496 
MOCHA. 
peculiar manners of their forefathers than either of the other 
two states which, together with them, once constituted the empire 
of Abyssinia. 
The effect of my late journies has tended to increase the pre- 
ponderance of Tigre, and it appears to me that the only plan, 
which offers a hope of restoring any thing like a regular form 
of government into the distracted country of Abyssinia, would 
be to promote still further the w elfare of that province, by remov- 
ing the obstructions which interrupt her communications with 
the coast, and by establishing thence a free intercourse with 
the British settlements in the East. Were such a measure to be 
accomplished, and a branch of the royal family to be placed by 
the consent of the chiefs of Tigre on the throne at Axum, it might 
again revive the political importance of the country, and ulti- 
mately lead to the most desirable results. 
At present the possession of the ports of Massowa and Suakin 
by the deputies of the rulers of Jidda,* forms a decided obstacle 
to all effectual intercourse with Abyssinia, owing to the unjust 
exactions which are extorted from the merchants who attempt to 
trade in their ports ; and the power of these chiefs in the Red 
Sea may comparatively be considered as formidable, from their 
possessing several armed ships of four and five hundred tons 
burthen, with a fleet of dows, carrying each from six to eight guns, 
which, when manned with the desperate ruffians who constitute 
the population of Jidda, give them complete command over both 
* Since I left the sea, the Pasha of Egypt has superseded the Sheriffe of Mecca in the 
command of Jidda, whose influence in the Red Sea, 1 conceive, likely to produce the 
worst effects. 
