THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 277 



The Englifh gentlemen joined their influence, powerful 

 enough, to have accomplifhed a much greater end, as every 

 one of thefe have feparate friends for their own affairs, and 

 all of them were delirous to befriend me. Added to thefe 

 was a friend of mine, whom I had known at Aleppo, Ali 

 Zimzimiah, /. e. ' keeper of the holy well at Mecca,' a poll of 

 great dignity and honour. This man was a mathematician, 

 and an aftronomer, according to their degree of knowledge 

 in that fcience. 



All the letters were written in a ftyle fuch as I could 

 have defired, but this did not fuffice in the mind of a very 

 friendly and worthy man, who had taken an attachment 

 to me fmce my firft arrival. This was Captain Thomas 

 Price, of the Lion of Bombay. He firft propofed to Metical 

 Aga, to fend a man of his own with me, together with the 

 letters, and I do firmly believe, under Providence, it was to 

 this laft meafure I owed my life. With this Captain Thorn- 

 hill heartily concurred, and an Abyflinian, called Mahomet 

 Gibberti, was appointed to go with particular letters be- 

 fides thofe I carried myfelf, and to be an eye-witnefs of my 

 reception there. 



There was fome time neceffary for this man to make 

 ready, and a coniiderable part of the Arabian Gulf ftill re- 

 mained for me to explore. I prepared, therefore, to fet out 

 from Jidda, after having made a confiderable flay in it. 



Of all the new things I yet had feen, what mofl afbonifh- 

 ed me was the manner in which trade was carried on at 

 this place. Nine fhips were there from India; fome of them 

 worth, I fuppofe, L. 200,000. One merchant, a Turk, living 



at 



