We, therefore, set about procuring effective letters, letters of business and engagement, between man and man; and we all endeavoured to make Metical Aga a very good man, but no great head-piece, comprehend this perfectly. My letters from Ali Bey opened the affair to him, and first commanded his attention. A very handsome present of pistols, which I brought him, inclined him in my favour, because, as I was bearer of letters from his superior, I might have declined bestowing any present upon him.
The English gentlemen joined their influence, powerful enough, to have accomplished a much greater end, as everyone of these have separate friends for their own affairs, and all of them were desirous to befriend me. Added to these was a friend of mine, whom I had known at Aleppo, Ali Zimzimiah, _i. e._ ‘keeper of the holy well at Mecca,’ a post of great dignity and honour. This man was a mathematician, and an astronomer, according to their degree of knowledge in that science.
All the letters were written in a style such as I could have desired, but this did not suffice in the mind of a very friendly and worthy man, who had taken an attachment to me since my first arrival. This was Captain Thomas Price, of the Lion of Bombay. He first proposed to Metical Aga, to send a man of his own with me, together with the letters, and I do firmly believe, under Providence, it was to this last measure I owed my life. With this Captain Thornhill heartily concurred, and an Abyssinian, called Mahomet Gibberti, was appointed to go with particular letters besides those I carried myself, and to be an eye-witness of my reception there.
There was some time necessary for this man to make ready, and a considerable part of the Arabian Gulf still remained for me to explore. I prepared, therefore, to set out from Jidda, after having made a considerable stay in it.
Of all the new things I yet had seen, what most astonished me was the manner in which trade was carried on at this place. Nine ships were there from India; some of them worth, I suppose, L. 200,000. One merchant, a Turk, living at Mecca, thirty hours journey off, where no Christian dares go, whilst the whole Continent is open to the Turk for escape, offers to purchase the cargoes of four out of nine of these ships himself; another, of the same cast, comes and says, he will buy none, unless he has them all. The samples are shewn, and the cargoes of the whole nine ships are carried into the wildest part of Arabia, by men with whom one would not wish to trust himself alone in the field. This is not all, two India brokers come into the room to settle the price. One on the part of the India captain, the other on that of the buyer the Turk. They are neither Mahometans nor Christians, but have credit with both. They sit down on the carpet, and take an India shawl, which they carry on their shoulder, like a napkin, and spread it over their hands. They talk, in the mean time, indifferent conversation, of the arrival of ships from India, or of the news of the day, as if they were employed in no serious business whatever. After about twenty minutes spent in handling each others fingers below the shawl, the bargain is concluded, say for nine ships, without one word ever having been spoken on the subject, or pen or ink used in any shape whatever. There never was one instance of a dispute happening in _these sales_.