Page 396 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

XVIII.] BEKJ5EKA.

similar manner, they have enjoyed silently
and unnoticed the enormous profits of its
trade during several years. In exchange for
the various commodities furnished by Africa,
the Banians supply iron, lead, cotton cloth, rice,
and Dhurrah so that all commercial trans­
actions between the two parties are confined ■■■
to barter; money during these bargains being
never required or thought of. Among the Su-
malis, with the exception of some of their
chiefs, few appear to possess a single dollar,
the coin most current in Africa; nevertheless,
the eagerness they evinced to part with even n

their arms, their most valuable possessions,
in exchange for some of these coins, showed
them by no means insensible to their value.
Whenever reproached with their treacherous
conduct towards the English brig, they ap­
B
peared anxious to rid themselves of the
odium of that transaction, and in many in­
stances did not scruple to charge the Banians
with having instigated them to the act. Cer­
tain it is, the plot could never have been or­
ganized, or carried into execution, without
their privacy; and since they furnished no

* Sorghum vulgari.
VOL. II.. 2 B