The India trade flourished exceedingly at Suakem and Masuah, as it had done in the prosperous time of the Caliphs. The Banians, (then the only traders from the East Indies) being prohibited by the Mahometans to enter the Holy Land of the Hejaz, carried all their vessels to Konfodah in Yemen, and from these two ports had, in return, at the first hand, pearls, tortoise-shell, which sold for its weight of gold, in China; Tibbar, or pure gold of Sennaar, (that from Abyssinia being less so) elephant’s teeth, rhinoceros horns for turning, plenty of gum Arabic, cassia, myrrh, frankincense, and many other precious articles; these were all bartered, at Masuah and Suakem, for India goods. But nothing which violence and injustice can ruin, ever can subsist under Turkish government. The Bashas paying dearly for their confirmation at Constantinople, and uncertain if they should hold this office long enough to make reimbursements for the money they had already advanced, had not patience to stay till the course of trade gradually indemnified them, but proceeding from extortion to extortion, they at last became downright robbers, seizing the cargo of the ships wherever they could find them, and exercising the most shocking cruelties on the person they belonged to, slaying the factors alive, and impaling those that remained in their hands, to obtain, by terror, remittances from India. The trade was thus abandoned, and the revenue ceased. There were no bidders at Constantinople for the farm, nobody had trade in their heads when their lives were every hour in danger. Dahalac became therefore dependent on the Basha of Jidda, and he appointed an[208] Aga, who paid him a moderate sum, and appropriated to himself the provisions and salary allowed for the pearl fishery, or the greatest part of them. The Aga at Suakem endeavoured, in vain, to make the Arabs and people near him work without salary, so they abandoned an employment which produced nothing but punishment; and, in time, they grew ignorant of the fishery in which they once were so well skilled and had been educated. This great nursery of seamen therefore was lost, and the gallies, being no longer properly manned, were either given up to rot, or turned into merchant-ships for carrying the coffee between Yemen and Suez, these vessels were unarmed, and indeed incapable of armament, and unserviceable by their construction; besides, they were ill-manned, and so carelessly and ignorantly navigated, that there was not a year, that one or more did not founder, not from stress of weather, (for they were sailing in a pond) or from any thing, but ignorance, or inattention.