We Met Here With
New Delays; The Fleet That Was To Transport Us Did Not Appear, The
Patriarch Lost All Patience, And His Zeal So Much Affected The
Commander At Diou, That He Undertook To Equip A Vessel For Us, And
Pushed The Work Forward With The Utmost Diligence.
At length, the
long-expected ships entered the port; we were overjoyed, we were
transported, and prepared to go on board.
Many persons at Diou,
seeing the vessels so well fitted out, desired leave to go this
voyage along with us, imagining they had an excellent opportunity of
acquiring both wealth and honour. We committed, however, one great
error in setting out, for having equipped our ships for
privateering, and taken no merchandise on board, we could not touch
at any of the ports of the Red Sea. The patriarch, impatient to be
gone, took leave in the most tender manner of the governor and his
other friends, recommended our voyage to the Blessed Virgin, and in
the field, before we went on shipboard, made a short exhortation, so
moving and pathetic, that it touched the hearts of all who heard it.
In the evening we went on board, and early the next morning being
the 3rd of April, 1625, we set sail.
After some days we discovered about noon the island Socotora, where
we proposed to touch. The sky was bright and the wind fair, nor had
we the least apprehension of the danger into which we were falling,
but with the utmost carelessness and jollity held on our course. At
night, when our sailors, especially the Moors, were in a profound
sleep (for the Mohammedans, believing everything forewritten in the
decrees of God, and not alterable by any human means, resign
themselves entirely to Providence), our vessel ran aground upon a
sand bank at the entrance of the harbour. We got her off with the
utmost difficulty, and nothing but a miracle could have preserved
us. We ran along afterwards by the side of the island, but were
entertained with no other prospect than of a mountainous country,
and of rocks that jutted out over the sea, and seemed ready to fall
into it. In the afternoon, putting into the most convenient ports
of the island, we came to anchor; very much to the amazement and
terror of the inhabitants, who were not used to see any Portuguese
ships upon their coasts, and were therefore under a great
consternation at finding them even in their ports. Some ran for
security to the mountains, others took up arms to oppose our
landing, but were soon reconciled to us, and brought us fowls, fish,
and sheep, in exchange for India calicoes, on which they set a great
value. We left this island early the next morning, and soon came in
sight of Cape Gardafui, so celebrated heretofore under the name of
the Cape of Spices, either because great quantities were then found
there, or from its neighbourhood to Arabia the Happy, even at this
day famous for its fragrant products. It is properly at this cape
(the most eastern part of Africa) that the Gulf of Arabia begins,
which at Babelmandel loses its name, and is called the Red Sea.
Here, though the weather was calm, we found the sea so rough, that
we were tossed as in a high wind for two nights; whether this
violent agitation of the water proceeded from the narrowness of the
strait, or from the fury of the late storm, I know not; whatever was
the cause, we suffered all the hardships of a tempest. We continued
our course towards the Red Sea, meeting with nothing in our passage
but a gelve, or kind of boat, made of thin boards, sewed together,
with no other sail than a mat. We gave her chase, in hopes of being
informed by the crew whether there were any Arabian vessels at the
mouth of the strait; but the Moors, who all entertain dismal
apprehensions of the Franks, plied their oars and sail with the
utmost diligence, and as soon as they reached land, quitted their
boat, and scoured to the mountains. We saw them make signals from
thence, and imagining they would come to a parley, sent out our boat
with two sailors and an Abyssin, putting the ships off from the
shore, to set them free from any suspicion of danger in coming down.
All this was to no purpose, they could not be drawn from the
mountain, and our men had orders not to go on shore, so they were
obliged to return without information. Soon after we discovered the
isle of Babelmandel, which gives name to the strait so called, and
parts the sea that surrounds it into two channels; that on the side
of Arabia is not above a quarter of a league in breadth, and through
this pass almost all the vessels that trade to or from the Red Sea.
The other, on the side of Aethiopia, though much larger, is more
dangerous, by reason of the shallows, which make it necessary for a
ship, though of no great burthen, to pass very near the island,
where the channel is deeper and less embarrassed. This passage is
never made use of but by those who would avoid meeting with the
Turks who are stationed on the coast of Arabia; it was for this
reason that we chose it. We passed it in the night, and entered
that sea, so renowned on many accounts in history, both sacred and
profane.
In our description of this famous sea, an account of which may
justly be expected in this place, it is most convenient to begin
with the coast of Arabia, on which part at twelve leagues from the
mouth stands the city of Moca, a place of considerable trade. Forty
leagues farther is the Isle of Camaram, whose inhabitants are
annoyed with little serpents, which they call basilisks, which,
though very poisonous and deadly, do not, as the ancients have told
us, kill with their eyes, or if they have so fatal a power, it is
not at least in this place.
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