Ibn Batuta speaks of it thus correctly:  “It is enclosed by mountains, and you can enter by one side only.  It is a large town, but has neither corn nor trees, nor fresh water, except from reservoirs made to catch the rain-water; for other drinking water is at a great distance from the town.  The Arabs often prevent the townspeople coming to fetch it until the latter have come to terms with them, and paid them a bribe in money or cloths.  The heat at Aden is great.  It is the port frequented by the people from India, and great ships come thither from Kunbayat, Tana, Kaulam, Kalikut, Fandaraina, Shaliat, Manjarur, Fakanur, Hinaur, Sindabur,[1] etc.  There are Indian merchants residing in the city, and Egyptian merchants as well.”

[Illustration:  Attempted Escalade of ADEN by the Portuguese under ALBOQUERQUE in 1513 (Reduced Facsimile of a large Contemporary Wood Engraving in the Map Department of the BRITISH MUSEUM supposed to have been executed at Antwerp) Size of the Original (in 6 Sheets) 12 Inches by 19-1/2 Inches]

The tanks of which the Moor speaks had been buried by debris; of late years they have been cleared and repaired.  They are grand works.  They are said to have been formerly 50 in number, with a capacity of 30 million gallons.

[Illustration:  Attempted Escalade of ADEN by the Portuguese under ALBOQUERQUE in 1513 (Reduced Facsimile of a large Contemporary Wood Engraving in the Map Department of the BRITISH MUSEUM supposed to have been executed at Antwerp) Size of the Original (in 6 Sheets) 12 Inches by 19-1/2 Inches]

[Illustration:  View of Aden in 1840.]

This cut, from a sketch by Dr. Kirk, gives an excellent idea of Aden as seen by a ship approaching from India.  The large plate again, reduced from a grand and probably unique contemporary wood-engraving of great size, shows the impression that the city made upon European eyes in the beginning of the 16th century.  It will seem absurd, especially to those who knew Aden in the early days of our occupation, and no doubt some of the details are extravagant, but the general impression is quite consonant with that derived from the description of De Barros and Andrea Corsali:  “In site and aspect from the seaward,” says the former, “the city forms a beautiful object, for besides the part which lies along the shore with its fine walls and towers, its many public buildings and rows of houses rising aloft in many stories, with terraced roofs, you have all that ridge of mountain facing the sea and presenting to its very summit a striking picture of the operations of Nature, and still more of the industry of man.”  This historian says that the prosperity of Aden increased on the arrival of the Portuguese in those seas, for the Mussulman traders from Jidda and the Red Sea ports now dreaded these western corsairs, and made Aden an entrepot, instead of passing it by as they used to do in days of unobstructed navigation.  This prosperity, however, must have been of very brief duration.  Corsali’s account of Aden (in 1517) is excellent, but too long for extract, Makrizi, IV. 26-27; Playfair, H. of Yemen, p. 7; Ibn Batuta, II. 177; De Barros, II. vii. 8; Ram. I. f. 182.