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CHAPTER IX. 
January I, 1806.— Jidda owes its celebrity from being the nearest 
sea port to Mecca, whence it is distant about forty miles. This holy 
city, being surrounded by a country unproductive in every article 
necessary for the support of man, has invariably depended on 
Africa for the supplies that its numerous regular inhabitants, and 
its still mor€ numerous religious visitants, required. Egypt, fertile 
in grain, being in the possession of the Turks, the Sultaun used the 
influence which, in consequence of this circumstance, he thus ob- 
tained, to secure to himself a share of the profits of the extensive 
trade of Jidda. He therefore, regularly appointed a Pacha, who 
lived in the citadel of Jidda with a Turkish guard, and divided the 
receipts of the custom-house with the Sheriffe. 
While the power of the Sublime Porte continued undiminished, 
its minister was treated with great respect, for any insult would 
have been punished by the powerful force which annually accom- 
panied the caravan of pilgrims from Syria ; but when Egypt was 
torn by internal convulsions, when the Pachas of Asia threw off; in 
a great degree, the control of the Porte; and when the Wahabee 
power arose, and cut off the communication between Constanti- 
nople and Mecca, the Sheriffe became disinclined to give half his 
receipts to a person, whom he no longer feared, but considered as 
an useless incumbrance. Disputes naturally ensued, which at 
length ended in open hostilities; and Ghalib, the present sovereign, 
