THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 357 



in which they once were fo well flailed and had been edu- 

 cated. This great nurfery of feamen therefore was loft, and 

 the gallies, being no longer properly manned,, were either 

 given up to rot, or turned into merchant-fhips for carrying 

 the coffee between Yemen and Suez, thefe veffels were un- 

 armed, and indeed incapable of armament, and unfervice- 

 able by their conftruction ; beiides, they were ill-manned, 

 and fo carelefsly and ignorantly navigated, that there was 

 not a year, that one or more did not founder, not from ftrefs 

 of weather, (for they were failing in a pond) or from any 

 thing, but ignorance, or inattention. 



Trade took again its ancient courfe towards Jidda. The 

 Sherriffe of Mecca, and all the Arabs, were interested to get ' 

 it back to Arabia, and with it the government of their own 

 countries. That the pearl fifhing might, moreover, no 

 longer be an allurement for the Turkifh power to main- 

 tain itfelf here, and opprefs them, they difcouraged the 

 practice of diving, till it grew into defuetude; this brought' 

 infenfibly all the people of the . iflands to the continent,, 

 where they were employed in coafling veffels, which con- 

 tinues their only occupation to this day. This policy fuc- 

 ceeded ; the princes of Arabia became again free from the 

 Turkifh power, now but 'a' fhadow, and Dahalac, Mafuah, 

 and Suakem, returned to ■•their ancient mafters, to which 

 they are fubjecl at this inftant, governed indeed by Shekhs 

 of their own country, and preferving only the name of 

 Turkifh government,, each being under the command of a 

 robber and affaffm. 



The immenfe treafures in the bottom of the Red Sea, 

 have t .ius been abandoned for near two hundred -years, - 



s~ thou eh* 



