482 



APPENDIX III. 



thick lips, so peculiarly distinctive of the African coun- 

 tenance, is generally observed among them, and sufficiently 

 marks their original connection with that race ; ^ the woolly 

 covering of the head universally prevails ; the colour of 

 their skins varies from a reddish brown or tawny hue, 

 like the Arabs, to nearly a deep black ; in their dis- 

 positions they are cunning and treacherous to the last 

 degree.^ 



On the 9th, the same boat we met yesterday, and 

 which returned with us to town, arrived at the ships with 

 presents from the Sooltan, consisting of 60 cocoa-nuts, three 

 white bullocks, and three goats in charge of one of his 

 principal men, who came to receive the articles, the 

 promise of which had been extorted during the interview 

 at Patta. To give no cause for quarrel, the Sooltan's 

 present was accepted, but the boat was sent back with an 

 answer that until Mallura Ali should be sent on board 

 not a single article would be parted with. The pilots 

 perceiving the boats go away without them, became very 

 outrageous, and attempted to leap overboard, but finding 

 themselves too well guarded, they desisted, and began to 

 say (in direct contradiction to what they formerly asserted, 

 and on the strength of which we had allowed ourselves to 

 be brought to the present anchorage) that there was not 

 water enough for the ships to get through the channel of 

 the SAY., as the wind rendered it impossible for us to 

 return the way we came in, and the above passage the 

 only one by which we could keep clear of the shoals which 



' The mixture of blood is with the negro races of tlie interior, 

 driven down as slaves, and with the Arabs and Persians, whose first emi- 

 gration dates probably from prehistoric ages. 



' We can hardly give them a better character now. 



