All the quay of Jidda was lined with people to see the English salute,

and along with my vessel there parted, at the same time, one bound to

Masuah, which carried Mahomet Abd el cader, Governor of Dahalac, over

to his government. Dahalac[194] is a large island, depending upon

Masuah, but which has a separate firman, or commission, renewed every

two years. This man was a Moor, a servant of the Naybe of Masuah, and

he had been at Jidda to procure his firman from Metical Aga, while

Mahomet Gibberti was to come with me, and was to bring it to the Naybe.

This Abd el cader no sooner was arrived at Masuah, than, following the

turn or his country for lying, he spread a report, that a great man,

or prince, whom he left at Jidda, was coming speedily to Masuah; that

he had brought great presents to the Sherriffe and Metical Aga; that,

in return, he had received a large sum in _gold_ from the Sherriffe’s

Vizir, Yousef Cabil; besides as much as he pleased from the English,

who had done nothing but feast and regale him for the several months

he had been at Jidda; and that, when he departed, as this great man

was now going to visit the Imam in Arabia Felix, all the English ships

hoisted their colours, and fired their cannon from morning to night,

for three days successively, which was two days after he had sailed,

and therefore what he could not possibly have seen. The consequence

of all this was, the Naybe of Masuah expected that a man with immense

treasures was coming to put himself into _his hands_. I look therefore

upon the danger I escaped there as superior to all those put together,

that I have ever been exposed to: of such material and bad consequence

is the most contemptible of all weapons, the tongue of a liar and a

fool!

Jidda is in lat. 28° 0´ 1´´ north, and in long. 39° 16´ 45´´ east of

the meridian of Greenwich. Our weather there had few changes. The

general wind was north-west, or more northerly. This blowing along the

direction of the Gulf brought a great deal of damp along with it; and

this damp increases as the season advances. Once in twelve or fourteen

days, perhaps, we had a south wind, which was always dry. The highest

degree of the barometer at Jidda, on the 5th of June, wind north, was

26° 6´, and the lowest on the 18th of same month, wind north-west, was

25° 7´. The highest degree of the thermometer was 97° on the 12th of

July, wind north, the lowest was 78° wind north.

CHAP. XII.

_Sails from Jidda--Konfodah--Ras Heli boundary of Arabia

Felix--Arrives at Loheia--Proceeds to the Straits of the Indian

Ocean--Arrives there--Returns by Azab to Loheia._

It was on the 8th of July 1769 I sailed from the harbour of Jidda on

board the same vessel as before, and I suffered the Rais to take a

small loading for his own account, upon condition that he was to carry

no passengers. The wind was fair, and we sailed through the English

fleet at their anchors. As they had all honoured me with their regret

at parting, and accompanied me to the shore, the Rais was surprised to

see the respect paid to his little vessel as it passed under their huge

sterns, every one hoisting his colours, and saluting it with eleven

guns, except the ship belonging to my Scotch friend, who shewed his

colours, indeed, but did not fire a gun, only standing upon deck, cried

with the trumpet, “Captain ---- wishes Mr Bruce a good voyage.” I stood

upon deck, took my trumpet, and answered, “Mr Bruce wishes Captain ----

a speedy and perfect return of his understanding;” a wish, poor man,

that has not yet been accomplished, and very much to my regret, it does

not appear probable that ever it will. That night having passed a

cluster of shoals, called the Shoals of Safia, we anchored in a small

bay, Mersa Gedan, about twelve leagues from the harbour of Jidda.

The 9th of July, we passed another small road called _Goofs_, and at

a quarter past nine, Raghwan, east north-east two miles, and, at a

quarter past ten, the small Port of Sodi, bearing east north-east, at

the same distance. At one and three quarters we passed Markat, two

miles distant north-east by east; and a rock called _Numan_, two miles

distant to the south-west. After this the mountain of Somma, and, at a

quarter past six, we anchored in a small unsafe harbour, called _Mersa

Brahim_, of which we had seen a very rough and incorrect design in the

hands of the gentlemen at Jidda. I have endeavoured, with that draught

before me, to correct it so far that it may now be depended upon.

The 10th, we sailed, at five o’clock in the morning, with little wind,

our course south and by west; I suppose we were then going something

less than two knots an hour. At half after seven we passed the island

Abeled, and two other small mountains that bore about a league

south-west and by west of us. The wind freshened as it approached

mid-day, so that at one o’clock we went full three knots an hour, being

obliged to change our course according to the lying of the islands. It

came to be about south south-east in the end of the day.

At a quarter after one, we passed Ras el Askar, meaning the Cape

of the Soldiers, or of the Army. Here we saw some trees, and, at a

considerable distance within the Main, mountains to the north-east

of us. At two o’clock we passed in the middle channel, between five

sandy islands, all covered with kelp, three on the east or right hand,

and two on the west. They are called _Ginnan el Abiad_, or the White

Gardens, I suppose from the green herb growing upon the white sand.

At half after two, with the same wind, we passed an island bearing

east from us, the Main about a league distant. At three we passed

close to an island bearing south-west of us, about a mile off. It is

of a moderate height, and is called _Jibbel Surreine_. At half past

four our course was south-east and by south; we passed two islands to

the south-east of us, at two miles, and a smaller, west south-west a

quarter of a mile distant. From this to the Main will be about five

miles, or something more. At fifty minutes after four, came up to

an island which reached to Konfodah. We saw to the west, and west

south-west of us, different small islands, not more than half a mile

distant. We heaved the line, and had no soundings at thirty-two fathom,

yet, if any where, I thought there we were to find shoal water. At

five o’clock, our course being south-east and by south, we passed

an island a quarter of a mile to the west of us, and afterwards a

number of others in a row; and, at half past eight, we arrived at an

anchoring-place, but which cannot be called a harbour, named _Mersa

Hadou_.

The 11th, we left Mersa Hadou at four o’clock in the morning. Being

calm, we made little way; our course was south south-east, which

changed to a little more easterly. At six, we tacked to stand in for

Konfodah harbour, which is very remarkable for a high mountain behind

it, whose top is terminated by a pyramid or cone of very regular

proportion. There was no wind to carry us in; we hoisted out the boat

which I had bought at Jidda for my pleasure and safety, intending

it to be a present to my Rais at parting, as he very well knew. At a

quarter past eight, we were towed to our anchorage in the harbour of

Konfodah.

Konfodah means the town of the hedge-hog[195]. It is a small village,

consisting of about two hundred miserable houses, built with green

wood, and covered with mats, made of the doom, or palm-tree; lying on a

bay, or rather a shallow bason, in a desert waste or plain. Behind the

town are small hillocks of white sand. Nothing grows on shore excepting

kelp, but it is exceedingly beautiful, and very luxuriant; farther in,

there are gardens. Fish is in perfect plenty; butter and milk in great

abundance; even the desert looks fresher than other deserts, which made

me imagine that rain fell sometimes here, and this the Emir told me was

the case.

Although I made a draught of the port, it is not worth the publishing.

For though in all probability it was once deep, safe, and convenient,

yet there is nothing now but a kind of road, under shelter of a point,

or ridge of land, which rounds out into the sea, and ends in a Cape,

called _Ras Mozeffa_. Behind the town there is another small Cape, upon

which there are three guns mounted, but with what intention it was not

possible to guess.

The Emir Ferhan, governor of the town, was an Abyssinian slave,

who invited me on shore, and we dined together on very excellent

provision, dressed according to their custom. He said the country near

the shore was desert, but a little within land, or where the roots and

gravel had fixed the sand, the soil produced every thing, especially if

they had any showers of rain. It was so long since I had heard mention

of a shower of rain, that I could not help laughing, and he seemed to

think that he had said something wrong, and begged so politely to know

what I laughed at, that I was obliged to confess. “The reason, said I,

Sir, is an absurd one. What passed in my mind at that time was, that I

had travelled about two thousand miles, and above twelve months, and

had neither seen nor heard of a _shower of rain_ till now, and though

you will perceive by my conversation that I understand your language

well, for a stranger, yet I declare to you, the moment you spoke it,

had you asked, what was the Arabic for a shower of rain, I could not

have told you. I declare to you, upon my word, it was that which I

laughed at, and upon no other account whatever.” “You are going, says

he, to countries where you will have rain and wind, sufficiently cold,

and where the water in the mountains is harder than the dry land, and

people stand upon it[196]. We have only the remnant of their showers,

and it is to that we owe our greatest happiness.”

I was very much pleased with his conversation. He seemed to be near

fifty years of age, was exceedingly well dressed, had neither gun

nor pistol about him, not even a knife, nor an Arab servant armed,

though they were all well dressed; but he had in his court-yard

about threescore of the finest horses I had for a long time seen. We

dined just opposite to them, in a small saloon strowed with India

carpets; the walls were covered with white tiles, which I suppose he

had got from India; yet his house, without, was a very common one,

distinguished only from the rest in the village by its size.

He seemed to have a more rational knowledge of things, and spoke more

elegantly than any man I had conversed with in Arabia. He said he had

lost the only seven sons he had, in one month, by the small-pox: And

when I attempted to go away, he wished I would stay with him some time,

and said, that I had better take up my lodgings in his house, than go

on board the boat that night, where I was not perfectly in safety. On

my seeming surprised at this, he told me, that last year, a vessel from

Mascatte, on the Indian Ocean, had quarrelled with his people; that

they had fought on the shore, and several of the crew had been killed;

that they had obstinately cruized in the neighbourhood, in hopes of

reprisals, till, by the change of the monsoon, they had lost their

passage home, and so were necessarily confined to the Red Sea for six

months afterwards; he added, they had four guns, which they called

patareroes, and that they would certainly cut us off, as they could

not miss to fall in with us. This was the very worst news that I had

ever heard, as to what might happen at sea. Before this, we thought all

strangers were our friends, and only feared the natives of the coast

for enemies; now, upon a bare defenceless shore, we found ourselves

likely to be a prey to both natives and strangers.

Our Rais, above all, was seized with a panic; his country was just

adjoining to Mascatte upon the Indian Ocean, and they were generally at

war. He said he knew well who they were, that there was no country kept

in better order than Mascatte; but that these were a set of pirates,

belonging to the Bahareen; that their vessels were stout, full of men,

who carried incense to Jidda, and up as far as Madagascar; that they

feared no man, and loved no man, only were true to their employers for

the time. He imagined (I suppose it was but imagination,) that he had

seen a vessel in the morning, (a lug-sail vessel, as the pirate was

described to be,) and it was with difficulty we could prevail on the

Rais not to sail back to Jidda. I took my leave of the Emir to return

to my tent, to hold a consultation what was to be done.

Konfodah is in the lat. 19° 7´ North. It is one of the most unwholesome

parts on the Red Sea, provision is very dear and bad, and the water,

(contrary to what the Emir had told me) execrable. Goats flesh is

the only meat, and that very dear and lean. The anchorage, from the

castle, bears north-west a quarter of a mile distant, from ten to seven

fathoms, in sand and mud.

On the 14th, our Rais, more afraid of dying by a fever than by the

hands of the pirates, consented willingly to put to sea. The Emir’s

good dinners had not extended to the boat’s crew, and they had been

upon short commons. The Rais’s fever had returned since he left Jidda,

and I gave him some doses of bark, after which he soon recovered. But

he was always complaining of hunger, which the black flesh of an old

goat, the Emir had given us, did not satisfy.

We sailed at six o’clock in the morning, having first, by way of

precaution, thrown all our ballast over-board, that we might run into

shoal water upon the appearance of the enemy. We kept a good look-out

toward the horizon all around us, especially when we sailed in the

morning. I observed we became all fearless, and bold, about noon;

but towards night the panic again seized us, like children that are

afraid of ghosts; though at that time we might have been sure that all

stranger vessels were at anchor.

We had little wind, and passed between various rocks to the westward,

continuing our course S. S. E. nearly, somewhat more easterly, and

about three miles distant from the shore. At four o’clock, noon, we

passed Jibbel Sabeia, a sandy island, larger than the others, but no

higher. To this island the Arabs of Ras Heli send their wives and

children in time of war; none of the rest are inhabited. At five we

passed Ras Heli, which is the boundary between Yemen, or Arabia Felix,

and the [197]Hejaz, or province of Mecca, the first belonging to the

Imam, or king of Sana, the other to the Sherriffe lately spoken of.

I desired my Rais to anchor this night close under the Cape, as it was

perfectly calm and clear, and, by taking a mean of five observations

of the passage of so many stars, the most proper for the purpose, over

the meridian, I determined the latitude of Ras Heli, and consequently

the boundary of the two states, Hejaz and Yemen, or Arabia Felix and

Arabia Deserta, to be 18° 36´ north.

The mountains reach here nearer to the sea. We anchored a mile from

the shore in 15 fathoms, the banks were sand and coral; from this the

coast is better inhabited. The principal Arabs to which the country

belongs are Cotrushi, Sebahi, Helali, Mauchlota, and Menjahi. These are

not Arabs by origin, but came from the opposite coast near Azab, and

were _Shepherds_, who were stubborn enemies to Mahomet, but at last

converted; they are black, and woolly-headed. The mountains and small

islands on the coast, farther inland to the eastward, are in possession

of the _Habib_. These are white in colour, rebellious, or independent

Arabs, who pay no sort of obedience to the Imam, or the Sherriffe of

Mecca, but occasionally plunder the towns on the coast.

All the sandy desert at the foot of the mountains is called _Tehama_,

which extends to Mocha. But in the maps it is marked as a separate

country from Arabia Felix, whereas it is but the low part, or sea-coast

of it, and is not a separate jurisdiction. It is called _Tema_ in

scripture, and derives its name from _Taami_ in Arabic, which signifies

the sea-coast. There is little water here, as it never rains; there is

also no animal but the gazel or antelope, and but a few of them. There

are few birds, and those which may be found are generally mute.

The 15th, we sailed with little wind, coasting along the shore,

sometimes at two miles distance, and often less. The mountains now

seemed high. I sounded several times, and found no ground at thirty

fathoms, within a mile of the shore. We passed several ports or

harbours; first Mersa Amec, where there is good anchorage in eleven

fathom of water, a mile and a half from the shore; at eight o’clock,

Nohoude, with an island of the same name; at ten, a harbour and

village called Dahaban. As the sky was quite overcast, I could get no

observation, though I watched very attentively. Dahaban is a large

village, where there is both water and provision, but I did not see its

harbour. It bore E. N. E. of us about three miles distant. At three

quarters past eleven we came up to a high rock, called _Kotumbal_, and

I lay to, for observation. It is of a dark-brown, approaching to red;

is about two miles from the Arabian shore, and produces nothing. I

found its latitude to be 17° 57´ north. A small rock stands up at one

end of the base of the mountain.

We came to an anchor in the port of Sibt, where I went ashore under

pretence of seeking provisions, but in reality to see the country, and

observe what sort of people the inhabitants were. The mountains from

Kotumbal ran in an even chain along the coast, at no great distance,

but of such a height, that as yet we had seen nothing like them. Sibt

is too mean, and too small to be called a village, even in Arabia. It

consists of about fifteen or twenty miserable huts, built of straw;

around it there is a plantation of doom-trees, of the leaves of which

they make mats and sails, which is the whole manufacture of the place.

Our Rais made many purchases here. The _Cotrushi_, the inhabitants

of this village, seem to be as brutish a people as any in the world.

They are perfectly lean, but muscular, and apparently strong; they

wear all their own hair, which they divide upon the crown of their

head. It is black and bushy, and, although sufficiently long, seems to

partake of the woolly quality of the Negro. Their head is bound round

with a cord or fillet of the doom leaf, like the ancient diadem. The

women are generally ill-favoured, and go naked like the men. Those

that are married have, for the most part, a rag about their middle,

some of them not that. Girls of all ages go quite naked, but seem not

to be conscious of any impropriety in their appearance. Their lips,

eye-brows, and foreheads above the eye-brow, are all marked with

stibium, or antimony, the common ornament of savages throughout the

world. They seemed to be perfectly on an equality with the men, walked,

sat, and smoked with them, contrary to the practice of all women among

the Turks and Arabs.

We found no provisions at Sibt, and the water very bad. We returned

on board our vessel at sun-set, and anchored in eleven fathom, little

less than a mile from the shore. About eight o’clock, two girls, not

fifteen, swam off from the shore, and came on board. They wanted

stibium for their eye-brows. As they had laboured so hard for it, I

gave them a small quantity, which they tied in a rag about their neck.

I had killed three sharks this day; one of them, very large, was lying

on deck. I asked them if they were not afraid of that fish? They said,

they knew it, but it would not hurt them, and desired us to eat it,

for it was good, and made men strong. There appeared no symptoms of

jealousy among them. The harbour of Sibt is of a semi-circular form,

screened between N. N. E. and S. S. W. but to the south, and south

west, it is exposed, and therefore is good only in summer.

The 16th, at five in the morning, we sailed from the port of Sibt, but,

the wind being contrary, were obliged to steer to the W. S. W. and it

was not till nine o’clock we could resume our true course, which was

south-east. At half past four in the afternoon the main bore seven

miles east, when we passed an island a quarter of a mile in length,

called _Jibbel Foran_, the Mountain of Mice. It is of a rocky quality,

with some trees on the south end, thence it rises insensibly, and ends

in a precipice on the north. At six, we passed the island [198]Deregé,

low and covered with grass, but round like a shield, which is the

reason of its name. At half past six Ras Tarfa bore E. S. E. of us,

distant about two miles; and at three quarters after six we passed

several other islands, the largest of which is called _Saraffer_. It is

covered with grass, has small trees upon it, and, probably, therefore

water, but is uninhabited. At nine in the evening we anchored before

Djezan.

Djezan is in lat. 16° 45´ north, situated on a cape, which forms one

side of a large bay. It is built, as are all the towns on the coast,

with straw and mud. It was once a very considerable place for trade,

but since coffee hath been so much in demand, of which they have none,

that commerce is moved to Loheia and Hodeida. It is an usurpation from

the territory of the Imam, by a Sherriffe of the family of Beni Hassan,

called _Booarish_. The inhabitants are all Sherriffes, in other terms,

troublesome, ignorant fanatics. Djezan is one of the towns most subject

to fevers. The Farenteit[199], or worm, is very frequent here. They

have great abundance of excellent fish, and fruit in plenty, which is

brought from the mountains, whence also they are supplied with very

good water.

The 17th, in the evening, we sailed from Djezan; in the night we passed

several small villages called _Dueime_, which I found to be in lat.

16° 12´ 5´´ north. In the morning, being three miles distant from

the shore, we passed Cape Cosserah, which forms the north side of a

large Gulf. The mountains here are at no great distance, but they are

not high. The whole country seems perfectly bare and desert, without

inhabitants. It is reported to be the most unwholesome part of Arabia

Felix.

On the 18th, at seven in the morning, we first discovered the

mountains, under which lies the town of Loheia. These mountains bore

north north-east of us, when anchored in three-fathom water, about

five miles from the shore. The bay is so shallow, and the tide being

at ebb, we could get no nearer; the town bore east north-east of us.

Loheia is built upon the south-west side of a peninsula, surrounded

every where, but on the east, by the sea. In the middle of this neck

there is a small mountain which serves for a fortress, and there are

towers with cannon, which reach across on each side of the hill to the

shore. Beyond this is a plain, where the Arabs intending to attack the

town, generally assemble. The ground upon which Loheia stands is black

earth, and seems to have been formed by the retiring of the sea. At

Loheia we had a very uneasy sensation, a kind of prickling came into

our legs, which were bare, occasioned by the salt effluvia, or steams,

from the earth, which all about the town, and further to the south, is

strongly impregnated with that mineral.

Fish, and butcher meat, and indeed all sorts of provision, are

plentiful and reasonable at Loheia, but the water is bad. It is found

in the sand at the foot of the mountains, down the sides of which it

has fallen in the time of the rain, and is brought to the town in skins

upon camels. There is also plenty of fruit brought from the mountains

by the Bedowé, who live in the skirts of the town, and supply it with

milk, firewood, and fruit, chiefly grapes and bananas.

The government of the Imam is much more gentle than any Moorish

government in Arabia or Africa; the people too are of gentler manners,

the men, from early ages, being accustomed to trade. The women at

Loheia are as solicitous to please as those of the most polished

nations in Europe; and, though very retired, whether married or

unmarried, they are not less careful of their dress and persons. At

home they wear nothing but a long shift of fine cotton-cloth, suitable

to their quality. They dye their feet and hands with [200]henna, not

only for ornament, but as an astringent, to keep them dry from sweat:

they wear their own hair, which is plaited, and falls in long tails

behind.

The Arabians consider long and straight hair as beautiful. The

Abyssinians prefer the short and curled. The Arabians perfume

themselves and their shifts with a composition of musk, ambergrease,

incense, and benjoin, which they mix with the sharp horny nails that

are at the extremity of the fish surrumbac; but why this ingredient

is added I know not, as the smell of it, when burnt, does not at all

differ from that of horn. They put all these ingredients into a kind

of censer on charcoal, and stand over the smoke of it. The smell is

very agreeable; but, in Europe, it would be a very expensive article of

luxury.

The Arab women are not black, there are even some exceedingly fair.

They are more corpulent than the men, but are not much esteemed.--The

Abyssinian girls, who are bought for money, are greatly preferred;

among other reasons, because their time of bearing children is longer;

few Arabian women have children after the age of twenty.

At Loheia we received a letter from Mahomet Gibberti, telling us, that

it would yet be ten days before he could join us, and desiring us to be

ready by that time. This hurried us extremely, for we were much afraid

we should not have time to see the remaining part of the Arabian Gulf,

to where it joins with the Indian Ocean.

On the 27th, in the evening, we parted from Loheia, but were obliged

to tow the boat out. About nine, we anchored between an island called

_Ormook_, and the land; about eleven we set sail with a wind at

north-east, and passed a cluster of islands on our left.

[Illustration: _Arab of Lohein, Tribe Beni Koreish._

_Heath Sc:_

_London Publish’d Dec^r. 1^{st}. 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]

The 28th, at five o’clock in the morning, we saw the small island of

Rasab; at a quarter after six we passed between it and a large island

called _Camaran_, where there is a Turkish garrison and town, and

plenty of good water. At twelve we passed a low round island, which

seemed to consist of white sand. The weather being cloudy, I could get

no observation. At one o’clock we were off Cape Israel.

As the weather was fair, and the wind due north and steady, though

little of it, my Rais said that we had better stretch over to Azab,

than run along the coast in the direction we were now going, because,

somewhere between Hodeida and Cape Nummel, there was foul ground, with

which he should not like to engage in the night. Nothing could be more

agreeable to me. For, though I knew the people of Azab were not to

be trusted, yet there were two things I thought I might accomplish,

by being on my guard. The one was, to learn what those ruins were

that I had heard so much spoken of in Egypt and at Jidda, and which

are supposed to have been works of the Queen of Sheba, whose country

this was. The other was, to obtain the myrrh and frankincense-tree,

which grow upon that coast only, but neither of which had as yet been

described by any author.

At four o’clock we passed a dangerous shoal, which is the one I suppose

our Rais was afraid of. If so, he could not have adopted a worse

measure, than by stretching over from Cape Israel to Azab in the night;

for, had the wind come westerly, as it soon after did, we should have

probably been on the bank; as it was, we passed it something less than

a mile, the wind was north, and we were going at a great rate. At

sun-set we saw Jibbel Zekir, with three small islands, on the north

side of it. At twelve at night the wind failing, we found ourselves

about a league from the west end of Jibbel Zekir, but it then began to

blow fresh from the west; so that the Rais begged liberty to abandon

the voyage to Azab, and to keep our first intended one to Mocha. For my

part, I had no desire at all to land at Mocha. Mr Niebuhr had already

been there before us; and I was sure every useful observation had been

made as to the country, for he had staid there a very considerable

time, and was ill used. We kept our course, however, upon Mocha town.

The 29th, about two o’clock in the morning, we passed six islands,

called Jibbel el Ourèe; and having but indifferent wind, we anchored

about nine off the point of the shoal, which lies immediately east of

the north fort of Mocha.

The town of Mocha makes an agreeable appearance from the sea. Behind it

there is a grove of palm-trees, that do not seem to have the beauty of

those in Egypt, probably owing to their being exposed to the violent

south-westers that blow here, and make it very uneasy riding for

vessels; there is, however, very seldom any damage done. The port is

formed by two points of land, which make a semi-circle. Upon each of

the points is a small fort; the town is in the middle, and if attacked

by an enemy, these two forts are so detached that they might be made

of more use to annoy the town, than they could ever be to defend the

harbour. The ground for anchorage is of the very best kind, sand

without coral, which last chafes the cables all over the Red Sea.

On the 30th, at seven o’clock in the morning, with a gentle but steady

wind at west, we sailed for the mouth of the Indian Ocean. Our Rais

became more lively and bolder as he approached his own coast, and

offered to carry me for nothing, if I would go home with him to Sheher,

but I had already enough upon my hand. It is, however, a voyage some

man of knowledge and enterprise should attempt, as the country and the

manners of the people are very little known. But this far is certain,

that there all the precious gums grow; all the drugs of the _galenical

school_, the frankincense, myrrh, benjoin, dragons-blood, and a

multitude of others, the natural history of which no one has yet given

us.

The coast of Arabia, all along from Mocha to the Straits, is a bold

coast, close to which you may run without danger night or day. We

continued our course within a mile of the shore, where in some places

there appeared to be small woods, in others a flat bare country,

bounded with mountains at a considerable distance. Our wind freshened

as we advanced. About four in the afternoon we saw the mountain

which forms one of the Capes of the Straits of Babelmandeb, in shape

resembling a gunner’s quoin. About six o’clock, for what reason I did

not know, our Rais insisted upon anchoring for the night behind a small

point. I thought, at first, it had been for pilots.

The 31st, at nine in the morning, we came to an anchor above Jibbel

Raban, or Pilots Island, just under the Cape which, on the Arabian

side, forms the north entrance of the Straits. We now saw a small

vessel enter a round harbour, divided from us by the Cape. The Rais

said he had a design to have anchored there last night; but as it

was troublesome to get out in the morning by the westerly wind, he

intended to run over to Perim island to pass the night, and give us an

opportunity to make what observations we pleased in quiet.

We caught here a prodigious quantity of the finest fish that I had ever

before seen, but the silly Rais greatly troubled our enjoyment, by

telling us, that many of the fish in that part were poisonous. Several

of our people took the alarm, and abstained; the rule I made use of in

choosing mine, was to take all those that were likest the fish of our

own northern seas, nor had I ever any reason to complain.

At noon, I made an observation of the sun, just under the Cape of the

Arabian shore, with a Hadley’s quadrant, and found it to be in lat.

12° 38´ 30´´, but by many passages of the stars, observed by my large

astronomical quadrant in the island of Perim, all deductions made, I

found the true latitude of the Cape should be rather 12° 39´ 20´´ north.

Perim is a low island, its harbour good, fronting the Abyssinian shore.

It is a barren, bare rock, producing, on some parts of it, plants of

absynthium, or rue, in others kelp, that did not seem to thrive; it was

at this time perfectly scorched by the heat of the sun, and had only

a very faint appearance of having ever vegetated. The island itself

is about five miles in length, perhaps more, and about two miles in

breadth. It becomes narrower at both ends. Ever since we anchored at

the Cape, it had begun to blow strongly from the west, which gave our

Rais great apprehension, as, he said, the wind sometimes continued in

that point for fifteen days together. This alarmed me not a little,

least, by missing Mahomet Gibberti, we should lose our voyage. We had

rice and butter, honey and flour. The sea afforded us plenty of fish,

and I had no doubt but hunger would get the better of our fears of

being poisoned: with water we were likewise pretty well supplied, but

all this was rendered useless by our being deprived of fire. In short,

though we could have killed twenty turtles a-day, all we could get to

make fire of, were the rotten dry roots of the rue that we pulled from

the clefts of the rock, which, with much ado, served to make fire for

boiling our coffee.

The 1st of August we ate drammock, made with cold water and raw flour,

mixed with butter and honey, but we soon found this would not do,

though I never was hungry, in my life, with so much good provision

about me; for, besides the articles already spoken of, we had two

skins of wine from Loheia, and a small jar of brandy, which I had kept

expressly for a feast, to drink the King’s health on arriving in his

dominions, the _Indian Ocean_. I therefore proposed, that, leaving the

Rais on board, myself and two men should cross over to the south side,

to try if we could get any wood in the kingdom of Adel. This, however,

did not please my companions. We were much nearer the Arabian shore,

and the Rais had observed several people on land, who seemed to be

fishers.

If the Abyssinian shore was bad by its being desert, the danger of the

Arabian side was, that we should fall into the hands of thieves. But

the fear of wanting, even coffee, was so prevalent, and the repetition

of the drammock dose so disgusting, that we resolved to take a boat in

the evening, with two men armed, and speak to the people we had seen.

Here again the Rais’s heart failed him. He said the inhabitants on that

coast had fire-arms as well as we, and they could bring a million

together, if they wanted them, in a moment; therefore we should forsake

Perim island for the time, and, without hoisting in the boat, till we

saw further, run with the vessel close to the Arabian shore. There, it

was conceived, armed as we were, with ammunition in plenty, we should

be able to defend ourselves, if those we had seen were pirates, of

which I had not any suspicion, as they had been eight hours in our

sight, without having made one movement nearer us; but I was the only

person on board that was of that opinion.

Upon attempting to get our vessel out, we found the wind strong against

us; so that we were obliged, with great difficulty and danger, to

tow her round the west point, at the expence of many hard knocks,

which she got by the way. During this operation, the wind had calmed

considerably; my quadrant, and every thing was on board; all our arms,

new charged and primed, were laid, covered with a cloth, in the cabbin,

when we found happily that the wind became due east, and with the wind

our resolution changed. We were but twenty leagues to Mocha, and not

above twenty-six from Azab, and we thought it better, rather to get on

our return to Loheia, than to stay and live upon drammock, or fight

with the pirates for firewood. About six o’clock, we were under weigh.

The wind being perfectly fair, we carried as much sail as our vessel

would bear, indeed, till her masts nodded again. But before we begin

the account of our return, it will be necessary to say something of

these famous Straits, the communication between the Red Sea and Indian

Ocean.

This entrance begins to shew itself, or take a shape between two capes;

the one on the continent of Africa, the other on the peninsula of

Arabia. That on the African side is a high land, or cape, formed by

a chain of mountains, which run out in a point far into the sea. The

Portuguese, or Venetians, the first Christian traders in those parts,

have called it _Gardefui_, which has no signification in any language.

But, in that of the country where it is situated, it is called

_Gardefan_, and means the _Straits of Burial_, the reason of which will

be seen afterwards. The opposite cape is Fartack, on the east coast of

Arabia Felix, and the distance between them, in a line drawn across

from one to another, not above fifty leagues. The breadth between these

two lands diminishes gradually for about 150 leagues, till at last it

ends in the Straits, whose breadth does not seem to me to be above six

leagues.

After getting within the Straits, the channel is divided into two,

by the island of Perim, otherwise called _Mehun_. The inmost and

northern channel, or that towards the Arabian shore, is two leagues

broad at most, and from twelve to seventeen fathom of water. The other

entry is three leagues broad, with deep water, from twenty to thirty

fathom. From this, the coast on both sides runs nearly in a north-west

direction, widening as it advances, and the Indian Ocean grows

straiter. The coast upon the left hand is part of the kingdom of Adel,

and, on the right, that of Arabia Felix. The passage on the Arabian

shore, though the narrowest and shallowest of the two, is that most

frequently sailed through, and especially in the night; because, if you

do not round the south-point of the island, as near as possible, in

attempting to enter the broad one, but are going large with the wind

favourable, you fall in with a great number of low small islands, where

there is danger. At ten o’clock, with the wind fair, our course almost

north-east, we passed three rocky islands about a mile on our left.

On the 2d, at sun-rise, we saw land a-head, which we took to be the

Main, but, upon nearer approach, and the day becoming clearer, we found

two low islands to the leeward; one of which we fetched with great

difficulty. We found there the stock of an old acacia-tree, and two or

three bundles of wreck, or rotten sticks, which we gathered with great

care; and all of us agreed, we would eat breakfast, dinner, and supper

hot, instead of the cold repast we had made upon the drammock in the

Straits. We now made several large fires; one took the charge of the

coffee, another boiled the rice; we killed four turtles, made ready a

dolphin; got beer, wine, and brandy, and drank the King’s health in

earnest, which our regimen would not allow us to do in the Straits of

Babelmandeb. While this good chear was preparing, I saw with my glass,

first one man running along the coast westward, who did not stop;

about a quarter of an hour after, another upon a camel, walking at the

ordinary pace, who dismounted just opposite to us, and, as I thought,

kneeled down to say his prayers upon the sand. We had launched our boat

immediately upon seeing the trunk of the tree on the island; so we were

ready, and I ordered two of the men to row me on shore, which they did.

It is a bay of but ordinary depth, with straggling trees, and some flat

ground along the coast. Immediately behind is a row of mountains of a

brownish or black colour. The man remained motionless, sitting on the

ground, till the boat was ashore, when I jumped out upon the sand,

being armed with a short double-barrelled gun, a pair of pistols, and

a crooked knife. As soon as the savage saw me ashore, he made the best

of his way to his camel, and got upon his back, but did not offer to go

away.

I sat down on the ground, after taking the white turban off my head,

and waving it several times in token of peace, and seeing that he did

not stir, I advanced to him about a hundred yards. Still he stood, and

after again waving to him with my hands, as inviting him to approach,

I made a sign as if I was returning to the shore. Upon seeing this, he

advanced several paces, and stopt. I then laid my gun down upon the

land, thinking that had frightened him, and walked up as near him as

he would suffer me; that is, till I saw he was preparing to go away.

I then waved my turban, and cried, _Salam, Salam_. He staid till I

was within ten yards of him. He was quite naked, was black, and had a

fillet upon his head, either of a black or blue rag, and bracelets of

white beads upon both his arms. He appeared as undetermined what to do.

I spoke as distinctly to him as I could, _Salam Alicum_.--He answered

something like Salam, but what it was I know not. I am, said I, a

stranger from India, who came last from Tajoura in the bay of Zeyla,

in the kingdom of Adel. He nodded his head, and said something in an

unknown language, in which I heard the repetition of Tajoura and Adel.

I told him I wanted water, and made a sign of drinking. He pointed up

the coast to the eastward, and said, _Raheeda_, then made a sign of

drinking, and said _Tybe_. I now found that he understood me, and asked

him where Azab was? he pointed to a mountain just before him, and

said, Eh owah Azab Tybe, still with a representation of drinking.

I debated with myself, whether I should not take this savage prisoner.

He had three short javelins in his hand, and was mounted upon a camel.

I was on foot, and above the ancles in sand, with only two pistols,

which, whether they would terrify him to surrender or not, I did not

know; I should, otherwise, have been obliged to have shot him, and this

I did not intend. After having invited him as courteously as I could,

to the boat, I walked towards it myself, and, in the way, took up my

firelock, which was lying hid among the sand. I saw he did not follow

me a step, but when I had taken the gun from the ground, he set off at

a trot as fast as he could, to the westward, and we presently lost him

among the trees.

I returned to the boat, and then to dinner on the island, which we

named Traitor’s Island, from the suspicious behaviour of that only

man we had seen near it. This excursion lost me the time of making my

observation; all the use I made of it was to gather some sticks and

camel’s dung, which I heaped up, and made the men carry to the boat, to

serve us for firing, if we should be detained. The wind was very fair,

and we got under weigh by two o’clock.

About four we passed a rocky island with breakers on its south end,

we left it about a mile to the windward of us. The Rais called it

Crab-island. About five o’clock we came to an anchor close to a cape

of no height, in a small bay, in three fathom of water, and leaving

a small island just on our stern. We had not anchored here above ten

minutes, before an old man and a boy came down to us. As they had no

arms, I went ashore, and bought a skin of water. The old man had a very

thievish appearance, was quite naked, and laughed or smiled at every

word he said. He spoke Arabic, but very badly; told me there was great

plenty of every thing in the country whither he would carry me. He

said, moreover, that there was a king there, and a people that, loved

strangers.

The murder of the boat’s crew of the Elgin East-Indiaman, in that

very spot where he was then sitting and praising his countrymen, came

presently into my mind. I found my hand involuntarily take hold of my

pistol, and I was, for the only time in my life, strongly tempted to

commit murder. I thought I saw in the looks of that old vagrant, one of

those who had butchered so many Englishmen in cold blood.

From his readiness to come down, and being so near the place, it

was next to impossible that he was not one of the party. A little

reflection, however, saved his life; and I asked him if he could sell

us a sheep, when he said they were coming. These words put me on my

guard, as I did not know how many people might accompany them. I

therefore desired him to bring me the water to the boat, which the boy

accordingly did, and we paid him, in cohol, or stibium, to his wishes.

Immediately upon this I ordered them to put the boat afloat, demanding,

all the time, where were the sheep? A few minutes afterwards, four

stout young men came down, dragging after them two lean goats, which

the old man maintained to me were sheep. Each man had three light

javelins in his hand, and they began to wrangle exceedingly about the

animals, whether they were sheep or goats, though they did not seem to

understand one word of our language, but the words _sheep_ and _goat_

in Arabic. In five minutes after, their number increased to eleven, and

I thought it was then full time for me to go on board, for every one of

them seemed, by his discourse and gestures, to be violently agitated,

but what they said I could not comprehend. I drew to the shore, and

then put myself on board as soon as possible. They seemed to keep at

a certain distance, crying out _Belled, belled!_ and pointing to the

land, invited me to come ashore; the old hypocrite alone seemed to have

no fear, but followed me close to the boat. I then resolved to have

a free discourse with him. “There is no need, said I to the old man,

to send for thirteen men to bring two goats. We bought the water from

people that had no lances, and we can do without the sheep, though we

could not want the water, therefore, every man that has a lance in his

hand let him go away from me, or I will fire upon him.”

They seemed to take no sort of notice of this, and came rather nearer.

“You old-grey headed traitor, said I, do you think I don’t know what

you want, by inviting me on shore; let all those about you with arms go

home about their business, or I will in a minute blow them all off the

face of the earth.” He then jumped up, with rather more agility than

his age seemed to promise, and went to where the others were sitting in

a cluster, and after a little conversation the whole of them retired.

The old fellow and the boy now came down without fear to the boat, when

I gave them tobacco, some beads, and antimony, and did every thing to

gain the father’s confidence. But he still smiled and laughed, and

I saw clearly he had taken his resolution. The whole burden of his

song was, to persuade me to come on shore, and he mentioned every

inducement, and all the kindness that he would shew me. “It is fit,

you old rogue, said I, that, now your life is in my hands, you should

know how much better men there are in the world than you. They were my

_countrymen_, eleven or twelve of whom you murdered about three years

ago, in the very place where you are now sitting, and though I could

have killed the same number to-day, without any danger to myself, I

have not only let them go away, but have bought and sold with you, and

given you presents, when, according to your own law, I should have

killed both you and your son. Now do not imagine, knowing what I know,

that ever you shall decoy me ashore; but if you will bring me a branch

of the myrrh tree, and of the incense tree to-morrow, I will give you

two fonduclis for each of them.” He said, he would do it that night.

“The sooner the better, said I, for it is now becoming dark.” Upon this

he sent away his boy, who in less than a quarter of an hour came back

with a branch in his hand.

I could not contain my joy, I ordered the boat to be drawn upon the

shore, and went out to receive it; but, to my great disappointment,

I found that it was a branch of Acacia, or Sunt, which we had every

where met with in Egypt, Syria, and Arabia. I told him, this was of no

use, repeating the word _Gerar_, _Saiél_, _Sunt_. He answered Eh owah

_Saiél_; but being asked for the myrrh (mour), he said it was far up

in the mountains, but would bring it to me if I would go to the town.

Providence, however, had dealt more kindly with us in the moment than

we expected. For, upon going ashore out of eagerness to get the myrrh,

I saw, not a quarter of a mile from us, sitting among the trees, at

least thirty men, armed with javelins, who all got up the moment they

saw me landed. I called to the boatmen to set the boat afloat, which

they immediately did, and I got quickly on board, near up to the middle

in water; but as I went by the old man, I gave him so violent a blow

upon the face with the thorny branch in my hand, that it felled him to

the ground. The boy fled, and we rowed off; but before we took leave of

these traitors, we gave them a discharge of three blunderbusses loaded

with pistol-shot, in the direction where, in all probability, they were

lying to see the boat go off.

I directed the Rais to stand out towards Crab-island, and there being

a gentle breeze from the shore, carrying an easy sail, we stood over

upon Mocha town, to avoid some rocks or islands, which he said were to

the westward. While lying at Crab-island, I observed two stars pass the

meridian, and by them I concluded the latitude of that island to be 13°

2´ 45´´ North.

The wind continuing moderate, but more to the southward, at three

o’clock in the morning of the 3d, we passed Jibbel el Ourèe, then

Jibbel Zekir; and having a steady gale, with fair and moderate weather,

passing to the westward of the island Rasab, between that and some

other islands to the north-east, where the wind turned contrary, we

arrived at Loheia, the 6th, in the morning, being the third day from

the time we quitted Azab. We found every thing well on our arrival at

Loheia; but no word of Mahomet Gibberti, and I began now to be uneasy.

The rains in Abyssinia were to cease the 6th of next month, September,

and then was the proper time for our journey to Gondar.

The only money in the country of the [201]Imam, is a small piece

less than a sixpence, and by this the value of all the different

denominations of foreign coin is ascertained. It has four names,

Commesh, Loubia, Muchsota, and Harf, but the first two of these are

most commonly used.

This money is very base adulterated silver, if indeed there is any

in it. It has the appearance of pewter; on the one side is written

_Olmass_, the name of the Imam; on the other, _Emir el Moumeneen_,

Prince of the Faithful, or True Believers; a title, first taken by Omar

after the death of Abou Becr; and since, borne by all the legitimate

Caliphs. There are likewise Half-commeshes, and these are the smallest

specie current in Yemen.

1 VENETIAN SEQUIN, 90 }

1 FONDUCLI, 80 } COMMESHES.

1 BARBARY SEQUIN, 80 }

1 PATAKA, _or_ IMPERIAL DOLLAR, 40 }

When the Indian merchants or vessels are here, the fonducli is raised

three commeshes more, though all specie is scarce in the Imam’s

country, notwithstanding the quantity continually brought hither for

coffee, in silver patakas, that is, dollars, which is the coin in which

purchases of any amount are paid. When they are to be changed into

commeshes, the changer or broker gives you but 39 instead of 40, so he

gains 2½ _per cent._ for all money he changes, that is, by giving bad

coin for good.

The long measure in Yemen is the peek of Stamboul, as they call it;

but, upon measuring it with a standard of a Stamboul peek, upon a

brass rod made on purpose, I found it 26⅝ inches, which is neither the

Stambouline peek, the Hendaizy peek, nor the el Belledy peek. The peek

of Stamboul is 23⅗ inches, so this of Loheia is a distinct peek, which

may be called [202]Yemani.

The weights of Loheia are the rotolo, which are of two sorts, one of

140 drachms, and used in selling fine, the other 160 drachms, for

ordinary and coarser goods. This last is divided into 16 ounces,

each ounce into 10 drachms; 100 of these rotolos are a _kantar_, or

_quintal_. The quintal of Yemen, carried to Cairo or Jidda, is 113

rotolo, because the rotolo of these places is 144 drachms. Their

weights appear to be of Italian origin, and were probably brought

hither when the Venetians carried on this trade. There is another

weight, called _faranzala_, which I take to be the native one of the

country. It is equal to 20 rotolo, of 160 drachms each.

The customs, which at Mocha are three _per cent._ upon India goods, are

five here, when brought directly from India; but all goods whatever,

brought from Jidda by merchants, whether Turks or natives, pay seven

_per cent._ at Loheia.

Loheia is in lat. 15° 40´ 52´´ north, and in long. 42° 58´ 15´´ east

of the meridian of Greenwich.--The barometer, at its highest on the

7th day of August, was 26° 9´, and its lowest 26° 1´, on the 30th of

July.--The thermometer, when at its highest, was 99° on the 30th of

the same month, wind north-east; and its lowest was 81° on the 9th of

August, wind south by east.

On the 31st of August, at four o’clock in the morning, I saw a comet

for the first time. The head of it was scarcely visible in the

telescope, that is, its precise form, which was a pale indistinct

luminous body, whose edges were not at all defined. Its tail extended

full 20°. It seemed to be a very thin vapour, for through it I

distinguished several stars of the fifth magnitude, which seemed to

be increased in size. The end of its tail had lost all its fiery

colour, and was very thin and white. I could distinguish no nucleus,

nor any part that seemed redder or deeper than the rest; for all was a

dim-ill-defined spot. At 4^{hrs.} 1´ 24´´, on the morning of the 31st,

it was distant 20° 40´ from Rigel; its tail extended to three stars in

Eridanus.

The 1st of September Mahomet Gibberti arrived, bringing with him

the firman for the Naybe of Masuah, and letters from Metical Aga

to [203]Ras Michael. He also brought a letter to me, and another

to Achmet, the Naybe’s nephew, and future successor, from Sidi Ali

Zimzimia, that is, ‘the keeper of Ishmael’s well at Mecca, called

_Zimzim_.’ In this letter, Sidi Ali desires me to put little trust in

the Naybe, but to keep no secret from Achmet his nephew, who would

certainly be my friend.

CHAP. XIII.

_Sails for Masuah--Passes a Volcano--Comes to Dahalac--Troubled

with a Ghost--Arrives at Masuah._

All being prepared for our departure, we sailed from Loheia on the 3d

of September 1769, but the wind failing, we were obliged to warp the

vessel out upon her anchors. The harbour of Loheia, which is by much

the largest in the Red Sea, is now so shallow, and choked up, that,

unless by a narrow canal through which we enter and go out, there

is no where three fathom of water, and in many places not half that

depth. This is the case with all the harbours on the east-coast of the

Red Sea, while those on the west are deep, without any banks or bars

before them, which is probably owing, as I have already said, to the

violence of the north-west winds, the only constant strong winds to be

met with in this Gulf. These occasion strong currents to set in upon

the east-coast, and heap up the land and gravel which is blown in from

Arabia.

All next day, the 4th, we were employed at warping out our vessel

against a contrary wind. The 5th, at three quarters past five in the

morning, we got under sail with little wind. At half past nine, Loheia

bore east north-east about four leagues distant; and here we came in

sight of several small, barren, and uninhabited islands. Booarish bore

south-west two miles off; Zebid one mile and a half distant, east

and by north; Amar, the smallest of all, one mile south; and Ormook,

south-east by east two miles.

The Arabs of the mountain, who had attempted to surprise Loheia in the

spring, now prepared for another attack against it, and had advanced

within three days journey. This obliged the Emir to draw together all

his troops from the neighbourhood; all the camels were employed to lay

in an extraordinary stock of water.

Our Rais, who was a stranger, and without connections in this place,

found himself under great difficulties to provide water enough for the

voyage, for we had but a scanty provision left, and though our boat was

no more than sixty feet long, we had about forty people on board of

her. I had indeed hired the vessel for myself, but gave the Rais leave

to take some known people passengers on board, as it was very dangerous

to make enemies in the place to which I was going, by frustrating any

person of his voyage home, even though I paid for the boat, and still

as dangerous to take a person unknown, whose end in the voyage might be

to defeat my designs. We were resolved, therefore, to bear away for an

island to the northward, where they said the water was both good, and

in plenty.

In the course of this day, we passed several small islands, and, in the

evening, anchored in seven fathom and a half of water, near a shoal

distant four leagues from Loheia. We there observed the bearings and

distances of several islands, with which we were engaged; Foosht,

W.b.N.¼ north, four leagues; Baccalan N.W.b.W. three leagues; Baida, a

large high rock above the water, with white steep cliffs, and a great

quantity of sea-fowl; Djund, and Mufracken, two large rocks off the

west point off Baccalan, W.N.W.¼ west, eleven miles; they appear, at a

distance, like a large heap of ruins: Umsegger, a very small island,

nearly level with the water, W.N.W.¼ west four miles distant; Nachel,

S.E.¼E. one league off; Ajerb S.E.b.E.½ south, two leagues; Surbat, an

island S.E.b.E.¾ south, distant ten miles; it has a marabout or Shekh’s

tomb upon it: Dahu and Dee, two small islands, close together, N.W.¼

west, about eleven miles distant; Djua S.E.½ south; it is a small white

island four leagues and a half off: Sahar, W.¼ north, nine miles off.

On the 6th, we got under sail at five o’clock in the morning. Our water

had failed us as we foresaw, but in the evening we anchored at Foosht,

in two fathoms water east of the town, and here staid the following

day, our sailors being employed in filling our skins with water, for

they make no use of casks in this sea.

Foosht is an island of irregular form. It is about five miles from

south to north, and about nine in circumference. It abounds in good

fish. We did not use our net, as our lines more than supplied us. There

were many kinds, painted with the most beautiful colours in the world,

but I always observed, the more beautiful they were, the worse for

eating. There were indeed none good but those that resembled the fish

of the north in their form, and plainness of their colours. Foosht is

low and sandy on the south, and on the north is a black hill or cape

of no considerable height, that may be seen at four leagues off. It

has two watering-places; one on the east of the island, where we now

were, the other on the west. The water there is bitter, but it had been

troubled by a number of little barks, that had been taking in water

just before us. The manner of filling their goat skins being a very

slovenly one, they take up much of the mud along with it, but we found

the water excellent, after it had settled two or three days; when it

came on board, it was as black as ink. It was incomparably the best

water we had drank since that of the Nile.

This island is covered with a kind of bent grass, which want of rain,

and the constant feeding of the few goats that are kept here, prevent

from growing to any height. The end of the island, near the north cape,

sounds very hollow, underneath, like Solfaterra, near Naples; and as

quantities of pumice stones are found here, there is great appearance

that the black hill was once a volcano. Several large shells from the

fish called Bisser, some of them twenty inches long, are seen turned

upon their faces, on the surface of large stones, of ten or twelve ton

weight. These shells are sunk into the stones, as if they were into

paste, and the stone raised round about, so as to conceal the edge of

the shell; a proof that this stone has, some time lately, been soft or

liquified. For, had it been long ago, the weather and sun would have

worn the surface of the shell, but it seems perfectly entire, and is

set in that hard brown rock, as the stone of a ring is in a golden

chasing.

The inhabitants of Foosht are poor fishermen, of the same degree of

blackness as those between Heli and Djezan; like them too, they were

naked, or had only a rag about their waist. Their faces are neither

stained nor painted. They catch a quantity of fish called Seajan, which

they carry to Loheia, and exchange for Dora and Indian corn, for they

have no bread, but what is procured this way. They also have a flat

fish, with a long tail to it, whose skin is a species of shagreen, with

which the handles of knives and swords are made. Pearls too are found

here, but neither large nor of a good water, on the other hand, they

are not dear; they are the produce of various species of shells, all

Bivalves[204].

The town consists of about thirty huts, built with faggots of bent

grass or spartum, and these are supported within with a few sticks,

and thatched with the grass, of which they are built. The inhabitants

seemed to be much terrified at seeing us come a-shore all armed; this

was not done out of fear of them, but, as we intended to stay on shore

all night, we wished to be in a situation to defend ourselves against

boats of strollers from the main. The saint, or Marabout, upon seeing

me pass near him, fell flat upon his face, where he lay for a quarter

of an hour; nor would he get up till the guns, which I was told had

occasioned his fears, were ordered by me to be immediately sent on

board.

On the 7th, by an observation of the meridian altitude of the sun, I

found the latitude of Foosht to be 15° 59´ 43´´ north. There are here

many beautiful shell-fish; the concha veneris, of several sizes and

colours, as also sea urchins, or sea-eggs. I found, particularly, one

of the pentaphylloid kind, of a very particular form. Spunges of the

common sort are likewise found all along this coast. The bearings and

distances of the principal islands from Foosht are:

Baccalan, and the two rocks Djund and Mufracken, E. N. E. 4 miles.

Baida rock, E. by N. 4 miles.

Sahar, - - S. E. 3 do.

Ardaina, - W.N.W. 8 do.

Aideen, - - N.½E. 9 do.

Baccalan is an island, low, long, and as broad as Foosht, inhabited by

fishermen; without water in summer, which is then brought from Foosht,

but in winter they preserve the rain-water in cisterns. These were

built in ancient times, when this was a place of importance for the

fishing of pearls, and they are in perfect repair to this day; neither

the cement of the work, nor the stucco within, having at all suffered.

Very violent showers fall here from the end of October to the beginning

of March, but at certain intervals.

All the islands on this east-side of the channel belong to the

Sherriffe Djezan Booarish, but none are inhabited except Baccalan and

Foosht. This last island is the most convenient watering-place for

ships, bound up the channel from Jibbel Teir, from which it bears N.

E. by E. ¾ E. by the compass, nineteen leagues distant. It should be

remembered, however, that the western watering-place is most eligible,

because, in that case, navigators need not engage themselves among the

islands to the eastward, where they will have uneven soundings two

leagues from the land; but, though they should fall to the eastward

of this island, they will have good anchorage, from nine to eighteen

fathoms water; the bottom being good sand, between the town and the

white rock Baida.

Having supplied our great and material want of water, we all repaired

on board in the evening of the 7th; we then found ourselves unprovided

with another necessary, namely fire; and my people began to remember

how cold our stomachs were from the drammock at Babelmandeb. Firewood

is a very scarce article in the Red Sea. It is, nevertheless, to be

found in small quantities, and in such only it is used. Zimmer, an

island to the northward, was known to afford some; but, from the time

I had landed at Foosht, on the 6th, a trouble of a very particular

kind had fallen upon our vessel, of which I had no account till I had

returned on board.

An Abyssinian, who had died on board, and who had been buried upon our

coming out from Loheia bay, had been seen upon the boltsprit for two

nights, and had terrified the sailors very much; even the Rais had

been not a little alarmed; and, though he could not directly say that

he had seen him, yet, after I was in bed on the 7th, he complained

seriously to me of the bad consequences it would produce if a gale

of wind was to rise, and the ghost was to keep his place there, and

desired me to come forward and speak to him. “My good Rais,” said I, “I

am exceedingly tired, and my head achs much with the sun, which hath

been violent to-day. You know the Abyssinian paid for his passage,

and, if he does not overload the ship, (and I apprehend he should

be lighter than when we took him on board) I do not think, that in

justice or equity, either you or I can hinder the ghost from continuing

his voyage to Abyssinia, as we cannot judge what serious business he

may have there.” The Rais began to bless himself that he did not know

any thing of his affairs.--“Then,” said I, “if you do not find he makes

the vessel too heavy before, do not molest him; because, certainly if

he was to come into any other part of the ship, or if he was to insist

to sit in the middle of you (in the disposition that you all are) he

would be a greater inconvenience to you than in his present post.” The

Rais began again to bless himself, repeating a verse of the Koran;

“bismilla sheitan rejem,” in the name of God keep the devil far from

me. “Now, Rais,” said I, “if he does us no harm, you will let him ride

upon the boltsprit till he is tired, or till he comes to Masuah, for I

swear to you, unless he hurts or troubles us, I do not think I have any

obligation to get out of my bed to molest him, only see that he carries

nothing off with him.”

The Rais now seemed to be exceedingly offended, and said, for his part

he did not care for his life more than any other man on board; if it

was not from fear of a gale of wind, he might ride on the boltsprit and

be d----n’d; but that he had always heard learned people could speak to

ghosts. Will you be so good, Rais, said I, to step forward, and tell

him, that I am going to drink coffee, and should be glad if he would

walk into the cabbin, and say any thing he has to communicate to me, if

he is a Christian, and if not, to Mahomet Gibberti. The Rais went out,

but, as my servant told me, he would neither go himself, nor could get

any person to go to the ghost for him. He came back, however, to drink

coffee with me. I was very ill, and apprehensive of what the French

call a _Coup de soleil_. “Go, said I to the Rais, to Mahomet Gibberti,

who was lying just before us, tell him that I am a Christian, and have

no jurisdiction over ghosts in these seas.”

A moor called _Yasine_, well known to me afterwards, now came forward,

and told me, that Mahomet Gibberti had been very bad ever since we

failed, with sea-sickness, and begged that I would not laugh at the

spirit, or speak so familiarly of him, because it might very possibly

be the devil, who often appeared in these parts. The Moor also desired

I would send Gibberti some coffee, and order my servant to boil him

some rice with fresh water from Foosht; for hitherto our fish and our

rice had been boiled in sea water, which I constantly preferred. This

bad news of my friend Mahomet banished all merriment, I gave therefore

the necessary orders to my servant to wait upon him, and at the same

time recommended to Yasine to go forward with the Koran in his hand,

and read all night, or till we should get to Zimmer, and then, or in

the morning, bring me an account of what he had seen.

The 8th, early in the morning, we sailed from Foosht, but the wind

being contrary, we did not arrive at our destination till near mid-day,

when we anchored in an open road about half a mile from the island,

for there is no harbour in Baccalan, Foosht, nor Zimmer. I then took

my quadrant, and went with the boat ashore, to gather wood. Zimmer is

a much smaller island than Foosht, without inhabitants, and without

water; though, by the cisterns which still remain, and are sixty yards

square, hewed out of the solid rock, we may imagine this was once a

place of consequence: rain in abundance, at certain seasons, still

falls there. It is covered with young plants of rack tree, whose

property it is, as I have already said, to vegetate in salt water. The

old trees had been cut down, but there was a considerable number of

Saiel, or Acacia trees, and of these we were in want.

Although Zimmer is said to be without water, yet there are antelopes

upon it, as also hyænas in number, and it is therefore probable that

there is water in some subterraneous caves or clefts of the rocks,

unknown to the Arabs or fishermen, without which these animals could

not subsist. It is probable the antelopes were brought over from Arabia

for the Sherriffe’s pleasure, or those of his friends, if they did

not swim from the main, and an enemy afterwards brought the hyæna to

disappoint that amusement. Be that as it will, though I did not myself

see the animals, yet I observed the dung of each of them upon the

sand, and in the cisterns; so the fact does not rest wholly upon the

veracity of the boatman. We found at Zimmer plenty of the large shell

fish called Bisser and Surrumbac, but no other. I found Zimmer, by an

observation of the sun at noon, to be in lat. 16° 7´ North, and from it

we observed the following bearings and distances.

Sahaanah, dist. 9 miles, S. by W.

Foosht, do. 8 do. N. W. by N.¼ W.

Aideen, do. 7 do. E.

Ardaina, do. 2 do. E. by S.

Rahha, do. 6 do. N. W.¼ N.

Doohaarab, do. 21 do. W. N. W.¼ W.

We sailed in the night from Zimmer. When we came nearer the channel,

the islands were fewer, and we had never less than twenty-five fathom

water. The wind was constantly to the north and west, and, during all

the heat of the day, N. N. W. At the same time we had visibly a strong

current to the northward.

The 9th, at six o’clock in the morning, the island Rapha bore N. E. by

east, distant about two leagues, and in the same direction we saw the

tops of very high mountains in Arabia Felix, which we imagined to be

those above Djezan; and though these could not be less than twenty-six

leagues distance, yet I distinguished their tops plainly, some minutes

before sun-rise. At noon I observed our latitude to be 16° 10´ 3´´

north, so we had made very little way this day, it being for the most

part calm. Rapha then bore E. ¾ north, distant thirteen miles, and

Doohaarab N. N. W. five miles off. We continued under sail all the

evening, but made little way, and still less during the night.

On the 10th, at seven in the morning, I first saw Jibbel Teir, till

then it had been covered with a mist. I ordered the pilot to bear down

directly upon it. All this forenoon our vessel had been surrounded with

a prodigious number of sharks. They were of the hammer-headed kind, and

two large ones seemed to vie with each other which should come nearest

our vessel. The Rais had fitted a large harpoon with a long line for

the large fish in the channel, and I went to the boltsprit to wait for

one of the sharks, after having begged the Rais, first to examine if

all was tight there, and if the ghost had done it no harm by sitting

so many nights upon it. He shook his head, laughing, and said, “The

sharks seek something more substantial than ghosts.” “If I am not

mistaken, Rais, said I, this ghost seeks something more substantial

too, and you shall see the end of it.”

I struck the largest shark about a foot from the head with such force,

that the whole iron was buried in his body. He shuddered, as a person

does when cold, and shook the shaft of the harpoon out of the socket,

the weapon being made so on purpose; the shaft fell across, kept fixt

to the line, and served as a float to bring him up when he dived, and

impeded him when he swam. No salmon fisher ever saw finer sport with

a fish and a rod. He had thirty fathom of line out, and we had thirty

fathom more ready to give him. He never dived, but sailed round the

vessel like a ship, always keeping part of his back above water. The

Rais, who directed us, begged we would not pull him, but give him as

much more line as he wanted; and indeed we saw it was the weight of the

line that galled him, for he went round the vessel without seeking to

go farther from us. At last he came nearer, upon our gathering up the

line, and upon gently pulling it after, we brought him along-side, till

we fastened a strong boat-hook in his throat: a man swung upon a cord

was now let down to cut his tail, while hanging on the ship’s side,

but he was, if not absolutely dead, without the power of doing harm.

He was eleven feet seven inches from his snout to his tail, and nearly

four feet round in the thickest part of him. He had in him a dolphin

very lately swallowed, and about half a yard of blue cloth. He was the

largest, the Rais said, he had ever seen, either in the Red Sea or the

Indian Ocean.

About twenty minutes before twelve o’clock we were about four leagues

distant from the island, as near as I could judge upon a parallel.

Having there taken my observation, and all deductions made, I concluded

the latitude of the north end of Jibbel Teir to be 15° 38´ north;

thirty-two leagues west longitude from Loheia, fifty-three east

longitude from Masuah, and forty-six leagues east of the meridian

of Jidda. Jibbel Teir, or the Mountain of the Bird, is called by

others, Jibbel Douhan, or the Mountain of Smoke. I imagine that the

fame was the origin of our name of[205]_Gibraltar_, rather than from

_Tarik_, who first landed in Spain; and one of my reasons is, that so

conspicuous a mountain, near, and immediately in the face of the moors

of Barbary, must have been known by some name, long before Tarik with

his Arabs made his descent into Spain.

The reason of its being called Jibbel Douhan, the Mountain of Smoke,

is, that though, in the middle of the sea, it is a volcano, which

throws out fire, and though nearly extinguished, smokes to this day.

It probably has been the occasion of the creation of great part of the

neighbouring islands. Did it burn now, it would be of great use to

shipping in the night, but in the earliest history of the trade of that

sea, no mention is made of it, as in a state of conflagration. It was

called _Orneón_ in Ptolemy, the Bird-Island, the name as Jibbel Teir.

It is likewise called Sheban, from the white spot at the top of it,

which seems to be sulphur, and a part seems to have fallen in, and to

have enlarged the crater on this side. The island is four miles from

south to north, has a peek in form of a pyramid in the middle of it,

and is about a quarter of a mile high. It descends, equally, on both

sides, to the sea; has four openings at the top, which vent smoke, and

sometimes, in strong southerly winds it is said to throw out fire.

There was no such appearance when we passed it. The island is perfectly

desert, being covered with sulphur and pumice stones.

Some journals that I have seen are full of indraughts, whirlpools,

and unfathomable depths, all around this island. I must however take

the liberty of saying to these gentlemen, who are otherwise so very

fond of soundings as to distribute them all over the channel, that

they have been unfortunate in placing their unfathomable depths

here, and even soundings. It is probable these are occasioned by the

convulsions in the earth made by this volcano; but the only indraught

we saw was a strong current setting northward, and there are soundings

as far as three leagues east of it, in 33 fathom water, with a sandy

bottom. Between this and the island Rafab you have soundings from 20

to 35 fathom, with sand and rocks; and on the north-east side you

have good anchoring, from a league’s distance, till within a cable’s

length of the shore, and there is anchorage five leagues S. W. by W.

in twenty-five fathoms, and I believe also, in the line from Loheia

to Dahalac, the effects of the convulsions of this volcano. Such, at

least, is the information I procured at Masuah from the pilots used to

this navigation in search of sulphur; such was the information also of

my Rais, who went twice loaded with that commodity to his own country

at Mascatte; no other people go there. Both Abyssinians and Arabians

believe that this is the entry or passage by which the devil comes up

to this world.

Six leagues E. by S. of this island there is a dangerous shoal with

great overfalls, on which a French ship struck in the year 1751, and

was saved with very great difficulty. Jibbel Teir is the point from

which all our ships, going to Jidda, take their departure, after

sailing from Mocha, and passing the islands to the southward.

We left Jibbel Teir on the 11th with little wind at west, but towards

mid-day it freshened as usual, and turned northward to N. N. east.

We were now in mid-channel, so that we stood on straight for Dahalac

till half past four, when a boy, who went aloft, saw four islands

in a direction N. W. by W.¼ west. We were standing on with a fresh

breeze, and all our sails full, when I saw, a little before sun-set,

a white-fringed wave of the well-known figure of a breaker. I cried

to the Rais for God’s sake to shorten sail, for I saw a breaker

a-head, straight in our way. He said there was no such thing; that I

had mistaken it, for it was a sea-gull. About seven in the evening we

struck upon a reef of coral rocks. Arabs are cowards in all sudden

dangers, which they consider as particular directions or mandates of

providence, and therefore not to be avoided. Few uncultivated minds

indeed have any calmness, or immediate resource in themselves when in

unexpected danger. The Arab sailors were immediately for taking the

boat, and sailing to the islands the boy had seen. The Abyssinians were

for cutting up the planks and wood of the inside of the vessel, and

making her a raft.

A violent dispute ensued, and after that a battle, when night overtook

us, still fast upon the rock. The Rais and Yasine, however, calmed the

riot, when I begged the passengers would hear me. I told them, “You

all know, or should know, that the boat is mine, as I bought it with

my money, for the safety and accommodation of myself and servants; you

know, likewise, that I and my men are all well armed, while you are

naked; therefore do not imagine that we will suffer any of you to enter

that boat, and save your lives at the expence of ours. On this vessel

of the Rais is your dependence, in it you are to be saved or to perish;

therefore all hands to work, and get the vessel off, while it is calm;

if she had been materially damaged, she had been sunk before now.” They

all seemed on this to take courage, and said, they hoped I would not

leave them. I told them, if they would be men, I would not leave them

while there was a bit of the vessel together.

The boat was immediately launched, and one of my servants, the Rais,

and two sailors, were put on board. They were soon upon the bank, where

the two sailors got out, who cut their feet at first upon the white

coral, but afterwards got firmer footing. They attempted to push the

ship backwards, but she would not move. Poles and handspikes were tried

in order to stir her, but these were not long enough. In a word, there

was no appearance of getting her off before morning, when we knew the

wind would rise, and it was to be feared she would then be dashed to

pieces. Mahomet Gibberti, and Yasine, had been reading the Koran aloud

ever since the vessel struck. I said to them in passing, “Sirs, would

it not be as wise for you to leave your books till you get a-shore, and

lend a hand to the people?” Mahomet answered, “that he was so weak and

sick, that he could not stand.” But Yasine did not slight the rebuke,

he stripped himself naked, went forward on the vessel, and then threw

himself into the sea. He, first, very judiciously, felt what room there

was for standing, and found the bank was of considerable breadth, and

that we were stuck upon the point of it; that it rounded, slanting away

afterwards, and seemed very deep at the sides, so the people, standing

on the right of it, could not reach the vessel to push it, only those

upon the point. The Rais and Yasine now cried for poles and handspikes,

which were given them; two more men let themselves down by the side,

and stood upon the bank. I then desired the Rais to get out a line,

come a-stern with the boat, and draw her in the same direction that

they pushed.

As soon as the boat could be towed a-stern, a great cry was set up,

that she began to move. A little after, a gentle wind just made itself

felt from the east, and the cry from the Rais was, Hoist the fore-sail

and put it a-back. This being immediately done, and a gentle breeze

filling the fore-sail at the time, they all pushed, and the vessel slid

gently off, free from the shoal. I cannot say I partook of the joy so

suddenly as the others did. I had always some fears a plank might have

been started; but we saw the advantage of a vessel being sewed, rather

than nailed together, as she not only was unhurt, but made very little

water. The people were all exceedingly tired, and nobody thought they

could enough praise the courage and readiness of Yasine. From that day

he grew into consideration with me, which increased ever after, till my

departure from Abyssinia.

The latitude of our place, at noon, had been 15° 32´ 12´´. I rectified

my quadrant, and hung it up. Seeing the clear of the _Lyre_ not far

from the meridian, I was willing to be certain of that dangerous place

we had fallen upon. By two observations of _Lucida Lyræ_, and _Lucida

Aquilæ_, and by a mean of both, I found the bank to be in lat. 15° 28´

15´´ north.

There was a circumstance, during the hurry of this transaction, that

gave us all reason to be surprised. The ghost was supposed to be again

seen on the boltsprit, as if pushing the vessel ashore; and as this was

breaking covenant with me, as a passenger, I thought it was time some

notice should be taken of him, since the Rais had referred it entirely

to me. I inquired who the persons were that had seen him. Two moors of

Hamazen were the first that perceived him, and afterwards a great part

of the crew had been brought to believe the reality of this vision.

I called them forward to examine them before the Rais, and Mahomet

Gibberti, and they declared that, during the night, they had seen him

go and come several times; once, he was pushing against the boltsprit,

another time he was pulling upon the rope, as if he had an anchor

ashore; after this he had a very long pole, or stick, in his hand, but

it seemed heavy and stiff, as if it had been made of iron, and when

the vessel began to move, he turned into a small blue flame, ran along

the gunnel on the larboard side of the ship, and, upon the vessel

going off, he disappeared. “Now,” said I, “it is plain by this change

of shape, that he has left us for ever, let us therefore see whether

he has done us any harm or not. Hath any of you any baggage stowed

forwards?” The strangers answered, “Yes, it is all there.” Then said

I, go forward, and see if every man has got his own. They all did this

without loss of time, when a great noise and confusion ensued; every

one was plundered of something, stibium, nails, brass wire, incense

and beads; in short, all the precious part of their little stores was

stolen.

All the passengers were now in the utmost despair, and began to charge

the sailors. “I appeal to you, Yasine and Mahomet Gibberti, said I,

whether these two moors who saw him oftenest, and were most intimate

with him, have not a chance of knowing where the things are hid; for in

my country, where ghosts are very frequent, they are always assisted

in the thefts they are guilty of, by those that see and converse with

them. I suppose therefore it is the same with Mahometan ghosts.” “The

very same, said Mahomet Gibberti and Yasine, as far as ever we heard.”

“Then go, Yasine, with the Rais, and examine that part of the ship

where the moors slept, while I keep them here; and take two sailors

with you, that know the secret places.” Before the search began,

however, one of them told Yasine where every thing was, and accordingly

all was found and restored. I would not have the reader imagine, that I

here mean to value myself, either upon any supernatural knowledge, or

extreme sagacity, in supposing that it was a piece of roguery from the

beginning, of which I never doubted. But while Yasine and the sailors

were busy pushing off the vessel, and I a-stern at an observation,

Mahomet Gibberti’s servant, sitting by his master, saw one of the moors

go to the repository of the baggage, and, after staying a little, come

out with a box and package in his hand. This he told his master, who

informed me, and the ghost finding his associates discovered, never was

seen any more.

The 12th, in the morning, we found that this shoal was a sand bank,

with a ridge of coral rocks upon it, which stretches hither from Selma,

and ends a little farther to the northward in deep water. At sun-rise

the islands bore as follow:--

Wowcan, distant 5 miles, S. S. E. ¼ E.

Selma, do. 3 do. S.

Megaida, do. 4 do. S. W.½ S.

Zober, do. 4 do. W. by S.¼ S.

Racka, do. 5 do. N. N. W.

Fursh, do. 4 do. N. W. by N.¼ N.

These islands lie in a semi-circle round this shoal. There were no

breakers upon it, the sea being so perfectly calm. I suppose if there

had been wind, it would have broken upon it, as I certainly saw it do

before we struck; between Megaida and Zober is a small sharp rock above

the surface of the sea.

We got under sail at six in the morning, but the wind was very fast

decaying, and soon after fell dead-calm. Towards eleven, as usual, it

freshened, and almost at due north. At noon I found our lat. to be 15°

29´ 33´´ north, from which we had the following bearings:--

Selma, distant 5 miles, S. E.½S.

Megaida, do. 4 do. S. S. E.

Zober, do. 2 do. S.

Dubia, do. 5 do. W. by S.¼S.

Racka, do. 1 do. N. W.

Beyoume, do. 5 do. N. W. by N.

Cigala, do. 6 do. N.

Fursh, do. 3 do. N. E. by N.¼N.

--and the rocks upon which we struck, E. by S.½S. something less than

five miles off.

At four o’clock in the afternoon we saw land, which our pilot told us

was the south end of Dahalac. It bore west by south, and was distant

about nine leagues. As our course was then west by north, I found that

we were going whither I had no intention to land, as my agreement was

to touch at Dahalac el Kibeer, which is the principal port, and on

the south end of the island, where the India ships formerly used to

resort, as there is deep water, and plenty of sea-room between that and

the main. But the freight of four sacks of dora, which did not amount

to ten shillings, was sufficient to make the Rais break his word, and

run a risk of cancelling all the meritorious services he had so long

performed for me. So certain is it, that none of these people can ever

do what is right, where the smallest trifle is thrown into the scale to

bias them from their duty.

At six in the evening we anchored near a small island called _Racka

Garbia_, or West Racka, in four fathom of stony-ground. By a meridian

altitude of _Lucida Aquilæ_, I concluded the lat. to be 15° 31´ 30´´

north, and our bearings as follow:--

Dallacken, distant 3 miles, N. E.¾E.

Dalgrousht, do. 5 do. S. E. by E.½S.

Dellesheb, do. 6 do. E. N. E.¾E.

Dubia, do. 11 do. E. by S.½S.

Racka Garbia, do. 2 do. S. W. by W.¼S.

On the 13th, a little after sun-rise, we continued our course west, and

a very little southerly, with little wind. At eight o’clock we passed

Dalgrousht, north by east about a league distance, and a new island,

Germ Malco west by north. At noon, I observed our latitude to be 15°

33´ 13´´ north; and our bearings as follow:--

Dallacken, distant 6 miles, E. by S.

Racka, do. 6 do. S. E. by S.

Germ Malco, do. 6 do. S. S. W.

Dalgrousht, do. 4 do. E. N. E.

Dennifarek, do. 7 do. N. N. W.

Seide el Arabi, do. 4 do. W. by S.

Dahal Couss, do. 9 do. N. W. by N.

The south cape of the island of Dahalac is called _Ras Shouke_, which,

in Arabic, means the Cape of Thorns, because upon it are a quantity

of sunt, or acacia, the thorny-tree which bears the gum-arabic. We

continued our course along the east side of Dahalac, and, at four

o’clock in the afternoon, saw Irwée, which is said to answer to the

centre of the island. It bore then south-west of us four miles. We

also saw two small islands, Tarza and Siah el Sezan; the first, north

by west three miles; the second, north-east by east, but something

farther. After having again violently struck on the coral rocks in the

entry, at sun-set we anchored in the harbour of Dobelew.

This harbour is in form circular, and sufficiently defended from all

winds, but its entrance is too narrow, and within, it is full of rocks.

The bottom of the whole port is covered with large ramifications of

white coral, with huge black stones; and I could no where observe

there were above three fathom water, when it was full sea. The pilot

indeed said there were seven, or twelve at the mouth; but so violent a

tide rushed in through the entrance, that no vessel could escape being

driven upon the rocks, therefore I made no draught of it.

Dobelew is a village three miles south-west of the harbour. It

consists of about eighty houses, built of stone drawn from the sea;

these calcine like shells, and make good enough morter, as well as

materials for building before burning. All the houses are covered with

bent-grass, like those of Arabia. The 17th, I got my large quadrant

a-shore, and observed the sun in the meridian in that village, and

determined the lat. of its south-west extremity, to be 15° 42´ 22´´

north.

Irwee is a village still smaller than Dobelew, about four miles

distant. From this observation, compared with our account, we computed

the southern cape of Dahalac, called _Ras Shouke_, to be in lat. 15°

27´ 30´´; and Ras Antalou, or the north cape, to be in lat. 15° 54´

30´´ north.

The whole length of the island, whose direction is from north-west to

south-east is thirty-seven miles, and its greatest breadth eighteen,

which did within a very little agree with the account the inhabitants

gave us, who made its length indeed something more.

Dahalac is by far the largest island in the Red Sea, as none, that we

had hitherto seen, exceeded five miles in length. It is low and even,

the soil fixed gravel and white sand, mixed with shells and other

marine productions. It is destitute of all sorts of herbage, at least

in summer, unless a small quantity of bent grass, just sufficient

to feed the few antelopes and goats that are on the island. There

is a very beautiful species of this last animal found here, small,

short-haired, with thin black sharp horns, having rings upon them, and

they are very swift of foot.

This island is, in many places, covered with large plantations of

Acacia trees, which grow to no height, seldom above eight feet, but

spread wide, and turn flat at top, probably by the influence of the

wind from the sea. Though in the neighbourhood of Abyssinia, Dahalac

does not partake of its seasons: no rain falls here, from the end of

March to the beginning of October; but, in the intermediate months,

especially December, January, and February, there are violent showers

for twelve hours at a time, which deluge the island, and fill the

cisterns so as to serve all next summer; for there are no hills nor

mountains in Dahalac, and consequently no springs. These cisterns

alone preserve the water, and of them there yet remain three hundred

and seventy, all hewn out of the solid rock. They say these were the

works of the Persians; it is more probable they were those of the first

Ptolemies. But whoever were the constructors of these magnificent

reservoirs, they were a very different people from those that now

possess them, who have not industry enough to keep one of the three

hundred and seventy clear for the use of man. All of them are open to

every sort of animal, and half full of the filth they leave there,

after drinking and washing in them. The water of Dobelew, and Irwée,

tasted strong of musk, from the dung of the goats and antelopes, and

the smell before you drink it is more nauseous than the taste; yet one

of these cisterns, cleaned and shut up with a door, might afford them

wholesome sweet water all the year over.

After the rains fall, a prodigious quantity of grass immediately

springs up; and the goats give the inhabitants milk, which in winter

is the principal part of their subsistence, for they neither plow nor

sow. All their employment is to work the vessels which trade to the

different parts of the coast. One half of the inhabitants is constantly

on the Arabian side, and by their labour is enabled to furnish with

[206]dora, and other provisions, the other half who stay at home;

and when their time is expired, they are relieved by the other half,

and supplied with necessaries in their turn. But the sustenance of

the poorer sort is entirely shell and other fish. Their wives and

daughters are very bold, and expert fisher-women. Several of them,

entirely naked, swam off to our vessel before we came to an anchor,

begging handfuls of wheat, rice, or dora. They are very importunate and

sturdy beggars, and not easily put off with denials. These miserable

people, who live in the villages not frequented by barks from Arabia,

are sometimes a whole year without tasting bread. Yet such is the

attachment to the place of their nativity, they prefer living in this

bare, barren, parched spot, almost in want of necessaries of every

kind, especially of these essential ones, bread and water, to those

pleasant and plentiful countries on both sides of them. This preference

we must not call strange, for it is universal: A strong attachment to

our native country, whatever is its condition, has been impressed by

Providence, for wise ends, in the breasts of all nations; from Lapland

to the Line, you find it written precisely in the same character.

There are twelve villages, or towns, in Dahalac, little different

in size from Dobelew; each has a plantation of doom-trees round it,

which furnish the only manufacture in the island. The leaves of this

tree, when dried, are of a glossy white, which might very easily be

mistaken for sattin; of these they make baskets of surprising beauty

and neatness, staining part of the leaves with red or black, and

working them into figures very artificially. I have known some of

these, resembling straw-baskets, continue full of water for twenty-four

hours, without one drop coming through. They sell these at Loheia

and Jidda, the largest of them for four commesh, or sixpence. This

is the employment, or rather amusement of the men who stay at home;

for they work but very moderately at it, and all of them indeed take

special care, not to prejudice their health by any kind of fatigue from

industry.

People of the better sort, such as the Shekh and his relations, men

privileged to be idle, and never exposed to the sun, are of a brown

complexion, not darker than the inhabitants of Loheia. But the common

sort employed in fishing, and those who go constantly to sea, are

not indeed black, but red, and little darker than the colour of new

mahogany. There are, besides, blacks among them, who come from Arkeeko

and the Main, but even these, upon marrying, grow less black in a

generation.

The inhabitants of Dahalac seemed to be a simple, fearful, and

inoffensive people. It is the only part of Africa, or Arabia, (call it

which you please) where you see no one carry arms of any kind; neither

gun, knife, nor sword, is to be seen in the hands of any one. Whereas,

at Loheia, and on all the coast of Arabia, and more particularly at

Yambo, every person goes armed; even the porters, naked, and groaning

under the weight of their burden, and heat of the day, have yet a

leather belt, in which they carry a crooked knife, so monstrously

long, that it needs a particular motion and address in walking, not to

lame the bearer. This was not always the case at Dahalac; several of

the Portuguese, on their first arrival here, were murdered, and the

island often treated ill, in revenge, by the armaments of that nation.

The men seem healthy. They told me they had no diseases among them,

unless sometimes in Spring, when the boats of Yemen and Jidda bring the

small-pox among them, and very few escape with life that are infected.

I could not observe a man among them that seemed to be sixty years old,

from which I infer, they are not long livers, though the air should be

healthy, as being near the channel, and as they have the north wind all

summer, which moderates the heat.

Of all the islands we had passed on this side the channel, Dahalac

alone is inhabited. It depends, as do all the rest, upon Masuah, and is

conferred by a firman from the Grand Signior, on the Basha of Jidda;

and, from him, on Metical Aga, then on the Naybe and his servants. The

present governor’s name was Hagi Mahomet Abdel cader, of whom I have

before spoken, as having sailed from Jidda to Masuah before me, where

he did me all the dis-service in his power, and nearly procured my

assassination. The revenue of this governor consists in a goat brought

to him monthly by each of the twelve villages. Every vessel, that puts

in there for Masuah, pays him also a pound of coffee, and every one

from Arabia, a dollar or pataka. No sort of small money is current at

Dahalac, excepting Venetian glass-beads, old and new, of all sizes and

colours, broken and whole.

Although this is the miserable state of Dahalac at present, matters

were widely different in former times. The pearl fishery flourished

greatly here, under the Ptolemies; and even long after, in the time

of the Caliphs, it produced a great revenue, and, till the sovereigns

of Cairo, of the present miserable race of slaves, began to withdraw

themselves from their dependency on the port (for even after the

reign of Selim, and the conquests of Arabia, under Sinan Basha, the

Turkish gallies were still kept up at Suez, whilst Masuah and Suakem

had Bashas) Dahalac was the principal island that furnished the pearl

fishers, or divers. It was, indeed, the chief port for the fishery on

the southern part of the Red Sea, as Suakem was on the north; and the

Basha of Masuah passed part of every summer here, to avoid the heat at

his place of residence on the Continent.

The fishery extended from Dahalac and its islands nearly to lat. 20°.

The inhabited islands furnished each a bark, and so many divers, and

they were paid in wheat, flour, &c. such a portion to each bark,

for their use, and so much to leave with their family, for their

subsistence; so that a few months employment furnished them with every

thing necessary for the rest of the year. The fishery was rented, in

latter times, to the Basha of Suakem, but there was a place between

Suakem, and the supposed river Frat, in lat. 21° 28´ north, called

_Gungunnah_, which was reserved to the Grand Signior in particular, and

a special officer was appointed to receive the pearls on the spot, and

send them to Constantinople. The pearls found there were of the largest

size, and inferior to none in water, or roundness. Tradition says, that

this was, exclusively, the property of the Pharaohs, by which is meant,

in Arabian manuscrip’s, the old kings of Egypt before Mahomet.

In the same extent, between Dahalac and Suakem, was another very

valuable fishery, that of[207] tortoises, from which the finest shells

of that kind were produced, and a great trade was carried on with

the East Indies, (China especially) at little expence, and with very

considerable profits. The animal itself (the turtle) was in great

plenty, between lat. 18° and 20°, in the neighbourhood of those low

sandy islands, laid down in my chart.

The India trade flourished exceedingly at Suakem and Masuah, as it had

done in the prosperous time of the Caliphs. The Banians, (then the

only traders from the East Indies) being prohibited by the Mahometans

to enter the Holy Land of the Hejaz, carried all their vessels to

Konfodah in Yemen, and from these two ports had, in return, at the

first hand, pearls, tortoise-shell, which sold for its weight of gold,

in China; Tibbar, or pure gold of Sennaar, (that from Abyssinia being

less so) elephant’s teeth, rhinoceros horns for turning, plenty of gum

Arabic, cassia, myrrh, frankincense, and many other precious articles;

these were all bartered, at Masuah and Suakem, for India goods. But

nothing which violence and injustice can ruin, ever can subsist under

Turkish government. The Bashas paying dearly for their confirmation

at Constantinople, and uncertain if they should hold this office long

enough to make reimbursements for the money they had already advanced,

had not patience to stay till the course of trade gradually indemnified

them, but proceeding from extortion to extortion, they at last became

downright robbers, seizing the cargo of the ships wherever they could

find them, and exercising the most shocking cruelties on the person

they belonged to, slaying the factors alive, and impaling those that

remained in their hands, to obtain, by terror, remittances from India.

The trade was thus abandoned, and the revenue ceased. There were no

bidders at Constantinople for the farm, nobody had trade in their heads

when their lives were every hour in danger. Dahalac became therefore

dependent on the Basha of Jidda, and he appointed an[208] Aga, who paid

him a moderate sum, and appropriated to himself the provisions and

salary allowed for the pearl fishery, or the greatest part of them.

The Aga at Suakem endeavoured, in vain, to make the Arabs and people

near him work without salary, so they abandoned an employment which

produced nothing but punishment; and, in time, they grew ignorant of

the fishery in which they once were so well skilled and had been

educated. This great nursery of seamen therefore was lost, and the

gallies, being no longer properly manned, were either given up to rot,

or turned into merchant-ships for carrying the coffee between Yemen and

Suez, these vessels were unarmed, and indeed incapable of armament, and

unserviceable by their construction; besides, they were ill-manned, and

so carelessly and ignorantly navigated, that there was not a year, that

one or more did not founder, not from stress of weather, (for they were

sailing in a pond) or from any thing, but ignorance, or inattention.

Trade took again its ancient course towards Jidda. The Sherriffe of

Mecca, and all the Arabs, were interested to get it back to Arabia, and

with it the government of their own countries. That the pearl fishing

might, moreover, no longer be an allurement for the Turkish power to

maintain itself here, and oppress them, they discouraged the practice

of diving, till it grew into desuetude; this brought insensibly all the

people of the islands to the continent, where they were employed in

coasting vessels, which continues their only occupation to this day.

This policy succeeded; the princes of Arabia became again free from

the Turkish power, now but a shadow, and Dahalac, Masuah, and Suakem,

returned to their ancient masters, to which they are subject at this

instant, governed indeed by Shekhs of their own country, and preserving

only the name of Turkish government, each being under the command of a

robber and assassin.

The immense treasures in the bottom of the Red Sea, have thus been

abandoned for near two hundred years, though they never were richer

in all probability than at present. No nation can now turn them to any

profit, but the English East India Company, more intent on multiplying

the number of their enemies, and weakening themselves by spreading

their inconsiderable force over new conquests, than creating additional

profit by engaging in new articles of commerce. A settlement upon the

river Frat, which never yet has belonged to any one but wandering

Arabs, would open them a market both for coarse and fine goods from

the southern frontiers of Morocco, to Congo and Angola, and set the

commerce of pearls and tortoise shell on foot again. All this section

of the Gulf from Suez, as I am told, is in their charter, and twenty

ships might be employed on the Red Sea, without any violation of

territorial claims. The myrrh, the frankincense, some cinnamon, and

variety of drugs, are all in the possession of the weak king of Adel,

an usurper, tyrant, and Pagan, without protection, and willing to

trade with any superior power, that only would secure him a miserable

livelihood.

If this does not take place, I am persuaded the time is not far off,

when these countries shall, in some shape or other, be subjects of a

new master. Were another Peter, another Elizabeth, or, better than

either, another Catharine to succeed the present, in an empire already

extended to China;--were such a sovereign, unfettered by European

politics, to prosecute that easy task of pushing those mountebanks of

sovereigns and statesmen, these stage-players of government, the Turks,

into Asia, the inhabitants of the whole country, who in their hearts

look upon her already as their sovereign, because she is the head of

their religion, would, I am persuaded, submit without a blow that

instant the Turks were removed on the other side of the Hellespont.

There are neither horses, dogs, sheep, cows, nor any sort of quadruped,

but goats, asses, a few half-starved camels and antelopes at Dahalac,

which last are very numerous. The inhabitants have no knowledge of

fire-arms, and there are no dogs, nor beasts of prey in the island to

kill them; they catch indeed some few of them in traps.

On our arrival at Dahalac, on the 14th, we saw swallows there, and, on

the 16th, they were all gone. On our landing at Masuah, on the 19th,

we saw a few; the 21st and 22d they were in great flocks; on the 2d of

October they were all gone. It was the blue long-tailed swallow, with

the flat head; but there was, likewise, the English martin, black, and

darkish grey in the body, with a white breast.

The language at Dahalac is that of the _Shepherds_; Arabic too is

spoken by most of them. From this island we see the high mountains of

_Habesh_, running in an even ridge like a wall, parallel to the coast,

and down to Suakem.

Before I leave Dahalac, I must observe, that, in a wretched chart,

in the hands of some of the English gentlemen at Jidda, there were

soundings marked all along the east-coast of Dahalac, from thirteen

to thirty fathoms, within two leagues of the shore. Now, the islands

I have mentioned occupy a much larger space than that; yet none of

them are set down in the chart; and, where the soundings are marked

thirty, forty, and even ninety fathom, all is full of shoals under

water, with islands and sunken coral rocks, some of them near the

surface, though the breakers do not appear upon them, partly owing to

the waves being steadied by the violence of the current, and somewhat

kept off by the island. This dangerous error is, probably, owing to the

draughts being composed from different journals, where the pilot has

had different ways of measuring his distance; some using forty-two feet

to a thirty-second glass, and some twenty-eight, both of them being

considered as one competent division of a degree; the distances are all

too short, and the soundings, and every thing else, consequently out of

their places.

Whoever has to navigate in the Abyssinian side of the channel, will do

well to pass the island Dahalac on the east side, or, at least, not

approach the outmost island, Wowcan, nearer than ten leagues; but,

keeping about twelve leagues meridian distance west of Jibbel Teir, or

near mid-channel between that and the island, they will then be out

of danger; being between lat. 15° 20´ and 15° 40´, which last is the

latitude, as I observed, of Saiel Noora, and which is the northern

island, we saw, three leagues off Ras Antalou, the northmost cape of

Dahalac.

Both at our entering into the port of Dobelew on the 14th, and our

going out of it on the 17th, we found a tide running like a sluice,

which we apprehended, in spite of our sails being full, would force us

out of our course upon the rocks. I imagine it was then at its greatest

strength, it now being near the equinoctial full moon. The channel

between Terra Firma and the island being very narrow, and the influence

of the sun and moon then nearly in the equator, had occasioned this

unusual violence of the tide, by forcing a large column of water

through so narrow a space.

On the 17th, after we had examined our vessel, and found she had

received no damage, and provided water (bad as it was) for the

remainder of our voyage, we sailed from Dobelew, but, the wind being

contrary, we were obliged to come to an anchor, at three quarters past

four o’clock, in ten fathom water, about three leagues from that port,

which was to the south-west of us; the bearings and distances are as

follow:--

Derghiman Kibeer, distant 10 miles, W. S. W.

Deleda, do. 7 do. W. by N.

Saiel Sezan, do. 4 do. S. E.

Zeteban, do. 5 do. N. E.

Dahalac, do. 12 do. S. S. W.

Dahalhalem, do. 12 do. N. W. by N.

On the 18th, we sailed, standing off and on, with a contrary wind at

north-west, and a strong current in the same direction. At half past

four in the morning we were forced to come to an anchor. There is

here a very shallow and narrow passage, which I sounded myself in the

boat, barely one and a half fathom, or nine feet of water, and we were

obliged to wait the filling of the tide. This is called the _Bogaz_,

which signifies, as I have before observed, the narrow and shallow

passage. It is between the island Dahalac and the south point of the

island of Noora, about forty fathom broad, and, on each side full of

dangerous rocks. The islands then bore,

Derghiman Seguier, distant 3 miles, S. W.

Derghiman Kibeer, do. 5 do. S.

Dahalhalem, do. 4 do. E. N. E.

Noora, do. 2 do. N. E. by N.

The tide now entered with an unusual force, and ran more like the Nile,

or a torrent, or stream conducted to turn a mill, than the sea, or the

effects of a tide. At half past one o’clock, there was water enough

to pass, and we soon were hurried through it by the violence of the

current, driving us in a manner truly tremendous.

At half after three, we passed between Ras Antalou, the North Cape of

Dahalac, and the small island Dahalottom, which has some trees upon

it. On this island is the tomb of Shekh[209] Abou Gafar, mentioned by

Poncet, in his voyage, who mistakes the name of the saint for that of

the island. The strait between the Cape and the island is a mile and

a half broad. At four in the afternoon, we anchored near a small

island called _Surat_. All between this and Dahalac, there is no

water exceeding seven fathom, till you are near Dahalac Kibeer, whose

port has water for large vessels, but is open to every point, from

south-west to north-west, and has a great swell.

All ships coming to the westward of Dahalac had better keep within the

island Drugerut, between that and the main, where there is plenty of

water, and room enough to work, tho’, even here, there are islands

a-head; and clear weather, as well as a good look-out, will always be

necessary.

On the 19th of September, at three quarters past six in the morning, we

sailed from our anchorage near Surat. At a quarter past nine, Dargeli,

an island with trees upon it, bore N. W. by W. two miles and a half

distant; and Drugerut three leagues and a half north and by east, when

it fell calm.

At eleven o’clock, we passed the island of Dergaiham, bearing N. by

East, three miles distant, and at five in the afternoon we came to an

anchor in the harbour of Masuah, having been[210] seventeen days on our

passage, including the day we first went on board, though this voyage,

with a favourable wind, is generally made in three days; it often has,

indeed, been sailed in less.

The reader will observe, that many of the islands begin with Dahal,

and some with Del, which last is only an abbreviation of the former,

and both of them signify _island_ in the language of Beja, otherwise

called _Geez_, or the language of the shepherds. Massowa, too, though

generally spelled in the manner I have here expressed it, should

properly be written _Masuah_, which is the harbour or water of the

_Shepherds_. Of this nation, so often mentioned already in this work,

as well as the many other people less powerful and numerous than they

that inhabit the countries between the tropics, or frontiers of Egypt

and the Line, it will be necessary now to speak in some detail,

although the connection they all have with the trade of the Red Sea,

and with each other, will oblige me to go back to very early times,

to the invention of letters, and all the useful arts, which had their

beginning here, were carefully nourished, and came probably to as great

a perfection as they did ever since arrive at any other period.

TRAVELS TO DISCOVER THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.