After We Were
In, The Wind Came N.N.E. And We Remained All Day At Anchor.
The 21st we
left the shoal with fine weather, the wind being at W.N.W. and sailed N.
keeping about half a league from the land; and an hour after sunrise we
came to a long and fair point of land called by Ptolomy the promontory
of Diogenes.
On the north side of this point is a large fine bay named
Doroo, and at the extremity of this long bare point there is a large
round tower like a pillar. At the entrance of this harbour or channel
there are six fathoms water, which diminishes gradually inwards to
three. The ground is hard clay, and the bay is very large with many
creeks and nooks within, and many islands; many of these creeks
penetrating deep into the main-land, so that in every place there may be
many vessels hidden without being observed from the other branches of
the harbour. A quarter of a league off to sea from the mouth of this
harbour there is a shoal which defends it completely from the admission
of any sea, as this shoal is above water, and has no passage except by
the entrance already mentioned, which trends E. by N. and W. by S. A
cannon-shot from this bay there is a great well, but the water is very
brackish.
[Footnote 293: Considering the very small rise and fall of the tide at
Swakem, the text in this place ought perhaps only to have been
inches. - E.]
On the 22d we left this harbour of Doroo at day light, proceeding by
means of our oars, and found the sea very full of rocks, so that
escaping from some we got foul of others, and at half past ten o'clock
we had to fasten our vessels to the rocks. Proceeding onwards, we got
towards evening in with the land, and having doubled a point we entered
a very large bay named Fuxaa, or Fushaa, three leagues and a half
beyond Doroo, the coast between stretching N. and E. with a tendency
towards N.W. and S.E. This bay of Fushaa is remarkable by a very high
sharp peaked hill, in lat. 20 15' N. In the very mouth of the harbour
there are two very low points, lying N. by E. and S. by W. from each
other, distant a league and half. As no great sea can enter here it is a
very good harbour, having 10 and 12 fathoms water on a mud bottom,
diminishing inwards to five fathoms. Along the land within the bay on
the south side there are nine small islands in a row, and in other
places there are some scattered islets, all very low and encompassed by
shoals. The land at this bay is very dry and barren, and it has no
water.
On the 25th we continued along the coast, having many rocks to seawards
about a league off; and at ten o'clock we entered a very large harbour
named Arekea, four leagues beyond Fushaa, the coast between running
N. and S. with some tendence to N.W. and S.E. Arekea, the strongest
and most defensible harbour I have ever seen, is 22 leagues beyond
Swakem. In ancient times it was called Dioscori according to Pliny.
In the middle of the entry to this port there is a considerable island,
about a cross-bow shot in length and breadth, having a bank or shoal
running from it on the south side to the main land, so shallow that
nothing can pass over it. But on the north side of this island the
channel is about a cross-bow shot in breadth and 15 fathoms deep,
running N.W. and S.E. and on both sides this channel is very shallow and
full of rocks, the fair way being in the middle. This channel is about a
gun-shot in length, after which the coasts on both sides recede and form
within a large fine and secure harbour, about a league long and half a
league broad, deep in the middle but full of shoals near the land, and
it hath no fresh water. At this place it was agreed to send back all the
ships to Massua, and to proceed with only sixteen small gallies or row
boats.
Arrangements being accordingly formed, we set sail from Arekea on the
30th at noon, and came to an anchor in a port called Salaka four
leagues beyond Arekea and 96 from Swakem, the coast trending N. and
S. with a slight deviation to N.E. and S.W. The land next the sea has
many risings or hillocks, behind which there are high mountains. It must
be noted that all the land from Arekea onwards close behind the shore
puts on this uneven appearance, whereas before that it was all plain,
till in the inland it rises in both into high mountains. The 31st we
sailed from Salaka, and an hour before sunset we made fast to the
rocks of a shoal a league from the land and 17 leagues from Salaka,
being 43 leagues from Swakem. From the port of Salaka the coast begins
to wind very much; and from Raseldoaer or Ras al Dwaer, it runs very
low to the N.N.E. ending in a sandy point where there are 13 little
hillocks or knobs of stone, which the Moorish pilots said were graves.
From this point of the Calmes[294] about two leagues, the coast
runneth N.N.W. to a shoal which is 43 leagues from Swakem. This point
is the most noted in all these seas, as whoever sails from Massua,
Swakem, and other places for Jiddah, Al Cossir, and Toro, must
necessarily make this point. The sea for the last seventeen leagues is
of such a nature that no rules or experience can suffice for sailing it
in safety, so that the skilful as well as the unskilful must pass it at
all hazards, and save themselves as it were by chance, for it is so full
of numerous and great shoals, so interspersed everywhere with rocks, and
so many and continual banks, that it seems better fitted for being
travelled on foot than sailed even in small boats.
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