﻿$4 REMARKS ON THE ISLAND 



Early the next morning a black messenger, with a 

 tawny lad as his interpreter, came from prince Salim ; 

 who having broken his perspective glass, wished to 

 procure another by purchase or barter. A polite an- 

 swer was returned, and steps taken to gratify his 

 wishes. As we on our part expressed a desire to visit 

 the king at Domohi, the prince's messenger told us' 

 that his master would, no doubt, lend us palan- 

 quins (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 1 begged that all might be ready for our 

 excursion before sun-rise, 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, staid 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 Arabic tolerably well, and sec 

 down at my desire the names of several towns in the 

 island, which he first told me was properly called Htn- 

 zuan. 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 pe- 

 tition for some lavender-water was readily granted - r 

 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 himfelf that he rejoiced so extra- 

 vagantly : 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 rap- 

 ture. Never did I see filial affection more warmly 

 felt, or more tenderly and, in my opinion, unaffect- 

 edly expressed ;. yet this boy was not a favourite of 

 the officers, who thought him artful. His mother's 

 name, he said, was Fatima ; and he importuned us t& 



