The 17th, in the evening, we sailed from Djezan; in the night we passed several small villages called _Dueime_, which I found to be in lat. 16° 12´ 5´´ north. In the morning, being three miles distant from the shore, we passed Cape Cosserah, which forms the north side of a large Gulf. The mountains here are at no great distance, but they are not high. The whole country seems perfectly bare and desert, without inhabitants. It is reported to be the most unwholesome part of Arabia Felix. On the 18th, at seven in the morning, we first discovered the mountains, under which lies the town of Loheia. These mountains bore north north-east of us, when anchored in three-fathom water, about five miles from the shore. The bay is so shallow, and the tide being at ebb, we could get no nearer; the town bore east north-east of us. Loheia is built upon the south-west side of a peninsula, surrounded every where, but on the east, by the sea. In the middle of this neck there is a small mountain which serves for a fortress, and there are towers with cannon, which reach across on each side of the hill to the shore. Beyond this is a plain, where the Arabs intending to attack the town, generally assemble. The ground upon which Loheia stands is black earth, and seems to have been formed by the retiring of the sea. At Loheia we had a very uneasy sensation, a kind of prickling came into our legs, which were bare, occasioned by the salt effluvia, or steams, from the earth, which all about the town, and further to the south, is strongly impregnated with that mineral. Fish, and butcher meat, and indeed all sorts of provision, are plentiful and reasonable at Loheia, but the water is bad. It is found in the sand at the foot of the mountains, down the sides of which it has fallen in the time of the rain, and is brought to the town in skins upon camels. There is also plenty of fruit brought from the mountains by the Bedowé, who live in the skirts of the town, and supply it with milk, firewood, and fruit, chiefly grapes and bananas. The government of the Imam is much more gentle than any Moorish government in Arabia or Africa; the people too are of gentler manners, the men, from early ages, being accustomed to trade. The women at Loheia are as solicitous to please as those of the most polished nations in Europe; and, though very retired, whether married or unmarried, they are not less careful of their dress and persons. At home they wear nothing but a long shift of fine cotton-cloth, suitable to their quality. They dye their feet and hands with [200]henna, not only for ornament, but as an astringent, to keep them dry from sweat: they wear their own hair, which is plaited, and falls in long tails behind.