Soon after they went, we heard a great firing, and saw lights all over the town; and the Rais proposed to me to slip immediately, and set sail, from which measure I was not at all averse. But, as he said, we had a better anchoring place under the mosque of the Shekh, and, besides, that there we would be in a place of safety, by reason of the holiness of the saint, and that at our own choice might even put to sea in a moment, or stay till to-morrow, as we were in no sort of doubt of being able to repel, force by force, if attacked, we got under weigh for a few hundred yards, and dropt our anchor under the shrine of one of the greatest saints in the world.
At night the firing had abated, the lights diminished, and the captain of the port again came on board. He was surprised at missing us at our former anchoring place, and still more so, when, on our hearing the noise of his oars, we hailed, and forbade him to advance any nearer, till he should tell us how many he had on board, or whether he had soldiers or not, otherwise we should fire upon them: to this he answered, that there were only himself, his boy, and three officers, servants to the Aga. I replied, that three strangers were too many at that time of the night, but, since they were come from the Aga, they might advance.
All our people were sitting together armed on the forepart of the vessel; I soon divined they intended us no harm, for they gave us the salute Salam Alicum! before they were within ten yards of us. I answered with great complacency; we handed them on board, and set them down upon deck. The three officers were genteel young men, of a sickly appearance, dressed in the fashion of the country, in long burnooses loosely hanging about them, striped with red and white; they wore a turban of red, green, and white, with ten thousand tassels and fringes hanging down to the small of their backs. They had in their hand, each, a short javelin, the shaft not above four feet and a half long, with an iron head about nine inches, and two or three iron hooks below the shaft, which was bound round with brass-wire, in several places, and shod with iron at the farther end.
They asked me where I came from? I said, from Constantinople, last from Cairo; but begged they would put no more questions to me, as I was not at liberty to answer them. They said they had orders from their masters to bid me welcome, if I was the person that had been recommended to them by the Sherriffe, and was Ali Bey’s physician at Cairo. I said, if Metical Aga had advised them of that, then I was the man. They replied he had, and were come to bid me welcome, and attend me on shore to their masters, whenever I pleased. I begged them to carry my humble respects to their masters; and told them, though I did not doubt of their protection in any shape, yet I could not think it consistent with ordinary prudence, to risk myself at ten o’clock at night, in a town so full of disorder as Yambo appeared to have been for some time, and where so little regard was paid to discipline or command, as to fight with one another. They said that was true, and I might do as I pleased; but the firing that I had heard did not proceed from fighting, but from their rejoicing upon making peace.
In short, we found, that, upon some discussion, the garrison and townsmen had been fighting for several days, in which disorders the greatest part of the ammunition in the town had been expended, but it had since been agreed on by the old men of both parties, that no body had been to blame on either side, but the whole wrong was the work of a Camel. A camel, therefore, was seized, and brought without the town, and there a number on both sides having met, they upbraided the camel with every thing that had been either said or done. The camel had killed men, he had threatened to set the town on fire; the camel had threatened to burn the Aga’s house, and the castle; he had cursed the Grand Signior, and the Sherriffe of Mecca, the sovereigns of the two parties; and, the only thing the poor animal was interested in, he had threatened to destroy the wheat that was going to Mecca. After having spent great part of the afternoon in upbraiding the camel, whose measure of iniquity, it seems, was near full, each man thrust him through with a lance, devoting him Diis manibus & Diris, by a kind of prayer, and with a thousand curses upon his head. After which, every man retired, fully satisfied as to the wrongs he had received from the camel.
The reader will easily observe in this, some traces of the [183]azazel, or scape-goat of the Jews, which was turned out into the wilderness, loaded with the sins of the people.
Next morning I went to the palace, as we call it, in which were some very handsome apartments. There was a guard of janissaries at the door, who, being warriors, lately come from the bloody battle with the camel, did not fail to shew marks of insolence, which they wished to be mistaken for courage.
The two Agas were sitting on a high bench upon Persian carpets; and about forty well-dressed and well-looking men, (many of them old) sitting on carpets upon the floor, in a semi-circle round them. They behaved with great politeness and attention, and asked no questions but general ones; as, How the sea agreed with me? If there was plenty at Cairo? till I was going away, when the youngest of the Agas inquired, with a seeming degree of diffidence, Whether Mahomet Bey Abou Dahab, was ready to march? As I knew well what this question meant, I answered, I know not if he is ready, he has made great preparations. The other Aga said, I hope you will be a messenger of peace? I answered, I intreat you to ask me no questions; I hope, by the grace of God, all will go well. Every person present applauded the speech; agreed to respect my secret, as they supposed I had one, and they all were inclined to believe, that I was a man in the confidence of Ali Bey, and that his hostile designs against Mecca were laid aside: this was just what I wished them to suppose; for it secured me against ill-usage all the time I chose to stay there; and of this I had a proof in the instant, for a very good house was provided for me by the Aga, and a man of his sent to shew me to it.
I wondered the Rais had not come home with me; who, in about half an hour after I had got into my house, came and told me, that, when the captain of the boat came on board the first time with the two soldiers, he had put a note, which they call tiskera, into his hand, pressing him into the Sherriffe’s service, to carry wheat to Jidda, and, with the wheat, a number of poor pilgrims that were going to Mecca at the Sherriffe’s expence. Finding us, however, out of the harbour, and, suspecting from our manners and carriage towards the janissaries, that we were people who knew what we had to trust to, he had taken the two soldiers a-shore with him, who were by no means fond of their reception, or inclined to stay in such company; and, indeed, our dresses and appearances in the boat were fully as likely to make strangers believe we should rob them, as theirs were to impress us with an apprehension that they would rob us. The Rais said also, that, after my audience, the Aga had called upon him, and taken away the tiskera, telling him he was free, and to obey nobody but me; and sent me one of his servants to sit at the door, with orders to admit nobody but whom I pleased, and that I might not be troubled with the people of Yambo.
Hitherto all was well; but it had been with me an observation, which had constantly held good, that too prosperous beginnings in these countries always ended in ill at the last. I was therefore resolved to use my prosperity with great temperance and caution, make myself as strong, and use my strength as little, as it was possible for me to do.