te 417: As the adventures with Sir Henry Middleton have been
already narrated with sufficient amplitude, these are here only slightly
mentioned, to avoid prolixity and unnecessary repetition.--E.]

My proposals being agreed to, I went aboard the Trades-increase, where I
agreed with Sir Henry that our two fleets should unite in trading with
as many of the India ships as we could intercept, making exchange of our
English commodities for such as they had suitable for us; Sir Henry to
dispose of two-thirds of all the goods that should be bartered from this
day forwards, and I to have the other third, paying, however, the
customs to the Grand Signior. Accordingly, the Hector and Thomas were
directed to ply between the north end of the island of Bab-al-Mondub and
the Habesh shore, to intercept all ships that came that way, but with
strict charges that no one should take from them the value of a penny,
or offer them the slightest violence or injury.

The 18th I set sail for Mokha, where we arrived in five hours. The 20th
the governor desired a list of our commodities, which Mr Cockes carried
him. He picked several colours of our broad-cloth, promising to purchase
to the extent of 1000 dollars, besides some quantity of lead and tin.
Many others desired to have lead and iron, wherefore the governor
requested some quantity might be brought ashore next morning, saying,
that when he once began to trade with us, the merchants would certainly
follow. He sent three samples of indigo, but none of the Lahore kind,
which is round, and the best. The price asked was 100 dollars the
_churle_, or 127 _rotulas_ of Mokha, or about 150 pounds English. This
price was quite unreasonable, as we estimated the three sorts to be only
worth respectively thirty, forty, and forty-five dollars the _churle_.
The 21st, we sent ashore eight pieces of cloth, one ton of iron, a ton
of lead, and two chests of tin, of six cwt. For four of the best cloths
they offered one and a half dollar the _pike_, which ought to be
twenty-seven inches, but proposed to measure by a pike of thirty-one
inches. They likewise offered 120 dollars for the _bahar_ of tin, twelve
for the bahar of iron, and fifteen for the lead, prices which we could
not accept, and therefore our merchants returned aboard with their
commodities at night.

The 25th we went for Assab, where, on the 27th, we found the
Trades-increase and the Hector, with eleven sail of junks, or India
ships, from vario