, nor had he money to pay for them." The Sultan,
however, still refused to allow him to leave Aden till he had given
him written acquittance of all claims on account of the ship; a document
was accordingly signed, as he says, under compulsion, to the effect that
he made no claim against the Sultan, but with a full reservation of his
claim for redress from the supercargo, who had wrecked the ship and
embezzled the goods saved from her. The agent and several of the crew,
after undergoing great hardships, at last reached Mokha, and laid their
complaint before the commanders of the Company's cruisers Coote and
Palinurus. The latter vessel, under the command of Captain Haines,
immediately repaired to Aden to demand redress for the injuries thus
inflicted on English subjects, while a formal report of the case was made
to the Government at Bombay. The Sultan at first attempted to deny that
he possessed any of the goods in question, and afterwards alleged
that they had been given to him voluntarily by the supercargo; but
finding all his subterfuges unavailing, he at length gave up
merchandize and stores to the amount of nearly 8000 dollars, besides
a bond at a year's date for 4191 dollars more, in satisfaction for
the goods which had been previously sold or made away with, as well
as for the insults offered to the passengers.

[Footnote 41: This person, Syud Nooradeen, had been captain of the
vessel at the outset of the voyage; but had been deposed from the
responsible command by an order purporting to come from the merchant
who had freighted the ship, but which is now said to have been forged
by the supercargo.]

Here, in ordinary cases, the matter might have rested; for though
the conduct of this Arab chief would certainly have been
indefensible in a civilized country, the worst charge that can be
considered as fairly proved against him is that of being a receiver
of stolen goods, as the price of his connivance at the appropriation
of the rest by the supercargo--since with the wreck of the ship,
whether premeditated or not, he had certainly nothing to do--and the
outrages committed by the wild Bedoweens on the beach can scarcely be
laid to his charge. A far more atrocious insult to the British flag in
1826, when a brig from the Mauritius had been piratically seized at
Berbera, (a port on the African coast, just outside the Straits of
Bab-el-Mandeb,) and part of her crew murdered, had been expiated by
the submission of the o