BUGS AND COCKROACHES. 
205 
intention to proceed to Bombay, though we should 
have otherwise prolonged our stay at Mascat, still, 
there being nothing attractive to detain us further, 
we consented to take charge of the despatches, and 
proceed without delay towards our destination. 
The Yong Yrouw Jacomina, otherwise the Corn- 
wallis, was immediately got in readiness for the 
voyage. At this period the heat in the cove was so 
excessive that we could not remain on board the 
vessel without suffering great inconvenience. The 
thermometer stood at a hundred and ten degrees in 
our cabin. The reflection of the sun from the sheer 
uncovered rocks that towered on all sides above the 
harbour, was a chief cause of the heat being so in- 
tense. Two days before we sailed, an American 
vessel entered the port ; on the following morning 
we met the captain, who invited us to go on 
board, and entertained us very hospitably. He as- 
sured us that, upon reaching Mascat, his ship was so 
overrun with bugs that it was a perfect purgatory, 
but in one night after he had anchored, the whole of 
them had been cleared by the cockroaches, which then 
swarmed as numerously as the bugs had previously 
done ; he, however, found the former the lesser evil. 
This frequently happens in India : a ship swarming 
with bugs no sooner puts into port than she is board- 
ed by myriads of cockroaches, which devour the whole 
of them in a few hours ; thus verifying the Hindoo 
proverb — “ Little things should not be despised : many 
straws united may bind an elephant.” 
When our vessel was ready we weighed anchor, and 
moved slowly out of Mascat harbour, with despatches 
T 
