304 
JIDDA. 
the SherifFe now that I was here. I said I had no secretary for 
Arabic, nor did I understand it. He replied that his secretary 
should write any thing I pleased. I said, I would w^ait on him 
whenever he pleased, in a more private way, and would talk the 
subject over with him ; at length it was settled I should return 
from Jelani s. Rose water was now given, and our faces perfumed ; 
after which we took our leave. He did not quit his seat. We were 
preceded by the same people in scarlet cloaks, who kept olF the 
crowd. As I quitted the palace three more guns were fired, and 
the soldiers fired their matchlocks. The common people were very 
civil ; and as we passed through the bazar, the elder tradesmen 
made their salaams. Ibrahim Jelani met me at the door, and con- 
ducted me to the place of honour at the corner of the court, seating 
himself next me. The gentlemen were on chairs facing us. I began 
by telling him, that 1 understood he had ever been the friend of 
the English, and that therefore I should open all our wants to him, 
and consult with him without reserve. He assured me of his ex- 
treme anxiety to render us every service in his power. He promised 
some rice, hoped he could procure two anchors, and as for water, he 
said there was plenty that was tolerable, and he would let us have 
ten casks of good. Sheep were not to be bought, goats were eight and 
nine dollars a piece, and a bullock thirty or forty. Fish, however, he 
said, might be had in sufficient quantity, through the medium of the 
Emir Bahar, to supply our ship's crew. This was a great object to 
us. He offered us the use of his house during our stay ; we therefore 
settled to remain a few hours with him on the morrow, and arrange 
every thing. I now asked him whether any presents would ex- 
pedite our supplies. He said, yes; one hundred dollars to the 
