Aden, in its history and reverses, presents the type of many a mighty
nation,--it flourished and has fallen. As it once stood, it was the
maritime bulwark of Arabia Felix. So early as the reign of Constantine
the Great, it was celebrated for its impregnable fortifications, its
extended traffic, and its attractive ports. Here the camels of the
Koreishites were laden with a precious cargo of aromatics. Here
commerce first dawned; and little more than two centuries and a half
have rolled away since the decayed city ranked among the most opulent
emporia of the East. Its decline is only dated from the close of the
illustrious reign of Suleiman the Magnificent; but the spider has since
"weaved her web in the imperial palace, and the owl has stood sentinel
upon the watch-tower."
In the eyes of the true believer, the Cape is hallowed by the tradition
that it was honoured with the preaching in person of that arch impostor,
"the last of all the prophets," who, with the sword in one hand and the
Koran in the other, became the lawgiver of the Arabians, and the founder
of an empire which in less than a century had spread itself from the
Pyrenees to the Indus. Three hundred and sixty mosques once reared
their proud heads, and eighty thousand inhabitants poured into the
field, an army which accomplished the subjugation of El Yemen. This
latter, famous from all antiquity for the happiness of its climate, its
fertility and surpassing riches, became an independent kingdom at the
period that Constantinople fell into the hands of Mahomet the Second.
Aden frequently cast off its allegiance; and when the Turks, by means of
their fleet built at Suez, rendered themselves masters of the northern
coast of the Red Sea, they found the peninsula independent, under the
Sultan of Foudthli. Turkey and Portugal, struggling for supremacy in
the East, hotly contested its possession; but, being unable longer to
maintain their rivalry, it finally reverted into the grasp of its
ancient masters.
Great natural strength, improved by the substantial fortifications which
had been carried by Sultan Selim completely round the zone of hills that
engirds the town, now rendered it the fittest of all retreats for the
piratical hordes of the desert; and the lawless sons of Ishmael,
scouring the adjacent waters, loaded their stronghold with booty. But
after the loss of government, Aden could not be expected to retain its
opulence. Its trade passed into the rival port of Mocha, and grinding
oppression caused the removal of the wealthy. At the period of the
British occupation, ninety dilapidated houses, giving shelter to six
hundred impoverished souls, were all that remained to attest its ancient
glories. The town lay spread out in ruin and desolation, and heaps of
stone, mingled with bricks and rubbish, sternly pointed to the grave of
the mosque and tall minaret.
Few fragments now survive the general decay, to record the high estate
of the once populous metropolis, or reveal the magnificence it could
formerly boast in works of public utility. The chief buildings are
believed to have been situated ten miles inland, and to have been
swallowed up by the ever rising, never ebbing, tide of the desert. The
red brick conduit of Abd el Wahab can still be traced from the Durab el
Horaibi, whence it stretches to Bir Omheit, upwards of eight miles,
across a now dilapidated bridge. Here are numerous wells, which
supplied the reservoirs; but, "like the baseless fabric of a vision,"
every vestige of an edifice has vanished.
Among the most perfect and conspicuous relics of the past are the
laborious and costly means adopted to insure in so arid and burning a
climate, a plentiful supply of water. In addition to the wells, three
hundred in number, the remains of basins of great magnitude are found in
various directions; and in the Valley of Tanks are a succession of
hanging cisterns, formed by excavations in the limestone rock. These
are lined with flights of steps, and supported by lofty buttresses of
imperishable masonry, forming deep reservoirs of semi-elliptical form,
which still blockade every channel in the mountain side, and once served
to collect the precious drops from heaven, when showers doubtless fell
more abundantly than at the present day.
In the extensive repositories for the dead, too, may be found assurances
of the former population of Aden. Many of the countless tombs in the
Turkish cemetery were of white marble, and bore on jasper tablets
elaborately-sculptured inscriptions surmounted by the cap and turban;
but the greater number of these pillared monuments have either
disappeared or been overthrown. Of the evidences of Mohammadanism that
once graced the city, nearly all lie buried from sight beneath heaps of
accumulated rubbish and debris, the removal of portions of which has
disclosed many curious coins of remote date. The minaret of Menaleh,
and a tottering octagon of red brick, attached to the Jama el Musjid,
lone survivors of the wreck, still point to the sky; and of the few
mosques that have been spared by the destroying hand of time, the
principal is that of the tutelar saint of the city, beneath the cupola
of which, invested with a pall of crimson silk, and enshrined in the
odour of sanctity, repose the venerated remains of Sheikh Hydroos.
An excellent zig-zagged road, imperfectly paved, and raised in parts to
the height of twenty feet, extends from the base to the summit of Jebel
Shemshan, and, with some few of the disjointed watch-towers, has defied
the ravages of centuries. Three enormous pieces of brass ordnance,
pierced for a sixty-eight pound shot, and covered with Turkish
inscriptions, were the chief symbols of the former strength of this
eastern Gibraltar. These were transmitted to England, when their
capture, shortly after the present accession, avenged an insult offered
to her flag, and wreathed the first laurels around the brow of her
youthful Queen.
In general aspect the Cape is not dissimilar from the volcanic islands
in the Grecian Archipelago, and viewed from a distance it appears
separated altogether from the mainland. The long dead flat of sand by
which it is connected with the Arabian continent, rising on either beach
scarcely two feet above high water mark, induces the belief that the
promontory must on its first production in early ages have been
insulated. According to the evidence of the present generation the sea
is still receding, and the sand steadily accumulating, but the noble
western bay will not be affected for many centuries. Though the glory
of Aden may have fled, and her commerce become totally annihilated, her
ports will long remain as nature formed them, excellent, capacious, and
secure.
Important commercial advantages cannot fail to accrue from the
occupation of so secure an entrepot, which at any season of the year may
be entered and quitted with equal facility. The readiest access is
afforded to the rich provinces of Hadramaut and Yemen, famous for their
coffee, their frankincense, and the variety of their gums, and abounding
in honey and wax, of a quality which may vie with the produce of the
hives of the Mediterranean. A lucrative market to the manufactures of
India and Great Britain is also extended by the facilities attending
communication with the African coast, south of Bab el Mandeb, where the
high mountain ranges bordering upon the shore are clothed with trees
producing myrrh, frankincense, and precious gums, whilst the valleys in
the interior pour forth for export, sheep, ghee, drugs, dry hides, gold
dust, civet, ivory, rhinoceros horns, peltries, and ostrich feathers,
besides coffee of the choicest growth. A wide field is open for
mercantile speculation, and it is not a little pleasant to contemplate
the approaching improvement of Christian Abyssinia, and the civilisation
of portions of Africa even more benighted and remote, through the medium
of intercourse with British Arabia.
Under the flag of old England, Aden has enjoyed a degree of happiness
and security never previously experienced, even in the days of her
greatest glory, when she ranked among the foremost of commercial marts
in the East, and when vessels from all the known quarters of the globe
thronged her boasted roadstead. Emigrants from the interior as well as
from the exterior of Hadramaut and Yemen, and from both shores of the
Red Sea, are daily crowding within the walls to seek refuge from
grinding oppression, and to free themselves from the galling burthen
beneath which they have long groaned at the hand of insatiate native
despots. The amazing increase of population and the crowded state of
the bazaars form subject for high admiration. In the short space of
three years the census has been augmented to twenty thousand souls;
substantial dwellings are springing up in every direction, and at all
the adjacent ports, hundreds of native merchants do but await the
erection of permanent fortifications in earnest of intention to remain,
to flock under the guns with their families and wealth. Emerging thus
rapidly from ruin and degradation, the tide of lucrative commerce, both
from Africa and Arabia, may be confidently expected to revert to its
former channel. Blessed by a mild but firm government, the decayed
mart, rescued from Arab tyranny and misrule, will doubtless shortly
attain a pinnacle far eclipsing even its ancient opulence and renown;
and Aden, as a free port, whilst she pours wealth into a now
impoverished land, must ere long become the queen of the adjacent seas,
and take rank among the most useful dependencies of the British crown.
Volume One, Chapter V.