pleasant, yet it did not make so material an alteration in our situation at the factory as might have been expected. During a few days we were put to some inconvenience by the gates being shut, and all supplies of fruit, vegetables, and water, being denied; but as we were able to keep up an uninterrupted communication with the ship, we did not suffer from this privation in any degree, compared with what the inhabitants themselves endured. It was not indeed considered very safe to extend our walks through the town, and yet, though we still continued this practice, not a single insult or outrage occurred.
To add to the distresses of the Dola, a son of Sheriffe Hamood came down from Aboo Arish, early in October, to demand a sum of eight thousand dollars due to the government. A claim had been made some months before of four thousand, which having met with no attention, the government doubled the demand, and declared at the same time, that if it were not paid within a month, it should be augmented to sixteen thousand. To raise this money, the Dola went so far as to arrest all the hamauls, (porters) and keepers of coffee-houses; and he was actually brutal enough to keep some of these poor people, who had no money, in prison, until their friends came forward with the ransom required for their release.
As the period approached for the answer from Sana, considerable agitation prevailed in the town; wood, water, and provisions being laid in by the inhabitants as preparatory for a siege. Similar precautions were taken by Captain Rudland, but on the 31st of October all existing differences were unexpectedly put an end to, by accounts arriving from Sana of the death of the old Imaum, Ali el Mansoor. He died the 25th of October, at the age of eighty-five, after reigning thirty-five years; and his son Achmed then came into undisputed possession of the throne, on which occasion he assumed the title of "Sydee Achmed Ameer al Mookmun ul metwokkel Allah Rubbil Ailameen!"*[1]
All pretext for disobedience being by this event removed, the Dola returned to his allegiance, and great re-
- ↑ Vide for the history of this family, Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p. 170, et seq.
