MOCHA 
123 
This dispatch was sent off on the 14th of October, and as I con- 
ceived it advisable, on account of many necessary preparations 
for my journey, I determined to wait at Mocha for an answer. 
During the time which this delay afforded me^ I several times 
visited theDola, (styled Sultaun Hassan), the Baskatib, and other 
natives of rank, and I found them, in general, more favourably 
inclined to the English than they appeared to have been during 
our former residence at Mocha. The I>ola granted me an 
unlimited permission to hire whatever servants I might require, 
and otherwise facilitated my views as much as lay in his power, 
and frequently sent presents of fruits and vegetables to the 
factory, which were at this time peculiarly acceptable, owing to 
the unsettled state of affairs in the town- 
That the reader may become acquainted with the situation to 
which I allude, it will be necessary to take a retrospective view 
of the events which had occurred in Yemen from the time of our 
residence at Mocha in 1805, which being connected with the 
transactions of the Wahabee in this part of Arabia and with the 
general history of Yemen, may not prove unworthy of his attention. 
It appeared at the time we left Arabia, that the political affairs 
of Yemen were drawing to a crisis. The weakness of the old 
Imaum, Ali Mansoor, and the incapacity of his minister, had oc- 
casioned the loss of some of its most valuable possessions, par- 
ticularly Loheia and Hodeida, which, from the want of timely 
support, had been obliged to submit to the power of the 
Wahabee, and nothing but the walls of Mocha prevented their 
gaining absolute dominion of the sea coast together with the 
control over the commerce of the country. 
R 
