212 
MAS SOWA. 
army stationed on the borders of the Indus, to guard against the 
proceedings of the French in that quarter. 
I afterwards adverted to the order of blockade recently issued 
by Admiral Bertie against the Isles of France, which at that 
time greatly occupied the attention of the Arabs. He acknow- 
ledged that it had made a great impression at Jidda, and ex- 
pressed his surprise that such a measure had not been resorted to at 
an earlier period ; adding with a strong emphasis- — how can it 
have happened, that you so long have permitted the Arabs to 
buy under your very nose (taakte? amph,) the ships which the 
^' French have captured from you : and by this means to become 
masters of a trade which was before exclusively your own } 
Formerly, all Arabia, Egypt, and the countries of Africa were 
furnished by your ships with Indian commodities ; they are 
now supplied by vessels belonging to Arabian merchants 
The truth of the first remark, and the justice of the censure were 
too palpable to admit of a reply ; for had the measures ultimately 
adopted against the Isles of France been carried into effect at the 
commencement of the war, how many human lives, and how 
much treasure might have been saved ! 
On the following morning I received the unpleasant intelli- 
gence from Arkeeko, that one of Mr. Pearce's servants, named 
Tekeli, an Abyssinian, who had been stationed there to take care 
of the mules, was at the point of death. As I happened to be par- 
ticularly engaged at the time, I requested Mr. Pearce^ and our 
surgeon, to go down to Arkeeko to enquire into the affair, and if 
he were dead, to see him decently interred. On their arrival (as 
Mr. Smith informed me) they found him still alive, though suffering 
