Page 91 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

CHAPTER VI

English Captives in Arabia
Sharpeigh conducts an expedition to Aden—Jourdain’s account of
the voyage—Description of Aden—Re jib Aga, tho Turkish
governor, detains Sharpeigh—Jourdain and Glasscock pro­
ceed overland to Mocha—Unsuccessful effort to trade—De­
parture of tho expedition—Sir Henry Middleton arrives at
Aden with a fleet—Proceeds to Mocha in the Trade's Increase—
Attacked and made prisoner

''TP'HE scene now changes from the fertile fields of Guzerat
JL and the picturesque environment of the Mogul
Court to the arid wastes of Aden and the Yemen. By
some strange aberration, the directors of the East India
Company at this early period gave directions to two of their
fleets in succession to establish trade relations with Aden
and with the Turkish fort of Mocha in the Red Sea. They
seem to have anticipated a profitable opening at these
centres for commerce, and to have been keenly desirous of
forming a permanent connexion with either or both places..
But there could hardly have been a more serious miscalcu­
lation. Aden had played a great part in ancient times as
an incomparable strategical position, and it was centuries
later again to figure prominently on the stage of the world’s
history. At the time of ^ which we are writing, however, it.
was a mere outpost of the feeble Ottoman power. It had.
been captured from the Portuguese a few years previously
and had been maintained largely on the dues from the pil-
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