed by a king, and Ansuame, or Hinzuàn, by a queen, who showed him great marks of friendship: he anchored before the town of Demos (does he mean Domóni?) which was as large, he says, as Plymouth; and he concludes from the ruins around it, that it had once been a place of strength and grandeur. I can only say, that I observed no such ruins. Fifteen years after, Captain Peyton and Sir Thomas Roe touched at the Comara islands, and from their several accounts it appears, that an old sultaness then resided in Hinzuàn, but had a dominion paramount over all the isles, three of her sons governing Mohíla in her name: if this be true, Sohailiˊ and the successors of Haliˊmah must have lost their influence over the other islands; and, by renewing their dormant claim as it suits their convenience, they may always be furnished with a pretence for hostilities. Five generations of eldest sons would account for an hundred and seventy of the years, which have elapsed, since Davis and Peyton found Hinzuàn ruled by a sultaness; and Ahmed was of such an age, that his reign may be reckoned equal to a generation: it is probable, on the whole, that Haliˊmah was the widow of the first Arabian king, and that her mosque has been continued in repair by his descendants; so that we may reasonably suppose two centuries to have passed, since a single Arab had the courage and address to establish in that beautiful island a form of government, which, though bad enough in itself, appears to have been administered with advantage to the original inhabitants. We have lately heard of civil commotions in Hinzuàn, which, we may venture to pronounce, were not excited by any cruelty or violence of Ahmed, but were probably occasioned by the insolence of an oligarchy naturally hostile to king and people. That the mountains in the Comara islands contain diamonds, and the precious metals, which are studiously concealed by the policy of the several governments, may be true, though I have no reason to believe it, and have only heard it asserted without evidence; but I hope, that neither an expectation of such treasures, nor of any other advantage, will ever induce an European power to violate the first principles of justice by assuming the sovereignty of Hinzuàn, which cannot answer a better purpose than that of supplying our fleets with seasonable refreshment; and, although the natives have an interest in receiving us with apparent cordiality, yet, if we wish their attachment to be unfeigned and their dealings just, we must set them an example of strict honesty in the performance of our engagements. In truth our nation is not cordially loved by the inhabitants of Hinzuàn, who, as it commonly happens, form a general opinion from a few instances of violence or breach of faith. Not many years ago an European, who had been hospitably received and liberally supported at Matsamúdo, behaved rudely to a young married woman, who, being of low degree, was walking veiled through a street in the evening: her husband ran to protect her, and resented the rudeness, probably with menaces, possibly with actual force; and the European is said to have given him a mortal wound with a knife or bayonet, which he brought, after the scuffle, from his lodging. This foul murder, which the law of nature would have justified the magistrate in punishing with death, was reported to the king, who told the governor (I use the very words of Alwiˊ) that “it would be wiser to hush it up.” Alwiˊ mentioned a civil case of his own, which ought not to be concealed. When he was on the coast of Africa in the dominions of a very savage prince, a small European vessel was wrecked; and the prince not only seized all that could be saved from the wreck, but claimed the captain and the crew as his slaves, and treated them with ferocious insolence. Alwiˊ assured me, that, when he heard of the accident, he hastened to the prince, fell prostrate before him, and by tears and importunity prevailed on him to give the Europeans their liberty; that he supported them at his own expense, enabled them to build another vessel, in which they sailed to Hinzuàn, and departed thence for Europe or India: he showed me the Captain's promissory notes for sums, which to an African trader must be a considerable object, but which were no price for liberty, safety, and, perhaps, life, which his good, though disinterested, offices had procured. I lamented, that, in my situation, it was wholly out of my power to assist Alwiˊ in obtaining justice; but he urged me to deliver an Arabick letter from him, enclosing the notes, to the Governor General, who, as he said, knew him well; and I complied with his request. Since it is possible, that a substantial defence may be made by the person thus accused of injustice, I will not name either him or the vessel, which he had commanded; but, if he be living, and if this paper should fall into his hands, he may be induced to reflect how highly it imports our national honour, that a people, whom we call savage, but who administer to our convenience, may have no just cause to reproach us with a violation of our contracts.