^62 OBSERVATIONS ON MR. SALT'S 
behold with alarm the arrival of a powerful nation in his seas, is 
not surprising. He must have been immediately conscious that he 
was at their mercy ; and he must have suspected that they would 
be attached to his opponents, who professed the same religion, and 
whose country produced those articles of trade, of which his own 
was totally destitute. The Banians also, who saw plainly that a 
direct trade, between the British and Abyssinians, would put an 
end to their vast profits collected both at Mocha and Massowah, 
added to the alarms of the Nayib, by the invention of a thousand 
idle tales, and probably used even bribery to excite his brothers 
and his Ascari, to force him into those measures of perverseness 
and hostility, which were, I am convinced, contrary to the natural 
bent of his inclination. 
These palliative circumstances would induce me to wish, that 
the Nayib should be considered as a friendly power by the British, 
if any permanent arrangement should take place between them 
and the Abyssinians. The Island of Valentia might, with little dif- 
ficulty, be procured from him, as it only yields him a revenue of a 
few dollars ; and all disputes respecting duties would be at an end, 
as the goods might pass direct to Zulla, the village mentioned by 
Mr. Salt, as situated on the sea shore, in the territory of the Hazorta, 
and which is the same I before alluded to, as being at the bottom 
of Annesley Bay. This amicable arrangement might prevent the 
immediate ruin of Massowah as an independent state ; but, as its 
power is merely artificial, and depends only on the troops it is 
able to maintain, by the revenues arising from trade, its gradual 
decay is inevitable, and it will soon either become a barren sand, 
or sink again into the empire of Abyssinia. 
