The officer who visited us in our boat, carried rather ostentatiously at his belt, two large and very rudely made wooden keys, with projecting bits of iron wire, which formed a kind of apology for wards. From their appearance, I should suppose that the locks they fitted were not either of a very intricate or very substantial character, and not such as were calculated, without other aids, to effect the exclusion of unwelcome visitors. I had not an opportunity of examining the defences of Zeila, beyond a sight of its wall, twenty or thirty feet high, over which could be seen certain whitewashed and grey stone houses, with flat roofs. Besides two old guns, which we could see from the boat, lying dismounted upon the sands, I was told there were a very few others placed on that part of the wall looking inland. Mr. Cruttenden forwarded to the governor some few pounds of gunpowder in return for the sheep, but declined on this occasion his polite invitation to visit him, promising to see him on his return to Berberah, which he hoped would be in a few days, after settling affairs for me in Tajourah. During the night, we took advantage of the land breeze, and made Tajourah by the middle of the next day. The difficulty of fixing upon our anchorage was not so nice an affair as with the brig. The narrow and confined opening on the sunken coral reef forms a kind of submarine haven, directly in front of Tajourah, in which is the only secure anchorage. It was easily found by our vessel, whose light draught of water admitted of its going over the reef in search of it; and when found, allowed of our bringing up within a very few yards from the shore. This was no little convenience, for our bogalow only carried for communication with the land a small canoe made out of a single tree, and barely able to carry two persons. Mr. Cruttenden’s sword was trusted to the hands of one of the crew, an excellent swimmer, who took rather a novel mode of conveying his bright burden to the shore, swimming the whole way completely immersed, save the hand and arm bearing the sword, which was thus carried perpendicularly to the body, with an intuitive knowledge of the mechanical relief to the muscles of the arm afforded by a weight being carried in that manner. Mr. Cruttenden trusted himself into the frail and ticklish canoe, which bobbled upon the surface of the water as if its ill-adjusted centre of gravity would upset itself. He, however, was placed, not without a certain degree of wetting, safely upon the land; and the dexterous paddler of this tiny craft returned for me. I really do not know how I managed to convey myself into it, nor can I account reasonably for its doing so much for me to the shore; but I recollect very well that I considered it a regular escape, for had I been upset in my then weak state from my previous illness, I should certainly have finished my African travels in the Bay of Tajourah.