he last in
which he was engaged. The kingdom of Guzerat was, at that time, in
great confusion after the death of its king, Bahadur Shah, who had
been treacherously killed in an affray with the Portuguese in 1536;
and it would appear probable that the Turks, if they had succeeded
against Diu, meditated taking possession of the country.]

The domination of the Turks in Yemen did not continue much more than
sixty years after this latter epoch; the constant revolts of the
Arab tribes, and the feuds of the Turkish military chiefs, whose
distance from the seat of government placed them beyond the control
of the Porte, combined in rendering it an unprofitable possession.
The Indian trade, moreover, was permanently diverted to the route by
the Cape; and any political schemes which the Porte might at one time
have entertained in regard to India, had been extinguished by the
reunion, under the Mogul sway, of the various shattered sovereignties
of Hindostan. In 1633, [37] the Turkish troops were finally withdrawn
from the province, which then fell under the rule of the still existing
dynasty of the Imams of Sana, who claim descent from Mohammed. But the
ruins even now remaining of the fortifications and publick works
constructed in Aden by the Ottomans during their tenure of the place,
are on a scale which not only proves how fully they were aware of the
importance of the position, but gives a high idea of the energy with
which their resources were administered during the palmy days of their
power, when such vast labour and outlay were expended on the security
of an isolated stronghold at the furthest extremity of their empire.
The defences of the town, even in their present state, are the most
striking evidence now existing of the science and skill of the Turkish
engineers in former times; and, when they were entire, Aden must have
been another Gibraltar. "The lines taken for the works," says a late
observer, "evince great judgment, a good flanking fire being every
where obtained; no one place which could possibly admit of being
fortified has been omitted, and we could not do better than tread in
the steps of our predecessors. The profile is tremendous." A supply
of water (of which the peninsula had been wholly destitute) was
secured, not only by constructing numerous tanks within the walls,
and by boring numerous wells through the solid rock to a depth of
upwards of 200 feet, [38] but by carrying an aqueduct into the
town from