360 
MOCHA 
plains of India : even where a brackish well has given an opportu- 
nity of raising a few vegetables, the scene is still cheerless, from the 
fence of dried reeds, which is alone visible. Mr. Salt, hy the per- 
mission of the Dola, paid a visit to Moosa, and intended to have 
gone on to Beit-el-Fakih, but was recalled in consequence of the 
disputes running high respecting the renegadoes. He describes the 
country, even there, as uninteresting, though the mountains were 
fine, and there were fields of grain, and other appearances of culti- 
vation. This is owing to the river, which rises in the hills, and at 
one season is full of water, though it, in general, loses itself in the 
Tehama, without reaching the sea. Once, indeed, it found its way 
to Mocha, where it carried away a considerable part of the Jews' 
town, which is built in its usually unfrequented bed. Had Mocha 
not existed, and had a vessel by accident approached the coast at 
that time, the mariners might justly have reported, that a river of 
fresh water there emptied itself into the sea. Future navigators 
would have positively contradicted them ; and they would have 
been accused as liars, without having merited the title. I think it 
probable that the accounts of the river Charles above Jidda, and the 
river Frat opposite to it, have originated in a similar circumstance. 
By the influence 6f money Mr. Salt experienced a civil reception : 
he drew the town, of which I have given an engraving ; and also 
the Dola s son, who did the honours of the place, his father being 
absent. 
The singular appearance of the flat Tehama of barren sand, ex^ 
tending from the mountains to the sea, has given rise to the suppo- 
aition, that it has been formed by gradual incroachments on that 
element ; a supposition which is greatly confirmed by the strata that 
