BAY OF AMPHILA. 
165 
boaf s crew, before they went away, olFered me a quantity of 
mis-shapen pearls for sale, but the sum demanded for them was 
very exorbitant, a circumstance arising from the price which the 
Muscat dealers can afford to give, owing to pearls of all shapes 
and descriptions bearing a high value in the Indian market. 
On the 13th, I had a meeting with Alii Goveta and the Dola, 
who made an urgent demand for the hundred dollars agreed 
upon for my passage. As I wished to keep them in good humour 
I advanced forty, but refused to come to a final settlement 
until I should hear from the supercargo. Many arguments 
were adduced by the Dola to make me alter this determination, 
but I remained inflexible, and, finding that they persisted in 
the demand, left them, on pretence of shooting an antelope which 
I had lost some time before on the island, and this necessarily 
ended the debate. At the same meeting Wursum asked per* 
mission to leave us a few days, for the purpose " of reading 
the Koran, and giving a feast in memory of his deceased 
father.'' These feasts always end in a general drinking bout, 
and the relations are honoured in proportion to the number 
of days during which they can provide liquor to keep up the 
debauch. 
On the 17th, I sent a messenger to the village of Duroro to gain 
intelligence respecting the supercargo, and learned in the even- 
ing that he had passed the salt-plain : I was also informed that 
Wursum, in consequence of having been guilty of great excess, 
was seriously ill ; that Alii Goveta was dissatisfied, and wanted a 
fresh supply of provisions, and that many of the other chiefs had 
gone away, in consequence of the arrival of information that the 
