Jump to content

Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/357

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
MOCHA.
349

with the one which I had always used in the country; and his joy on the occasion was expressed with an enthusiasm which no words can describe. The interest I felt for this young man, on account of his amiable character, will make me always remember him with pleasure: and it is satisfactory to me to reflect that I had an opportunity of strengthening the principles of virtue in his mind, and of promoting his future prospects with the Ras.

On the 6th we touched at Dahalac el Kibeer, where I renewed my acquaintance with the Sheik commanding that place; on the 8th we passed Sarbo, Morah, and Amphila: and, on the 10th, after experiencing regular land and sea breezes along the coast, stretched over to Mocha; where we safely arrived, and shortly afterwards took up our residence at the British factory.

During my stay at Massowa, in March, I had been induced to entertain the idea, that some remains of the ancient city of Adule, mentioned by Pliny, Cosmas, and other writers, might be found at the bottom of Annesley Bay, in the neighbourhood of the modern town of Zulla. I had been led to this conjecture from the relative situation of the bay with the Island of Valentia, (which is undoubtedly the ancient Orine, noticed in the Periplus;) from the resemblance of "Zulla" (or as it is sometimes pronounced "Thulla") to the ancient name; and from the fact of a column, evidently of Egyptian workmanship, and lying at the landing place opposite Massowa, having been brought, according to the accounts of the natives, "from somewhere near the bottom of Annesley Bay." Hadjee Hamed, who had attended me down from Dixan, had also mentioned, in answer to my enquiries, that "he had heard of an ancient town near Zulla, where considerable ruins still remained of houses, tanks, and columns;" but his accounts were mingled with so marry fables of gold and treasures having been concealed there, that they could not be much relied upon for their accuracy. On my return to Massowa, in May, I met again with Shum Hummar, from whom I unexpectedly gained a more satisfactory account. He told me, "that great remains of an old town could still be traced near Zulla, which had been called 'Azoole;' that the houses appear-