28 APPENDIX. 



go thither after what had happened to the furgeon's mate 

 and boat's crew of the Elgin Indiaman *, I was obliged to 

 abandon the drawing of the myrrh-tree to fome more for- 

 tunate traveller, after having in vain attempted to procure 

 it at Azab, as I have already mentioned. 



At the fame time that I was taking thefe pains about 

 the myrrh, I had defired the favages to bring me all the 

 gums they could find, with the branches and bark of the 

 trees that produced them. They brought me at different 

 times fome very fine pieces of incenfe, and at another time 

 a very fmall quantity of a bright colourlefs gum, fweeter on 

 burning than incenfe, but no branches of either tree, 

 though I found this latter afterwards in another part of 

 Abymnia, But at all times they procured me quantities of 

 gum of an even and clofe grain, and of a dark brown co- 

 lour, which was produced by a tree called Safla, and twice 

 I received branches of this tree in tolerable order, and of 

 thefe I made a drawing. 



Some weeks after, while walking at Emfras, a Mahome- 

 tan village, whofe inhabitants are myrrh merchants, I fawa 

 iarge tree with the whole upper part of the trunk, and the 

 large branches, fo covered with bofTes and knobs of gum, as 

 to appear monftrouily deformed, and inquiring farther about 

 this tree, I found that it had been brought, many years be- 

 fore, from the myrrh country, by merchants, and planted 

 there for the fake of its gum, with which thefe Mahometans 

 itiffened the blue Surat cloths they got damaged from Mo- 

 cha, to trade in with the Galla and Abyflinians. Neither 



the 



* They were murdered at Azab, fee vol. I. p- 319* 



