12. _Sandy Hills and Desert Country._ 13. _Battery near the River._ 14. _The Emperor’s Palace._ 15. _Village of Diabet._ 16. _Dwaria or Summer house, attached to the Emperor’s Palace._ 17. _Wall to prevent the encroachment of the Sea._ 18. _Battery on a Rocky ground, forming the North entrance to the port._ 19. _Cape Tegriwelt or Ossim._ 20. _Road for Shipping._ 21. _Battery where the State Prisoners are confined, previous to their transportation to the Island._ 22. _Sandy Beach._ _London Published June 4. 1811. by W. & G. Nicholl Pall Mall._] Various opinions have been given of the strength of Mogodor by the different naval officers who have visited it, and with whom I have gone round the fortifications by permission of the Governor of the citadel; I think the best one is, that if the works were all completely mounted, and well manned, it would require six or seven large frigates to capture, or rather destroy the place;[50] for if it were entered by storm, a dreadful slaughter would be made among the assailants by the inhabitants from the tops of the houses, every house being a battery from whence the most destructive fire might be kept up with small arms. This was the case when the Arabs of Shedma, headed by their Sheiks, entered the town one Friday afternoon after prayers.[51] The cause was this: some persons in the town being dissatisfied with the Governor, who was a Bukarie black, or slave, and not a (horreh) freeman, engaged the Bashaw of Shedma[52] to enter the town with the chiefs of his province, assuring him, the people were well disposed towards him, and would, in the event of his forcing an entrance, give up the government to him, thereby securing to the town the necessary supplies of provisions, with which it had of late been but ill supplied, owing to the enmity between the Alkaid of the town, and the Bashaw of the neighbouring province. Things being mature for execution, the army of Arabs secreted themselves behind the sand hills in the hollows, about a mile from the town, whilst the Bashaw and chiefs rode in, and reached the entrance gate, just as it was opened after prayers, and secured the gate-keepers until about 17 or 18 of the chief Arabs of the province had passed into the town: by this time the inhabitants made a desperate push, and got the gate closed again; and the chiefs running about the streets, were fired upon by the armed populace from the tops of the houses, until the whole were killed. The Bashaw took refuge in an old house near the Haha gate, and offered a large sum of money if they would spare his life, but to no purpose; he was shot by the rabble. In the mean time the scouts from the army secreted in the bottoms seeing no signal from the town for their approach, were dismayed, and too soon found it necessary to return to their homes, with the loss of the flower of the province, the most undaunted warriors, who had so often signalized themselves against their neighbours, the Abda and Haha clans.