Page 96 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

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96 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST
a
legitimate prey ; but Makarrab Khan was almost a gentle­
man compared with he who sat at the receipt of custom at I
Aden. Rejib Aga, to give him his official name, was one of
a low class of European renegades who were not uncom­ f
monly met with at this period in Asia in positions of 4
authority to which they had wormed their way by devious
methods. Jourdain’s account of him is that he was of
Greek nationality and “ was originally a servile slave of the
pasha of Sania,” whose favour he had won because he had
shown himself “ a beneficiall knave.”
r
Towards the Englishmen Rejib Aga at the outset adopted t
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an attitude of ostentatious friendliness. He welcomed
Sharpeigh “ with tabour and pipe and other heathen music,”
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:■ invested him with a robe of honour, and conducted him
personally to “a fine house ” which he had had specially
prepared for his accommodation. His effusiveness was
;! part of a deep-laid plot to get both ships and their cargo
into his power. His real intentions were revealed when
Sharpeigh, after he had had his fill of honours, essayed to
return to his ship. It was then made clear that the English
commander and the men with him were practically prisoners
until Rejib Aga had had time to communicate with the
!
pasha at Sana, near Mocha. After ineffectual protests
Sharpeigh resigned himself to his fate, but the astute Greek,
though he had the English commander in his power, gained
nothing by his treachery.
Sharpeigh’s colleagues on the ships, alarmed at the turn
of events, resolutely declined either to leave their safe
anchorage in the harbour for a position nearer the shore,
where they would be commanded by the guns of the fortress,
or to land their cargo. They even managed to turn the
tables on their wily foe by enticing on board some leading

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