APPENDIX III. 



475 



namely, Peer Patta, Daw Patta, Mandra, &c., are faced 

 with siioals of rocks and render the nayigation very diffi- 

 cult, and should, with other considerations, deter trading 

 vessels from frequenting this port. In the afternoon sent 

 the small boat with our Hindostanee pilot to Patta, to 

 acquaint the Sooltan of our arrival and intention of visit- 

 ing him next day. Weather as heretofore. The position 

 of this anchorage is in South lat. 2^ 4'; long, by chron. 4P 

 14' 2"; variation 14° \\^. 



TEAXSACTIOXS AT PATTA.^ 



8th, Friday. The boat that went yesterday to Patta 

 returned this morning, having left behind Mallum Ali, 

 the Hindostanee interpreter, a circumstance which (there 

 being reason to believe his stay not voluntary) added to the 

 report of the boat's crew concerning the deportment of the 

 natives on shore, did not tend to impress us with a favour- 

 able idea of their good intentions. We had already learnt, 

 from the pilots and others who had visited us on board, 

 that the place was distracted by civil dissensions ; the 

 Sooltanship being claimed by two rival cousins, whose 

 respective adherents, occupying the same town, occasioned 

 by their contentions a continual scene of confusion : and we 

 knew that any correspondence with one party under these 

 circumstances would, by the other, be considered as evincing a 

 disposition of hostility towards them. It therefore became 

 a doubt to which of these savage competitors for royalty 

 we ought to pay our respects ; for though we never dreamt 

 of ascertaining the question of right and wrong between 



^ This account of Patta is valuable: we hear little of the place from 

 later travellers. 



