s to have been considerably _taken
aback_ at this unexpected proposition, which, it should be observed,
was not put forward as part of the atonement required for the affair
of the Derya-Dowlut--as for this, (in the words of Captain Haines,)
"satisfaction has been given by you, and our friendship is as before."
A lengthened correspondence ensued, at the rate of a letter or two
daily, till the end of January--in which the Sultan, with all the
tortuous tact of an Asiatic, endeavoured, without expressly pledging
himself on the main point, to stipulate in the first instance for
assistance, in the shape of artillery and ammunition, against the
hostile tribes in the neighbourhood, and other advantages for
himself and his family, particularly for the retention of their
jurisdiction over the _Arab_ residents in Aden: and he at last
quitted Aden for Lahedj, without absolutely concluding any thing,
but having authorized a merchant of the former place, named
Reshid-Ebn-Abdallah, to act as his agent.

[Footnote 44: "The Government of India did not, indeed, in express
words authorize us to negotiate with the Sultan for a cession to us
of the post and harbour: but they desired us to obtain the occupation
of the port as a coal depot, and that of the harbour as a place of
shelter. These words far exceed the mere establishment of a coal depot
under the auspices of the Sultan, and in fact, could not in any
practical sense, or to any beneficial purpose, be fulfilled, except
by our obtaining the occupation of that port and harbour as a matter
not of sufferance but of right."--_Minute by the Governor of Bombay_,
No. 49.]

Still every thing appeared in a fair way for adjustment; the
principal difficulty remaining to be settled being the annual sum to
be paid as an equivalent for the port-dues of Aden. The Sultan's
commissioner at first rated this source of revenue at the exorbitant
sum of 50,000 dollars!--but it was at last agreed that it should be
commuted for a yearly stipend of 8708, a mode of payment preferred
by the Sultan to the receipt of a gross sum, lest the rapacity of
his neighbours should be excited against him by so sudden an
accession of wealth: while the amount thus fixed was believed even
to exceed the actual amount of the customs. The Sultan meanwhile,
though evading the formal execution of the deed of transfer,
constantly wrote from Lahedj that the English were at liberty to
begin building in Aden as soon as they pleased-