MOCHA, 
375 
The prices, at which the gum arabic, myrrh, and frankincense 
are stated to be purchased, were the actual prices at Berbera in 
1805; but the competition raised at Mocha by the arrival of the 
Americans affected these articles in as great a degree, as it did the 
coffee, and raised the price there to a ruinous height. This evil is 
done away, at the moment these sheets are going to the press, by 
the American embargo ; and 1 have not any hesitation in asserting, 
that the British may, with the utmost facility, secure the trade to 
themselves: but if Arabia should in future be as much neglected 
as it has hitherto been, the trade will again fall into the hands of 
the Americans, who will undersell us in every market in Europe, 
and justly laugh at our remissness and folly. 
From the fair of Berbera Arabia draws her supplies of ghee, and 
a great number of slaves, camels, horses, mules, and asses ; but the 
profit on these articles is much less than on the sale of India goods, 
which is the return made to the inhabitants of Africa, for the 
whole produce of the country thus brought to Berbera. Many 
chiefs of the interior, and particularly the sovereign of Hanim,who 
lives twenty days journey west of Berbera, send down caravans of 
their own, to purchase, with gold and ivory, the manufactures of 
India. It is much to be regretted, that the sale is at present clog- 
ged by the unreasonable profits of the Banians, which of course, 
greatly diminish the consumption. Were a regular trade carried 
on at Aden, whose sovereign would rejoice at the adoption of any 
plan likely to increase his small revenue, and the profit re- 
duced to about forty or fifty per cent, the consumption w^ould 
probably increase ten fold, for, at present, the Africans have no 
limit to their purchases of these articles, except the amount of their 
