There was a man of considerable weight in Aleppo, named [184]Sidi Ali Taraboloussi, who was a great friend of Dr Russel, our physician, through whom I became acquainted with him. He was an intimate friend and acquaintance of the cadi of Medina, and had given me a letter to him, recommending me, in a very particular manner, to his protection and services. I inquired about this person, and was told he was in town, directing the distribution of the corn to be sent to his capital. Upon my inquiry, the news were carried to him as soon almost as his name was uttered; on which, being desirous of knowing what sort of man I was, about eight o’clock in the evening he sent me a message, and, immediately after, I received a visit from him.
I was putting my telescopes and time-keeper in order, and had forbid admittance to any one; but this was so holy and so dignified a person, that all doors were open to him. He observed me working about the great telescope and quadrant in my shirt, for it was hot beyond conception upon the smallest exertion. Without making any apology for the intrusion at all, he broke out into exclamation, how lucky he was! and, without regarding me, he went from telescope to clock, from clock to quadrant, and from that to the thermometer, crying, Ah tibe, ah tibe! This is fine, this is fine! He scarcely looked upon me, or seemed to think I was worth his attention, but touched every thing so carefully, and handled so properly the brass cover of the alidade, which inclosed the horse-hair with the plummet, that he seemed to be a man more than ordinarily versed in the use of astronomical instruments. In short, not to repeat useless matter to the reader, I found he had studied at Constantinople, understood the principles of geometry very tolerably, was master of Euclid so far as it regarded plain trigonometry; the demonstrations of which he rattled off so rapidly, that it was impossible to follow, or to understand him. He knew nothing of spherics, and all his astronomy resolved itself at last into maxims of judicial astrology, first and second houses of the planets and ascendancies, very much in the style of common almanacks.
He desired that my door might be open to him at all times, especially when I made observations; he also knew perfectly the division of our clocks, and begged he might count time for me. All this was easily granted, and I had from him, what was most useful, a history of the situation of the government of the place, by which I learned, that the two young men (the governors) were slaves of the Sherriffe of Mecca; that it was impossible for any one, the most intimate with them, to tell which of the two was most base or profligate; that they would have robbed us all of the last farthing, if they had not been restrained by fear; and that there was a foreigner, or a frank, very lately going to India, who had disappeared, but, as he believed, had been privately put to death in prison, for he had never after been heard of.
Though I cannot say I relished this account, yet I put on the very best face possible, “Here, in a garrison town, said I, with very worthless soldiers, they might do what they pleased with six or seven strangers, but I do not fear them; I now tell them, and the people of Yambo, all and each of them, they had better be in their bed sick of the plague, than touch a hair of my dog, if I had one.” “And so, says he they know, therefore rest and rejoice, and stay as long with us as you can.” “As short time as possible, said I, Sidi Mahomet; although I do not fear wicked people, I don’t love them so much as to stay long with them.”
He then asked me a favour, that I would allow my Rais to carry a quantity of wheat for him to Jidda; which I willingly permitted, upon condition, that he would order but one man to go along with it; on which he declared solemnly, that none but one should go, and that I might throw him even into the sea, if he behaved improperly. However, afterwards he sent three; and one who deserved often to be thrown into the sea, as he had permitted. “Now friend, said I, I have done every thing that you have desired, though favours should have begun with you upon your own principle, as I am the stranger. Now, what I have to ask you is this,—Do you know the Shekh of Beder Hunein? Know him! says he, I am married to his sister, a daughter of Harb; he is of the tribe of Harb.” “Harb be it then (said I) your trouble will be the less; then you are to send a camel to your brother-in-law, who will procure me the largest, and most perfect plant possible of the Balsam of Mecca. He is not to break the stem, nor even the branches, but to pack it entire, with fruit and flower, if possible, and wrap it in a mat.” He looked cunning, shrugged up his shoulders, drew up his mouth, and putting his finger to his nose, said, “Enough, I know all about this, you shall find what sort of a man I am, I am no fool, as you shall see.”
I received this the third day at dinner, but the flower (if there had been any) was rubbed off. The fruit was in several stages, and in great perfection. The drawing, and description from this [185]plant, will, I hope, for ever obviate all difficulty about its history. He sent me, likewise, a quart bottle of the pure balsam, as it had flowed that year from the tree, with which I have verified what the old botanists in their writings have said of it, in its several stages. He told me also the circumstances I have related in my description of the balsam, as to the gathering and preparing of the several kinds of it, and a curious anecdote as to its origin. He said the plant was no part of the creation of God in the six days, but that, in the last of three very bloody battles, which Mahomet fought with the noble Arabs of Harb, and his kinsmen the Beni Koreish, then Pagans at Beder Hunein, that Mahomet prayed to God, and a grove of balsam-trees grew up from the blood of the slain upon the field of battle; and, that with the balsam that flowed from them he touched the wounds even of those that were dead, and all those predestined to be good Mussulmen afterwards, immediately came to life. “I hope, said I, friend, that the other things you told me of it, are fully as true as this, for they will otherwise laugh at me in England.” “No, no, says he, not half so true, nor a quarter so true, there is nothing in the world so certain as this.” But his looks, and his laughing very heartily, shewed me plainly he knew better, as indeed most of them do.
In the evening, before we departed, about nine o’clock, I had an unexpected visit from the youngest of the two Agas; who, after many pretended complaints of sickness, and injunctions of secrecy, at last modestly requested me to give him some slow poison, that might kill his brother, without suspicion, and after some time should elapse. I told him, such proposals were not to be made to a man like me; that all the gold, and all the silver in the world, would not engage me to poison the poorest vagrant in the street, supposing it never was to be suspected, or known but to my own heart. All he said, was, “Then your manners are not the same as ours.”—I answered, dryly, “Mine, I thank God, are not,” and so we parted.
Yambo, or at least the present town of that name, I found, by many observations of the sun and stars, to be in latitude 24° 3´ 35´´ north, and in long. 38° 16´ 3´´ east from the meridian of Greenwich. The barometer, at its highest, on the 23d of April, was 27° 8´, and, the lowest on the 27th, was 26° 11´. The thermometer, on the 24th of April, at two o’clock in the afternoon, stood at 91°, and the lowest was 66° in the morning of the 26th of same month. Yambo is reputed very unwholesome, but there were no epidemical diseases when I was there.
The many delays of loading the wheat, the desire of doubling the quantity I had permitted, in which both the Rais and my friend the cadi conspired for their mutual interest, detained me at Yambo all the 27th of April, very much against my inclination. For I was not a little uneasy at thinking among what banditti I lived, whose daily wish was to rob and murder me, from which they were restrained by fear only; and this, a fit of drunkenness, or a piece of bad news, such as a report of Ali Bey’s death, might remove in a moment. Indeed we were allowed to want nothing. A sheep, some bad beer, and some very good wheat-bread, were delivered to us every day from the Aga, which, with dates and honey, and a variety of presents from those that I attended as a physician, made us pass our time comfortably enough; we went frequently in the boats to fish at sea, and, as I had brought with me three fizgigs of different sizes, with the proper lines, I seldom returned without killing four or five dolphins. The sport with the line was likewise excellent. We caught a number of beautiful fish from the very house where we lodged, and some few good ones. We had vinegar in plenty at Yambo; onions, and several other greens, from Raddua; and, being all cooks, we lived well.
On the 28th of April, in the morning, I sailed with a cargo of wheat that did not belong to me, and three passengers, instead of one, for whom only I had undertaken. The wind was fair, and I saw one advantage of allowing the Rais to load, was, that he was determined to carry sail to make amends for the delay. There was a tumbling, disagreeable swell, and the wind seemed dying away. One of our passengers was very sick. At his request we anchored at Djar, a round small port, whose entrance is at the north-east. It is about three fathoms deep throughout, unless just upon the south side, and perfectly sheltered from every wind. We saw here, for the first time, several plants of rack tree, growing considerably within the sea-mark, in some places with two feet of water upon the trunk. I found the latitude of Djar to be 23° 36´ 9´´ north. The mountains of Beder Hunein were S. S. W. of us.