4 TRAVEOLS TO DISCOVER 



Tiir Naybe finding, the great diitance he was from his - 

 protectors, the Turks in Arabia, on the other fide of the Red 

 Sea, whofe garrifons were every day decaying in flrength, 

 and for the moll part reduced ; fenfibie, too, how much he 

 was in the power of the Abymnians, his enemies andnearcft 

 neighbours, began to think that it was better to iecure him- 

 felf at home, by making fome advances to thofe in whofe 

 power he was. Accordingly it was agreed between them, 

 that one half of the cufloms. Ihould be paid by him to the 

 king of Abyffinia, who was- to fufFen him to enjoy his go- 

 vernment unmolefted ; for Mafuah, as I have before faid,, 

 is absolutely dcflitute of water ; neither can it be fupplied 

 with any fort of provifions but from the mountainous coun- 

 try of AbyfTinia. , 



The fame may be faid of Arkeeko, a large town on the 

 bottom of the bay of Mafuah, which has indeed water, 

 but labours under the fame fcarcity of provifions ; for the tract 

 of flat land behind both, called Samhar, is a perfect defert, 

 and only inhabited from the month of November to April, 

 by a variety of wandering tribes called Tora, Hazorta, Shiho, 

 and Doba, and thefe carry all their cattle to the Abyffinian 

 fide of the mountains when the rains fall there, which is 

 the oppofite fix months. When the feafon is thus reverfed,. 

 they and their cattle are no longer in Samhar, or the domi- 

 nion of the Naybe, but in the hands of the Abyilinians, efpe- 

 cially the governor of Tigre and Baharnagam, who there- 

 by, without being at the expence and trouble of marching 

 agamft Mafuah with an army, can make a line round it, 

 and ftarve all at Arkeeko and Mafuah, by prohibiting any 

 fort of provifions to be carried thither from their fide. In 

 the courfe of this hiflory we have feen this practifed with 



great 



