138 
him. The captain went afterwards to Djedda, to state 
the refusal he had experienced, when he requested a 
pilot and an anchor, before the catastrophe had hap- 
pened to his ship; but he only got insults in answer. 
In this deplorable situation, he came, accompanied by- 
three or four sailors, to me, to get a certificate under 
my hand. I hastened to satisfy their request, after 
having taken the declaration of the sailors, which con- 
soled the poor fellow a little for his loss. 
The captain of a large ship from the Maldivian 
Islands, richly laden, having put into Djedda, died 
there. The Scherif immediately seized upon the ship 
and cargo, under the pretext that, the captain dyingj 
upon his territory, all that he left belonged to him as 
his right. Some time after this, the Scherif, in partner- 
ship with some persons at Djedda, sent this ship to 
India, in company with another which belonged to him, 
richly laden. The French seized upon both of them, 
and, returned one, but not until after they had unloaded 
her. 
The news of this capture produced a terrible shock 
in the mind of the Scherif, who spoke to me of it upon 
my arrival at Mecca. The merchants of Djedda had 
already spoken to me about it, because they knew I 
had intercourse with Europe. The Scherif begged I 
wou^d inform my friends of the circumstance. I told 
him that the affair required that he should write about 
it himself to the French government; and at length, 
after many discussions, he charged me with a letter, 
begging me to send it by a safe conveyance to one of 
my correspondents in Europe, to forward it to the Em- 
peror Napoleon. 
As these discussions passed at the time when the 
Wehhabites threatened to take definitive possession of 
