MOCHA. 
415 
I particularly recommended all the officers. We sent by her eight 
hundred bales ofcofFeefor Mr. Forbes, and took dollars to the amount 
of fifty thousand on an advantageous exchange to them; so that 
they would be no losers by their touching here. 
The Americans buy their coffee without cleaning, and some of 
the worst quality ; what we take is good. Six ships were there at that 
time, and Captain Elkins assured me six more were on their passage. 
He made last year two hundred per cent. 
The Naqueda of a dow from Massowah said that seventeen days 
ago the Panther was there ; that at first the Dola made objections to 
the gentlemen going into Habesh, but that every thing was settled. 
They had agreed to pay what was customary, and he had made 
himself responsible for their safety. The soldiers, he added, were 
all ready to escort them. From this account I hoped they were on 
their way. It accorded too well with what we knew to be fact, to 
be all an invention. 
July 31. — The Dola sent to prison every dealer in grain, till they 
should pay him two dollars each for the active exertions of him- 
self and soldiers, in kee])ing off the Wahabee! !! 
On the i^8th it rained so heavily as to penetrate the upper apart- 
ments, and drive us below. TheDola's stables, which were thatched, 
sunk under it. The lightning was vivid, and the thunder loud; 
a dow was struck, and some damage done near the town. It had, 
for these three last days, being extremely close in the morning, till 
about eleven, when the sea breeze set in. After the rain the ther- 
mometer was at 80^ I was unwell with a cold, a complaint which 
every one of us had experienced from the sudden changes in the 
emper ature of the air. 
