The Turks all came ashore but one; the youngest, and, according to all appearance, the best, had fallen over board, and perished. The Bey received them, and with great charity entertained them all at his own expence, but they were so terrified with the sea, as almost to resolve never to make another attempt.
The Bey had brought with him from Jidda, a small, but tight vessel belonging to [155]Sheher; which came from that country loaded with frankincense, the commodity of that port. The Rais had business down the Gulf at Tor, and he had spoken to the Bey, to recommend him to me. I had no business at Tor, but as we had grown into a kind of friendship, from frequent conversation, and as he was, according to his own word, a great saint, like my last boatman, a character that I thought I could perfectly manage, I proposed to the Bey, that he and I should contribute something to make it worth this Captain’s pains, to take our friends the Turks on board, and carry them to Yambo, that they might not be deprived of that blessing which would result from their visit to the Prophet’s tomb, and which they had toiled so much to earn. I promised, in that case, to hire his vessel at so much a month upon its return from Yambo; and, as I had then formed a resolution of making a survey of the Red Sea to the Straits of Babelmandeb, the Rais was to take his directions from me, till I pleased to dismiss him.
Nothing was more agreeable to the views of all parties than this. The Bey promised to stay till they sailed, and I engaged to take him after he returned; and as the captain, in quality of a saint, assured us, that any rock that stood in our way in the voyage, would either jump aside, or become soft like a spunge, as it had often happened before, both the Turks and we were now assured of a voyage without danger.
All was settled to our mutual satisfaction, when, unluckily, the Turks going down to their boat, met Sidi Hassan, whom, with reason, they thought the author of all their misfortunes. The whole twenty-four drew their swords, and, without seeking sabres from Persia, as he had done, they would have cut Sidi Hassan in pieces, but, fortunately for him, the Turks had great cloth trowsers, like Dutchmen, and they could not run, whilst he ran very nimbly in his. Several pistols, however, were fired, one of which shot him in the back part of the ear; on which he fled for refuge to the Bey, and we never saw him more.
CHAP. IX.
Voyage to Jibbel Zumrud—Return to Cosseir—Sails from Cosseir—Jaffateen Islands—Arrive at Tor.
The Turks and the Bey departed, and with the Turks I dispatched my Arab, Abdel Gin, not only giving him something myself, but recommending him to my beneficent countrymen at Jidda, if he should go there.
I now took up my quarters in the castle, and as the Ababdé had told strange stories about the Mountain of Emeralds, I determined, till my captain should return, to make a voyage thither. There was no possibility of knowing the distance by report; sometimes it was twenty-five miles, sometimes it was fifty, sometimes it was a hundred, and God knows how much more.