*. 
308 DR. HOOKER'S MISSION TO INDIA. 
of land, of its size, that ever I set eyes on; and I have seen a 
good many ugly places. 
* * * * * * 
Aden we took from the Arabs a few years back, and are now 
fortifying it as strongly as Gibraltar, which in position it re- 
sembles. At no very distant period it was held by the Turks, 
who relied much upon it, and have left wonderful constructions 
in all parts of the Peninsula, in the shape of tombs, aqueducts, 
the remains of a large town now buried underneath the miserable 
Arab village of Aden, and more especially fortifications on the 
all-but inaccessible crests of the hills, with stone roads and cause- 
ways leading to them, constructed with inconceivable labour, as it 
is supposed, by Jews, many of whom were kept as prisoners and 
slaves at Aden. The Sublime Porte still claims a jurisdiction over 
all Arabia, to which the Arabs are, of course, indifferent, detesting 
the Turks and Franks equally. 
We lay off the west end of the peninsula, the cool end of the 
island, where Capt. Haines, Ind. Navy, resides, and superintends 
the arrangements for vessels, &c. He is also the E.I.C. political 
Agent or Resident in the place, and acts as Governor. The town 
is now half Arab and half European, from the number of troops; 
and occupies the base of alarge valley bounded by inacessible 
black crags on all sides, open to the south and to the east, and 
defended to the west by a very narrow fortified pass, through 
which you go when following the excellent road from the “ Point,” 
where we lay, to the town or cantonments. 
On our arrival we were surrounded by shore-boats, full of a race 
of negroes from the opposite coast of Africa, ** Soumalis,” who are 
engaged with Hindoos and a few Arabs as servants on the penin- 
sula. These “ Soumalis are all but naked, and left their boats 
for the water, in which they swam like ducks, diving for sixpenny- 
pieces, which we chucked overboard, some dozens scrambli 
underwater for possession. Captain Haines provided quarters for 
us all at his house, a set of long rambling cottages with veran- 
dahs, built, as is every house here, of wattle and plaster, and 
