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 various parts.  On coming into the road, or harbour of Assab, it is proper to keep the northern shore aboard, leaving a little rock or hummock on the starboard side, when we have twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, and seven fathoms, on a sandy bottom.  We anchored in seven fathoms, about half a mile from the shore.  The 30th, the nakhadas, or Indian ship-masters, requested that such of their goods as we wanted might be sorted immediately, that they might not lose the monsoon for returning to India, offering to bring aboard our ships any packages we pleased, to be there examined, and to carry back what we refused.  The 9th May, I caused two large India ships to be measured, which were of the following scantlings:—­The Rhemi from stem to stern-port, was 153 feet long, her rake aft from the post being seventeen feet, the top of her sides in breadth forty-two, and her depth thirty-one feet.  The Mahamudi was 136 feet long, her rake aft twenty, her breadth forty-one, her depth twenty-nine and a half, and her main-yard 132 feet.

The 15th May, the king of Rahayta, a petty prince on the African coast of the Red Sea, came to Assab to visit Sir Henry and me, riding upon a cow.  He had a turban on his head, from which a piece of periwinkle shell hung down on his forehead instead of a jewel.  He was entirely naked, except a piece of painted cloth about his loins, and was attended by 150 men, armed with darts, bows and arrows, swords