﻿OF HINZUA.N, OR JOHANNA. .10$ 



Hahmah was his grandmother; and, that he was 

 the sixth king ; but it must be remarked, that the 

 words jedd and jeddah in Arabic are used for a male 

 and female ancestor ind finitely ; and, without a cor- 

 rect 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 ob- 

 tained the highest rank in the government. In the 

 year iooo Captain John Davis, who has written an ac- 

 count of his voyage, found May at a governed by a 

 king, and Atisuame, or Hinzuan, by a queen, who 

 showed him great marks of friendship. -He anchored 

 before the town of Demos (does he mean Domoni?} 

 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 at that time resided in 

 Hinzuan, but had a dominion paramount over all the 

 isles, three of her sons governing Mohila in her name. 

 If this be true, Sohaili and the successors of Halimah 

 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 Pey- 

 ton found Hinzuan 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 Halimah 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, 



