sa TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



ed, though, when tranfported to India, they have conftantly- 

 turned out men of confidence and truft, and the beft troops; 

 thofe eaftern nations have. 



There is a fixth, ftill lefs in number than even thefe, and 

 not known on this Continent till a few years before. Thefe 

 were the Turks who came from Greece and Syfia, and who 

 were under Selim, and Soliman his fon, the inftruments of 

 the conquer! of Egypt and Arabia; fmall garrifons of whom 

 were everywhere left by the Turks in all the fortrefifes and 

 confiderable towns they conquered. They are an heredi- 

 tary kind of militia, who, marrying each others daughters, 

 or with the women of the country, continue from father 

 to fon to receive from Conftantinople the fame pay their 

 forefathers had from Selim. Thefe, though degenerate in 

 figure and manners into an exact refemblance to the na- 

 tives of the countries in which they fince lived, do ftill con- 

 tinue to maintain their fuperiority by a conftant fkill and 

 attention to fire-arms, which were, at the time of their firft 

 appearance here, little known or in ufe among either Abyf- 

 fmians or Arabians, and the means of firft eftablifhing this 

 preference,. 



It has been already obferved, that the Mahometan Moors 

 and Arabs pofTerTed all the low country on the Indian Ocean, 

 and oppofite to Arabia Felix; and being, by their religion, 

 obliged to go in pilgrimage to Mecca, as alfo by their fole 

 profeflion, which was trade, they became, by confequence, 

 the only carriers and directors of the commerce of Abyf- . 

 finia. All the country to the eaft and north of Shoa was 

 pofTefTed and commanded chiefly by Mahometan merchants 



appointed 



