^66 
PORT MORNINGTON. 
a respectable old Bedowee, with the curls of his hah' incrusted with 
flit, who brought me a present of three fowls. Their coming at 
once onboard, without any scruple or fear, gave me a favourable im- 
pression of their own upright intentions, and showed a strong degree 
of confidence in us, and a liberal judgment of our motives for visiting 
this unh^equented shore. No European ship has been here since the 
time of the Portuguese. We gave them coffee to drink, a present of to- 
bacco, and afrassel of raw coffee. Captain Court obtained from them 
the names of the hills in sight, and of some of the islands. There 
are several of these, each under a separate Sheik, but all under a 
Dola, who is sent from Suakin, not from Massowah, as we were 
there given to understand. Badour is the name of the village where 
the Dola resides ; it is a miserable little place, one small mosque 
being the only stone building ; the rest are grass huts. It is on a 
small island, close to the water. There is no trade, except an ex- 
port of ghee, and some tortoise shell. The clows now come this 
way from Suakin, Jidda, and Massowah, from fear of the Wa- 
habee. We saw a large drove of cattle on the shore, and learned 
that there were plenty, as there must be when ghee becomes an 
article of exportation ; but these unfortunately belonged to a Sheik 
who was absent, and were therefore not to be procured. Our civil 
Sheik, who visited us, had his cattle at some short distance; we 
were consequently obliged to wait till next day. Sheep are also in 
abundance, and poultry : the prices demanded were, however, 
high ; for a bullock they asked seven dollars, but came down to 
five ; fowls were only eight for a dollar ; sheep were more reason- 
able, a fine fat one being procurable for a dollar. We got some eggs 
in return for a little tobacco. I should, however, observe, that the 
