to be under the protection of the British flag, and the sole controul of the British Resident. It has been disputed by the Mocha Government, whether Indian vessels, under the British flag, are entitled to these privileges. Indians, as well as other foreigners, paid formerly 5 per cent. on the sale amount of goods. The English now pay to the Government 3 per cent., besides brokage and shroffage. The Moors pay nominally 7, but sometimes, 15 per cent.

Previous to the treaty above mentioned, (15th January, 1821), the following were the port charges paid to the Government on the arrival of a three-mast vessel :

The above amount to 384 Mocha Dollars, one half of which is paid by two-mast vessels.

Disbursements, Port Charges, &c. paid on Account of a Brig before she went up to Judda, and on her Return from thence.

The Governor's music, as customary..............Mocha Dollars 11 46
The country boats from the Government..

The Governor's servants..........

The customary presents on the Brig's arrival, half what is

3 3

paid on 3-mast vessels, as per foregoing account.......... 192 Ditto on the vessel's departure, as customary, as per following

account......

Bringing up the long-boat which had fallen to leeward..........
A Government boat for bringing goods on shore...........
Hamallage on ditto, as customary.......

Charges at waiting on the Governor.....

0

52

0

1 17

....

48 48

An Arab writer for writing two letters to Judda...

Two shawls claimed by the Banians, as customary...

Forming a total of Mocha Dollars 366 35

Particulars of Port Charges, &c. on Two and Three-Mast Vessels at their
departure from Mocha.

To the writers at the custom-house..............Spanish Dollars 32

Captain Elmore says, if you do not make any sale at Mocha, you do not pay any port charges; but if you sell any thing, even one bag of rice, you become liable to pay the whole, as if you had sold the entire cargo; but if your sales are likely to be but trifling, settle with your broker, and be very clear and positive with him not to pay any port charges, nor presents to the Xeriff; or else you must put what cargo you sell on board some ship in the roads, who is landing goods, and have them sent on shore as his cargo.

If bound to Judda, you should procure a pilot here, agreeing with him for the run; which will be from 50 to 100 Mocha dollars for the trip there and back, besides a suit of clothes at Judda.

List of sundry Presents made to the Governor of Mocha and his Officers, for Permission to go on Shore, with the additional Duties for Anchorage paid to him and his Attendants.

For permission to come on shore...................Mocha Dollars 11

Expence of watering.........

Permission to sail.......

46

29 0

82 49

ANCHORAGE.

In delivery of rice, out of every tomand of rice, you give, as is customary, half a measure to the Governor; and for every 12 tomands, to the different coolies, 1 measure: besides this exorbitant demand, the Governor takes from the merchant who buys the rice, 5 measures out of every tomand for himself, and 2 measures for the coolies.

PROVISIONS AND REFRESHMENTS are plentiful and good, as well as extremely reasonable:-a fat sheep, or a milch goat and kid, for a dollar; 12 fowls for the same; beef, 11d. per lb. Fish, of many kinds, are cheap and excellent. New cheese and fresh butter are daily brought to market from a place called Musa, about 20 miles inland. In summer there is plenty of various fruits, all of which are reasonable. Good water is scarce; that from the town wells is brackish, and disagrees with strangers; that brought from Musa is at all times indifferent,

COINS. The monies coined in the country are commassees and carats, seven of the latter being equal to one of the former. The commassees contain but little silver; they are used for small payments, but they rise and fall in value; sometimes 80, and occasionally only 40 pass for a dollar.

Accounts are kept in piastres, or Mocha dollars, consisting of 80 cavears current. The piastre is an imaginary money; 121 being equal to 100 Spanish dollars, in which payments are mostly made. The piastre is thus worth nearly 3s. 8d.: other coins pass according to weight and fineness. The Venetian sequin commonly passes for two piastres, 25 cavears.

Cotton is sold by the haraff, an imaginary money, value I piastre, 22 cavears: thus 9 haraffs are equal to 11 Mocha piastres of account, as at Beetlefackie. A tomand is equal to 80 larins, each worth 80 carats. WEIGHTS.-The small weights, by which gold and silver are weighed, consist of the following:

The large or Custom-house weights are these:—

In Coffee 14 vakias are reckoned equal to a rattle, two rattles to a maund, and 10 maunds, or 290 vakias, to a frazil. The rattle is only a bazar weight.

Some difference exists in the reports of the Bahar's weight, which is variously represented, as 4374 lbs. 445 lbs. and 450 lbs. The weights at the Custom House are generally found to be heavier by two or three pounds than the regular weights; and in the interior the difference is still greater.

MEASURES.-The tomand, or teman, dry measure, contains 40 mec

medas, or kellas, and weighs, of rice, 168 lbs. avoirdupois.

The cuddy, or gudda, liquid measure, contains about two English gallons, and weighs 18lbs. It is divided into eight noosfias, each subdivided into 16 vakias, as at Beetlefakie.

The long measures are the cobido, or covid, of 19 inches, and the guz, of 25. The baryd is four farsakh, or 12 miles.

ARTICLES TO BE PROCURED AT MOCHA, WITH DIRECTIONS.

ACACIA, the inspissated juice of a thorny plant, growing in Arabia, and other parts:-two sorts are known, Vera and Germanica. The former is a gummy substance, usually firm, but not very dry. It is met with in round masses, enclosed in thin bladders, from four to eight ounces weight; outwardly a deep brown, inclining to black; of a lighter brown within, inclining to red or yellow. The Germanica is a juice expressed from the unripe fruit of the sloe bush, and differs from the preceding, in being harder, heavier, darker, sharper in taste, yielding its astringency to rectified spirit; whereas the other is not at all dissoluble by spirit. The Vera should have little or no smell; applied to the tongue, it should soften quickly, imparting a rough, not very ungrateful taste, followed by a sweetness. If quite pure, it dissolves totally in water; if otherwise, the impurities remain.

ACORUS, OR CALAMUS AROMATICUS, (Bach, Hind. Vacha, S an.) is a reed, or knotty root, about the size of a little finger, several inches long, reddish externally, internally white, full of joints, somewhat flatted on the side, of a loose spongy texture; smell strong, taste warm, bitterish, and aromatic. They should be chosen tough, cleared from fibres, and free from worms, to which it is very subject.

ASPHALTUM is a solid shining bitumen, of a dusky colour outside; within of a deep black, found in many parts of Egypt. A thin piece appears of a reddish colour, when placed between the eye and the light. It has no smell when cold, but acquires a slight one by friction; when exposed to heat, it liquifies, swells up, and burns with a thick smoke, the smell of which is strong, acrid, and disagreeable. It is occasionally adulterated with pitch; but the fraud may be discovered by means of spirits of wine, which dissolve the pitch, and only take a pale colour with Asphaltum.

BALM OF GILEAD, or Balsam of Mecca, is a resinous juice that distils from an evergreen tree, or shrub, growing between Mecca and Medina; it is much used by the Asiatic ladies as a cosmetic. The tree is scarce; the best sort is said to exude naturally, but the inferior kinds are extracted from the branches by boiling. It is at first turbid and white, of a strong pungent smell, a bitter and acrid taste; upon being kept some time, it becomes thin, limpid, of a greenish hue, then of a golden yellow, and at length of the colour of honey. This article, being scarce and valuable, is very liable to adulteration. The following methods are recommended to discover imposition:-Cause a drop or two of the liquid balsam to fall into a glass of clear water; if the drop go to the bottom without rising again to the surface, or if it continue in a

drop like oil, the balsam is adulterated. If, on the contrary, it spreads upon the surface of the water, like a very thin cobweb, scarcely visible to the eye, and being congealed, may be taken up with a pin or small straw, the balsam is pure and natural. Or if the pure balsam be dropped on woollen, it will wash out; but if adulterated, it will not. The genuine, dropped into milk, coagulates it. When a drop of the pure balsam is let fall on red hot iron, it gathers itself into a globule; but oil or spurious balsam runs, and sheds itself all round. The genuine balsam also feels viscid and adhesive to the fingers. If sophisticated with wax, it is discovered by the turbid colour, never to be clarified; if with honey, the sweet taste betrays it; if with resins, by dropping it on live coals, it yields a blacker flame, and of a grosser substance than the genuine. When the balsam is too thick to be taken out of the bottle, it need only be placed near the fire, the smallest degree of heat liquifying it. The bottles must not be quite full, lest they should break, as the balsam is apt to rarify.

Amyris Opa-Balsamum is the name of the tree whence the balsam issues; Opa-Balsamum is the name of the juice or balsam; Carpo-Balsamum, the fruit; and Xylo-Balsamum, the wood: these are all useful.

CARPO BALSAMUM should be chosen fresh, plump, ponderous, of a hot biting taste, smell in some degree like the balsam. Hypericum is sometimes mixed with it, which may be discovered by its excess in size, vacuity, want of virtue, and peppery taste. The berries are about the size of a small pea, sharp at the end, brown, with a small stalk. Reject such as are broken, decayed, and worm-eaten.

XYLO-BALSAMUM should be chosen in small knotty rods, the rind red, the wood white, resinous, and having a scent somewhat like the balsam.

Freight is charged on Balm of Gilead at the rate of 16 Cwt. to the ton. CIVET.-This substance is soft, unctuous, and odoriferous, nearly the consistence of butter, produced by an animal called the Civet Cat. They are confined in cages, and when irritated, throw out the civet, which is carefully scraped off. It is brought from the Brazils, Guinea, and the interior of Africa; it is of a dark brown colour, unctuous, somewhat resembling Labdanum, of a very powerful smell, far from fragrant or agreeable. Its principal use is as a perfume, and when genuine, is worth from 30s. to 40s. per ounce. The best is said to come from the Brazils, of a lively whitish colour, which becomes dark by keeping. If paper is rubbed with civet, and it will bear writing on afterwards, it is considered genuine.

COFFEE. There is but one species of the coffee tree, the Coffea Arabica, supposed to be a native of Arabia; it seldom rises more than 16 or 18 feet in height: the main stem grows upright, and is covered with a