quiet road-stead on the other side with all your
ships, till God send us that long-wished-for westerly wind, unless you
get a _slatch_ of wind to carry one of your ships to the _bab_, to see
if all be well there, and so return back to you. I know that all sorts
of provisions waste apace in the ships; which, God sending me aboard, I
hope quickly to renew.

The 27th March I sent over the Darling to Mokha, at the general's
request, and she returned on the 6th April to Assab road, to deliver the
victuals and other provisions, which had so long been detained by the
Turks, and brought me a very kind letter from the general. The 21st, the
King of _Rahayta_ sent me a present of a fat cow and a slave, by a
kinsman of his, who staid all night in the Trades-increase. At various
times the Budwees[359] brought us abundant supplies of bullocks, goats,
and sheep, which they sold to us for cloth, preferring that to money:
But by the beginning of May, our cloth fit for their use being all gone,
we could only purchase with money, after which our supply became scanty.
The 11th May, our general happily effected his escape from Mokha aboard
the Darling, with fifteen more of his people.[360]

[Footnote 359: Badwis, or Bedouins; the nomadic Mahometan tribes on the
African coast of the Red Sea, are here meant--E.]

[Footnote 360: The narrative of Sir Henry Middleton in the preceding
section, giving a sufficiently ample account of the incidents in the
voyage, till the return of the ships to Mokha, it has not been thought
necessary to continue the relation of Downton so far as regards the
intermediate transactions, for which we refer to the account of the
voyage already given by Sir Henry Middleton. But as his narrative breaks
off abruptly soon after the return to the Red Sea, we resume that of
Downton in the subsequent subdivisions.--E.]

Sec. 3. _Account of Proceedings in the Red Sea on the second Visit._

The 1st April, 1612, on our return from India toward the Red Sea, we
were by estimation eighteen leagues short of Aden. It was now ordered by
the general, that I was to remain before or near the town of Aden, to
enforce any Indian ships that should arrive there to proceed into the
Red Sea, for which I received a commission, or written instructions,
from the general, who was with all expedition to proceed with the
Trades-increase to the _bab_, or gate of the Red Sea, both for the
safety of the company's ship, of which we had intelligence