MOCHA. 
357 
Sir Home Popham, who endeavoured to make his way to Sana as 
an Ambassador, but was obliged to return, as I have been informed 
by Mr. Pringle, in no very pleasant manner; though attended, 
when he set out, by a guard of one hundred marines, which ought 
either not to have been taken, or to have been employed in pro- 
tecting him from insult. The defeated soldiers of Scindiah at 
length returned in hundreds, and, after great difficulty, convinced 
the Dola, and the inhabitants of Mocha, that the English actually 
could, and would fight : a fact which Mr. Pringle had found it 
impossible to make them credit. 
A calm and moderate firmness would, I have no doubt, easily 
procure, for Christians in Arabia, every immunity and privilege 
which, as strangers, they could require. A single ship of war could 
at any time stop, not only the whole trade of Mocha, but also the 
necessary supplies of provisions from Berbera. This would force a 
compliance with the reasonable demand, that the deserters should 
be given up; and this, once done, the idea of impunity would be 
done away, and not a seaman would ever afterwards place any 
confidence in their threats. A disgraceful prohibition also ought 
to be removed ; a Christian is not permitted to go out at the Mecca 
gate, although the Jews and Banians are. This is i,he more singular, 
as the two latter are considered by Mussulmauns as inferior in 
character to the former, the Jews not believing in Christ, nor the 
Banians in Moses or Christ, who are both revered by the followers 
ofMahommed. 
The British factory, though one of the best houses in the town, 
has many inconveniences, independently of its construction, the 
chief of which is its vicinity to the Dola's stables, where the asses 
