and targets.  Sir Henry and I went ashore, taking with us a guard of 100 men, shot and pikes, to prevent treachery, lest the Turks might have planned any trick through his means, under cover of courtesy, and we were loth to let him go back without an interview, lest we might lose his friendship, and the refreshments we procured at the port of Assab, which is in his dominions.  We gave him several presents, and, at his particular entreaty, gave him his fill of aquavitae, so that he could hardly stand.  These people are Mahometans, being black and hard-favoured, with crisp hair.  The king presented us with five bullocks, and promised every assistance in his power.

This day I got a note of the prices of commodities, as lately bought and sold at Surat, of the following tenor:—­Broad-cloth of twenty pounds each piece, of several colours, twenty mahmudies the conido, of thirty-five inches; five mahmudies being equal to one rial of eight, or Spanish dollar.  Kersies, eighty-four mahmudies the piece, being less than ours cost in England.  Lead; the great maund, of thirty-three pounds, seven one-third mahmudies.  Tin, the small maund, of twenty-five pounds, five and a half dollars.  At Dabul, iron sold for twenty-one dollars the bahar, of 360 pounds.  Damasked pieces,[418] from twelve to eighteen dollars each.  Elephants teeth, sixty-five mahmudies the great maund, of thirty-three pounds.  Indigo cirkesa,[419] three sorts, the best at fourteen rupees, each worth half a dollar; the second sort, twelve rupees, and the third, eight rupees for the great maund, of thirty-three pounds.  Three sorts of Lahore indigo, being the best of all, the best, thirty-six, the second, thirty, and the third, twenty-four rupees for a maund weighing fifty-five pounds.  Charges of bringing it to the water-side, ten in the 100 for the cirkesa, and twenty in the 100 custom for the lahore indigo.

[Footnote 418:  Perhaps these were damasked gun-barrels.—­E.]

[Footnote 419:  Cirkesa, by others named Serkes and Sherkes, is a village near Ahmedabab, the capital of Cambaya, or Guzerat, where indigo is made.—­Astl. 466. d.]

The 23d May, the Thomas, having forty-nine men all in health, set sail for Socotora for aloes, and to go thence for Priaman and Tekoo in Sumatra, for pepper.  The 8th August the Hector sailed for Priaman and Tekoo, having eighty-eight Englishmen aboard in perfect health, the monsoon being now favourable.  The 10th and 11th all reckonings were cleared between us and the junks Hassani, Caderi, Mahmudi, Rehemi, and Salameti.  Our whole cargo, including commodities and dollars, bartered for at this place, did not exceed 46,174 dollars.  The two following acquittances on this occasion will enable the reader the better to understand the nature of the dealings at this place, in this forced trade with the India ships.[420]

[Footnote 420:  These appear to have been translated by or for Purchas, the former from Arabic, and the latter from Malabar, as the one has a subscription and seal in Arabic, and the other a subscription in some Indian character, yet considerably different from that formerly inserted in Purchas under the name of Banian.—­E.]