t abounds in
every street, and more particularly in the open spaces which are left
within the walls, by the gradual decay of the deserted habitations which
once filled them. The principal building in the town is the residence of
the dola, which is large and lofty, having one front to the sea, and
another to a square. Another side of the square, which is the only regular
place in the town, is filled up by the official residence of the _bas
kateb_, or secretary of state, and an extensive serai, built by the
Turkish pacha during the time that Mocha was tributary to the Grand
Seignior. These buildings externally have no pretensions to architectural
elegance, yet are by no means ugly objects, from their turretted tops, and
fantastic ornaments in white stucco. The windows are in general small,
stuck into the wall in an irregular manner, closed with lattices, and
sometimes opening into a wooden, carved-work balcony. In the upper
apartments, there is generally a range of circular windows above the
others, filled with thin strata of a transparent stone, which is found in
veins in a mountain near Sanaa. None of these can be opened, and only a
few of the lower ones, in consequence of which, a thorough air is rare in
their houses; yet the people of rank do not seem oppressed by the heat,
which is frequently almost insupportable to a European.

"The best houses are all facing the sea, and chiefly to the north of the
sea gate. The British factory is a large and lofty building, but has most
of the inconveniences of an Arab house.

"The town of Mocha is surrounded by a wall, which towards the sea is not
above sixteen feet high, though on the land side it may, in some places,
be thirty. In every part it is too thin to resist a cannon-ball, and the
batteries along shore are unable to bear the shock of firing the cannon
that are upon them.

"The climate of Mocha is extremely sultry,[2] owing to its vicinity to the
arid sands of Africa, over which the S.E. wind blows for so long a
continuance, as not to be cooled in its short passage over the sea below
the Straits Babel Mandel.

[2] From 90 to 95 deg. Fahr in July.

"Mocha, according to some learned natives, was not in existence four
hundred years ago; from which period we know nothing of it, till the
discoveries and conquests of the Portuguese in India opened the Red Sea to
the natives of Europe."

Mrs. Lushington, in her interesting _Journey from Calcutta to Europe_,
says, "th