22 PROCEED TO TOWN. 



curious yet simple economy, a safe retreat whenever 

 in his frail hark he might he exposed to the 

 violence of the winds and waves, on this otherwise 

 inhospitahle and dangerous coast. 



In the afternoon a party, consisting of A. Neshitt, 

 Esq., First Lieut, of the Euphrates, the Purser, 

 Mr. Powell, and myself, was formed for the purpose 

 of more closely examining Berherah and its 

 curiosities. One of the brig's boats was ordered 

 alongside, and we soon found ourselves carefully 

 threading a winding course, amidst the numerous 

 fleet of bogalows moored along-shore, greeted as we 

 passed beneath their huge misshapen sterns, by the 

 joking salutations and laughing faces of numerous 

 alme, or slave-girls, who crowded the cabin win- 

 dows, and the most striking features of whose dark 

 countenances were rows of pearly teeth. The boat 

 grounded about thirty yards from dry land, and we 

 were obliged to be carried upon the shoulders of the 

 crew over a black muddy beach, being set down 

 amidst heaps of dirt ; the rotting debris of the sea 

 and of the land, drift wood, loose spars, the bones of 

 animals, and excrements of man, formed a barrier 

 of filth, over which it was impossible to choose a 

 path, so we at once struck boldly across to the 

 narrow entrance of what we imagined must be a 

 street, and entered the town of Berberah. 



I should suppose there were at least from four to 

 five thousand huts placed closely together, uniform 

 in size and elevation, being generally of an oblong 



