354 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



and nearly procured my aflafiination. The revenue of this 

 governor confirms in a goat brought to him monthly by eacli 

 of the twelve villages. Every vefTel, that puts in there for. 

 Mafuah, pays him alfo a pound of coffee, and every one 

 from Arabia, a dollar or pataka. No fort of fmall money is. 

 current at Dahalac, excepting Venetian glafs-beads, old and, 

 new, of all fizes and colours, broken and whole.. 



Although this is the miferable ftate of Dahalac at pre- 

 fent, matters were widely different in former times. The 

 pearl fifhery flourifhed greatly here, under the Ptolemies ; 

 and even long after, in the time of the Caliphs, it produced a 

 great revenue, and, till the fovereigns of Cairo, of theprefent 

 miferable race of flaves, began to withdraw themfelves 

 from their dependency on the port (for even after the reign 

 of Selim, and the conquefts of Arabia, under Sinan Baffia* 

 the Turkifh gallies were ftill kept up at Suez, whilil Ma* 

 iuah. and Suakem had Bafhas) Dahalac was the principal 

 ifland that furniihed the pearl fifhers, or divers. It was* 

 indeed, the chief port for the fifhery on the fouthern part 

 of the Red Sea, as Suakem was on the north ; and the 

 Bafha of Mafuah pafTed part of every fummer here, to avoid 

 the heat at his place of refidence on the Continent.. 



The fifhery extended from Dahalac and its iflands nearly 

 to lat. 20°. The inhabited iflands furnifhed each a bark, 

 and fo many divers, and they were paid in wheat, flour, &c. 

 fuch a portion to each bark, for their ufe, and fo much to 

 leave with their family, for their fubfiftence ; fo that a 

 few months employment furnifhed them With every thing 

 neceflary for the reft of the year. The fifhery was rented, 

 in latter times, to the Baina of Suakem, but there was a place 



between.- 



