The reasons, then, against polygamy, which subsist in England, do not by any means subsist in Arabia; and that being the case, it would be unworthy of the wisdom of God, and an unevenness in his ways, which we shall never see, to subject two nations, under such different circumstances, absolutely to the same observances.
I consider the prophecy concerning Ishmael, and his descendants the Arabs, as one of the most extraordinary that we meet with in the Old Testament. It was also one of the earliest made, and proceeded upon grounds of private reparation. Hagar had not sinned, though she had fled from Sarah with Ishmael her son into the wilderness. In that desert there were then no inhabitants, and though Ishmael’s[192] succession was incompatible with God’s promise to Abraham and his son Isaac, yet neither Hagar nor he having sinned, justice required a reparation for the heritage which he had lost. God gave him that very wilderness which before was the property of no man, in which Ishmael was to erect a kingdom under the most improbable circumstances possible to be imagined. His [193]hand was to be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. By his sword he was to live, and pitch his tent in the face of his brethren.
Never has prophecy been so completely fulfilled. It subsisted from the earliest ages; it was verified before the time of Moses; in the time of David and Solomon; it subsisted in the time of Alexander and that of Augustus Cæsar; it subsisted in the time of Justinian,—all very distant, unconnected periods; and I appeal to the evidence of mankind, if, without apparent support or necessity, but what it has derived from God’s promise only, it is not in full vigour at this very day. This prophecy alone, in the truth of which all sorts of religions agree, is therefore of itself a sufficient proof, without other, of the Divine authority of the scripture.
Mahomet prohibited all pork and wine; two articles which must have been, before, very little used in Arabia. Grapes, here, grow in the mountains of Yemen, but never arrive at maturity enough for wine. They bring them down for this purpose to Loheia, and there the heat of the climate turns the wine sour before they can clear it of its fæces so as to make it drinkable; and we know that, before the appearance of Mahomet, Arabia was never a wine country. As for swine, I never heard of them in the peninsula, of Arabia, (unless perhaps wild in the woods about Sana,) and it was from early times inhabited by Jews before the coming of Mahomet. The only people therefore that ate swine’s flesh must have been Christians, and they were a sect of little account. Many of these, however, do not eat pork yet, but all of them were, oppressed and despised every-where, and there was no inducement for any other people to imitate them.
Mahomet then prohibiting only what was merely neutral, or indifferent to the Arabs, indulged them in that to which he knew they were prone.
At the several conversations I had with the English merchants at Jidda, they complained grievously of the manner in which they were oppressed by the sherriffe of Mecca and his officers. The duties and fees were increased every voyage; their privileges all taken away, and a most destructive measure introduced of forcing them to give presents, which was only an inducement to oppress, that the gift might be the greater. I asked them if I should obtain from the Bey of Cairo permission for their ships to come down to Suez, whither there were merchants in India who would venture to undertake that voyage? Captain Thornhill promised, for his part, that the very season after such permission should arrive in India, he would dispatch his ship the Bengal Merchant, under command of his mate Captain Greig, to whose capacity and worth all his countrymen bore very ready testimony, and of which I myself had formed a very good opinion, from the several conversations we had together. This scheme was concerted between me and Captain Thornhill only; and tho’ it must be confessed it had the appearance of an airy one, (since it was not to be attempted, till I had returned through Abyssinia and Nubia, against which there were many thousand chances,) it was executed, notwithstanding, in the very manner in which it had been planned, as will be after stated.
The kindness and attention of my countrymen did not leave me as long as I was on shore. They all did me the honour to attend me to the water edge. If others have experienced pride and presumption, from gentlemen of the East-Indies, I was most happily exempted from even the appearance of it at Jidda. Happy it would have been for me, if I had been more neglected.
All the quay of Jidda was lined with people to see the English salute, and along with my vessel there parted, at the same time, one bound to Masuah, which carried Mahomet Abd el cader, Governor of Dahalac, over to his government. Dahalac[194] is a large island, depending upon Masuah, but which has a separate firman, or commission, renewed every two years. This man was a Moor, a servant of the Naybe of Masuah, and he had been at Jidda to procure his firman from Metical Aga, while Mahomet Gibberti was to come with me, and was to bring it to the Naybe. This Abd el cader no sooner was arrived at Masuah, than, following the turn or his country for lying, he spread a report, that a great man, or prince, whom he left at Jidda, was coming speedily to Masuah; that he had brought great presents to the Sherriffe and Metical Aga; that, in return, he had received a large sum in gold from the Sherriffe’s Vizir, Yousef Cabil; besides as much as he pleased from the English, who had done nothing but feast and regale him for the several months he had been at Jidda; and that, when he departed, as this great man was now going to visit the Imam in Arabia Felix, all the English ships hoisted their colours, and fired their cannon from morning to night, for three days successively, which was two days after he had sailed, and therefore what he could not possibly have seen. The consequence of all this was, the Naybe of Masuah expected that a man with immense treasures was coming to put himself into his hands. I look therefore upon the danger I escaped there as superior to all those put together, that I have ever been exposed to: of such material and bad consequence is the most contemptible of all weapons, the tongue of a liar and a fool!
Jidda is in lat. 28° 0´ 1´´ north, and in long. 39° 16´ 45´´ east of the meridian of Greenwich. Our weather there had few changes. The general wind was north-west, or more northerly. This blowing along the direction of the Gulf brought a great deal of damp along with it; and this damp increases as the season advances. Once in twelve or fourteen days, perhaps, we had a south wind, which was always dry. The highest degree of the barometer at Jidda, on the 5th of June, wind north, was 26° 6´, and the lowest on the 18th of same month, wind north-west, was 25° 7´. The highest degree of the thermometer was 97° on the 12th of July, wind north, the lowest was 78° wind north.
