within the walls,
through the security which they offer against native oppression. In the
short space of three years, the population has risen to twenty thousand
souls. Substantial dwellings are rising up in every quarter, and at all
the adjacent ports hundreds of native merchants are only waiting the
erection of permanent fortifications, in token of our intending to remain,
to flock under the guns with their families and wealth. The opinion of
this intelligent writer is, that Aden, as a free port, whilst she pours
wealth into a now impoverished land, must erelong become the queen of the
adjacent seas, and rank amongst the most useful dependencies of the
British crown.

The mission having remained some time at Aden, to purchase horses and
stores, sailed on the 15th May; and, on losing sight of Aden, the members
of the mission characteristically took the "Pilgrims' vow" not to shave
until their return. On the 17th they opened the town of Tajura, on the
verge of a broad expanse of blue water, over which a gossamerlike fleet of
fishing catamarans already plied their craft. Their pilot, an old Arab,
was a man of fun, and the specimens of his tongue are good. In some
reference to the anchorage, he said, "Now if we only had two-fathom Ali
here, you would not have all these difficulties. When they want to lay out
an anchor, they have nothing to do but to hand it over to Ali, and he
walks away with it into six or eight feet without any ado. I went once
upon a time in the dark to grope for a berth on board of his buggalow, and,
stumbling over some one's toes, enquired to whom they belonged. 'To Ali,'
was the reply. 'And whose knees are these?' said I, after walking half
across the deck. 'Ali's.' 'And this head in the scuppers, pray whose is
it?' 'Ali's; what do you want with it?' 'Ali again!' I exclaimed; 'then I
must even look for stowage elsewhere.'"

The sight of a shark in the harbour let loose the old jester again. "A
friend of mine," said he, "pilot of a vessel almost as fast a sailer as my
own, which is acknowledged to be the best in these seas, was bound to
Mocha with camels on board. When off the high table-land betwixt the Bay
of Tajura and the Red Sea, one of the beasts dying, was hove overboard. Up
came a shark ten times the size of that fellow there, and swallowed the
camel, leaving only his hinder legs sticking out of his jaws; but before
he had time to think where he was to find stowage for it, up came another
t