MOCHA 
129 
town to promulgate this satisfactory intelligence among tlie 
inhabitants. 
Though it may readily be conceived that so precarious a state 
of aiFairs rendered a residence at Mocha very unpleasant, yet it 
did not make so material an alteration in our situation at the 
factory as might have been expected. During a few days we 
were put to some inconvenience by the gates being shut, and all 
supplies of fruit, vegetables, and water, being denied ; but as we 
were able to keep up an uninterrupted communication with the 
ship, we did not suffer from this privation in any degree, com- 
pared with what the inhabitants themselves endured. It was 
not indeed considered very safe to extend our walks through the 
town, and yet, though we still continued this practice, not a single 
insult or outrage occurred. 
To add to the distresses of the Dola, a son of SherifFe Hamood 
came down from Aboo Arish early in October, to demand a sum 
of eight thousand dollars due to the government : a claim had 
been made some months before of four thousand, which having 
met with no attention, the government doubled the demand, and 
declared at the same time that if it were not paid within a month, 
it should be augmented to sixteen thousand. To raise this money 
the Dola went so far as to arrest all the hamauls, (porters) and 
keepers of coffee-houses ; and he was actually brutal enough to 
keep some of these poor people, who had no money, in prison, 
until their friends came forward with the ransom required for 
their release. 
As the period approached for the answer from Sana, consider- 
able agitation prevailed in the town ; wood, water, and provi- 
