THE SOURCE OF THE NIXE. :$$$ 



The inhabitants of Dahalac. feemed to be a fimple, fear- 

 ful, and inoffenfive people. It is the only part of Africa, or 

 Arabia, (call it which you pleafe) where you fee no one 

 carry arms of any kind ; neither gun, knife, nor fword, is 

 to be feen in the hands of any one. Whereas, at Loheia, 

 and on all *he coafl of Arabia, and more particularly at 

 Yambo, every perfon goes armed ; even the porters, naked, 

 and groaning under the weight of their burden, and heat 

 of the day, have yet a leather belt, in which they carry a 

 crooked knife, fo monftroufly long, that it needs a particu- 

 lar motion and addrefs in walking, not to lame the -bearer. 

 This was not always the cafe at Dahalac ; feveral of the Por- 

 tuguefe, on their iiril arrival here, were murdered, and the 

 iiland often treated ill, in revenge, by the armaments of that 

 nation. The men feem healthy. They told me they had 

 no difeafes among them, unlefs fometimes in Spring, when 

 the boats of Yemen and Jidda bring the fmall-pox among 

 them, and very few efcape with life that are infected. I could 

 not obferve a man among them that feemed to be fixty 

 years old, from which I infer, they are not long livers, 

 though the air mould be healthy, as being near the chan- 

 nel, and as they have the north wind all fummer, which 

 moderates the heat. 



Of all the iflands We had paiTed on this fide the channel, 

 Dahalac alone is inhabited. It depends, as do all the reft, 

 upon Mafuah, and is conferred by a firman from the Grand 

 Signior, on the Bafha of Jidda ; and, from him, on Metical 

 Aga, then on the Naybc and his fervants. The prefent go- 

 vernor's name was Hagi Mahomet Abd el cader, of whom 

 I have before fpoken, as having failed from Jidda to Mafuah 

 before me, where he did nie all the dif-fervice in his power* 



Vol. I, Y y and 



