-adding on more than
one occasion--"if the Turks or any other people should come and take
away the whole country by strength from me, the blame will not rest
on my shoulders."

On the 27th, however, Sultan Hamed, the eldest son and heir-apparent
of Sultan Mahassan, arrived at Aden from Lahedj, accompanied by a
_synd_ or descendant of the prophet, named Hussein, who was
represented as having come as a witness to the transaction; and
Captain Haines was invited on shore to meet them. While he was
preparing, however, to repair to the place of meeting, he received a
private intimation through the merchant already mentioned,
Reshid-Ebn-Abdallih, to the effect that the Arab chiefs had
determined on seizing his person at the interview, in order to
possess themselves of the papers connected with the proposed
transfer of Aden, (to which Sultan Hamed had from the first been
strongly opposed,) and in particular of the bond for 4191 dollars
which had been given in satisfaction for the balance of the goods in
the Derya-Dowlut. How far this imputed treachery was really meditated,
there can be, of course, no means of precisely ascertaining; and the
minute of the governor of Bombay (_Correspondence_, No. 49,) seems
to consider it doubtful; [45] but Captain Haines acted as if fully
convinced of the correctness of the intelligence which he had
received; and after reproaching Sultan Hamed with his intended
perfidy, returned first to Mokha, and afterwards (in February) to
Bombay, carrying with him the letter in which the old Sultan was
alleged to have given his consent to the cession, but leaving the
recovered goods at Aden in charge of a Banyan--a tolerably strong
proof, by the way, that the Sultan, notwithstanding the bad faith
laid to his charge, was not considered likely to appropriate them
afresh.

[Footnote 45: "I am not, however, disposed to treat the matter as
one of much importance. We have no knowledge of it but from report,
and all concerned in it will solemnly deny the truth of the
information."]

The unsuccessful issue of this mission pretty clearly proved, that
notwithstanding the dread of the British power entertained by the
Abdalli chiefs, their reluctance to part with their town would not
be easily overcome by peaceable means: while the Governor-general
(then busily engaged at Simla in forwarding the preparations for the
ill-fated invasion of Affghanistan) still declined, in despite of a
renewed application from Bomba