Although I made a draught of the port, it is not worth the publishing. For though in all probability it was once deep, safe, and convenient, yet there is nothing now but a kind of road, under shelter of a point, or ridge of land, which rounds out into the sea, and ends in a Cape, called _Ras Mozeffa_. Behind the town there is another small Cape, upon which there are three guns mounted, but with what intention it was not possible to guess. The Emir Ferhan, governor of the town, was an Abyssinian slave, who invited me on shore, and we dined together on very excellent provision, dressed according to their custom. He said the country near the shore was desert, but a little within land, or where the roots and gravel had fixed the sand, the soil produced every thing, especially if they had any showers of rain. It was so long since I had heard mention of a shower of rain, that I could not help laughing, and he seemed to think that he had said something wrong, and begged so politely to know what I laughed at, that I was obliged to confess. “The reason, said I, Sir, is an absurd one. What passed in my mind at that time was, that I had travelled about two thousand miles, and above twelve months, and had neither seen nor heard of a _shower of rain_ till now, and though you will perceive by my conversation that I understand your language well, for a stranger, yet I declare to you, the moment you spoke it, had you asked, what was the Arabic for a shower of rain, I could not have told you. I declare to you, upon my word, it was that which I laughed at, and upon no other account whatever.” “You are going, says he, to countries where you will have rain and wind, sufficiently cold, and where the water in the mountains is harder than the dry land, and people stand upon it[196]. We have only the remnant of their showers, and it is to that we owe our greatest happiness.” I was very much pleased with his conversation. He seemed to be near fifty years of age, was exceedingly well dressed, had neither gun nor pistol about him, not even a knife, nor an Arab servant armed, though they were all well dressed; but he had in his court-yard about threescore of the finest horses I had for a long time seen. We dined just opposite to them, in a small saloon strowed with India carpets; the walls were covered with white tiles, which I suppose he had got from India; yet his house, without, was a very common one, distinguished only from the rest in the village by its size.