joins the wall, at the foot of which is a spacious yard,
where a great number of people, mostly women and children, are kept as
pledges, to prevent their husbands, parents, and relations from
rebelling. The boys while young run about loose in the yard, but when
they come to any size, they are put in irons, and confined in a strong
tower. The women and children dwell in little huts in the yard built on
purpose, the children going mostly naked, unless when the weather is
very cold, and then they have sheep-skin coats.

[Footnote 332: This is a most improper mode of description, as it is now
impossible to say what size Bristol was then.--E.]

The first night of our journey we arrived at _Siam_, a small town, with
a cattle, on the side of a hill, sixteen miles from Zenan, the country
about being very barren. The 19th we came to _Surage_, a small village
eighteen miles from Siam, in a very barren country. The people are very
poor, and go almost naked, except a cloth round their middles reaching
to their knees. The 20th, _Damare_, or _Dhamar_, a town built of stone
and lime, but in five separate parts, like so many distinct villages. It
stands in a spacious plain or valley, abounding in water, and producing
plenty of grain and other provisions. This town is twenty miles from
Surage, and we remained here two days by order of Abdallah Chelabi, the
Kiabys, who was governor of this province. The 22d we came to _Ermin_, a
small village, about fifteen miles. The 23d, _Nakhil Sammar_, a common
inn for travellers, called _Sensors_ by the Turks. There are many of
these sensors between Mokha and Zenan, being built at the cost of the
grand signior for the relief of travellers. This sensor stands in the
middle of a very steep hill, called Nakhil Sammar, on the top of which
is a great castle, in which the governor of the province resides, who is
an Arabian; these craggy mountainous countries being mostly governed by
Arabians, as the inhabitants of the mountains cannot brook the proud and
insolent government of the Turks. No Turk may pass this way, either to
or from Zenan, without a passport from the governor of the province from
which they come. This sensor is about fourteen miles from Ermin.

The 24th we came to _Mohader_, a small village at the foot of the great
hill, thirteen miles from Nakhil Sammar. Our chiaus had a warrant from
the pacha to take up asses for our men, and accordingly did so at this
place over night; but next morning