These Two Mountains Are About
Two Leagues Short Of The Port Of Sharm-Al-Kiman.
Gualibo, which is
122 leagues beyond Swakem, is very like the port of Sharm-al-Kiman;
except that the one is environed by many mountains, while the land round
the other is an extensive plain.
The entry to this port is between
certain rocks or shoals on which the sea breaks with much force, but the
entry is deep and large. After sunrise on the 13th we left the port of
Gualibo, and as the wind was strong at N.W. making a heavy sea, we
rowed along shore, and at ten in the morning went into a port named
Tuna, a league and half beyond Gualibo. Tuna is a small foul
haven, beyond Swakem 123 leagues and a half, in lat. 25 deg. 30' N. The
entrance is between rocks, and within it is so much encumbered with
shoals and rocks that it is a small and sorry harbour; but round the
point forming the north side of this harbour, there is a good haven and
road-stead against the wind at N.W. the land round it being barren sand.
To the N.W. of this there are three sharp mountains of rock, as if to
indicate the situation of the harbour. One hour before sunset we
fastened ourselves to a shoal a league beyond Tuna. This coast, from a
league beyond Gualibo, to another point a league and a half beyond
this shoal, trends N.N.W. and S.S.E distance four leagues.
The 14th April we rowed along shore, the sea running very high so as to
distress the rowers; but beating up against wind and sea till past noon,
we came into a fine bay, in the bottom of which we came to anchor in an
excellent haven. This day and night we went about 5 leagues, and were
now about 129 leagues beyond Swakem. For these five leagues the coast
extends N.W. and S.E. the land within the coast being in some places low
and plain, while it is mountainous in others. By day-light on the 15th
we were a league short of Al Kossir, which we reached an hour and
half after sunrise, and cast anchor in the harbour. During the past
night and the short part of this day we had advanced about seven
leagues, the coast extending N.N.W. and S.S.E. According to Pliny, in
the sixth book of his Natural History, and Ptolomy in his third book of
Africa, this place of Al Kossir was anciently named Phioteras[307].
All the land from hence to Arsinoe, at the northern extremity of the
Red Sea, was anciently called Enco. This place is about 15 or 16 days
journey from the nearest part of the Nile, directly west. This is the
only port on all this coast to which provisions are brought from the
land of Egypt, now called Riffa; and from this port of Kossir all
the towns on the coast of the Red Sea are provided. In old times, the
town of Kossir was built two leagues farther up the coast; but being
found incommodious, especially as the harbour at that place was too
small, it was removed to this place. To this day the ruins of old
Kossir are still visible, and there I believe was Philoteras. New
Kossir by observations twice verified is in lat. 26 deg.15' N. being 136
leagues beyond Swakem. The port is a large bay quite open to the
eastern winds, which on this coast blow with great force. Right over
against the town there are some small shoals on which the sea breaks,
between which and the shore is the anchorage for frigates and ships
coming here for a loading. The town is very small and perhaps in the
most miserable and barren spot in the world. The houses are more like
hovels for cattle, some built of stone and clay, and others of sod,
having no roofs except a few matts which defend the inhabitants from the
sun, and from rain if any happen now and then to fall as it were by
chance, as in this place it so seldom rains as to be looked upon as a
wonder. In the whole neighbouring country on the coast, fields,
mountains, or hills, there groweth no kind of herb, grass, tree, or
bush; and nothing is to be seen but black scorched mountains and a
number of bare hillocks, which environ the whole place from sea to sea,
like an amphitheatre of barrenness and sterility, most melancholy to
behold. Any flat ground there is, is a mere dry barren sand mixed with
gravel. The port even is the worst I have seen on all this coast, and
has no fish, though all the other ports and channels through which we
came have abundance and variety. It has no kind of cattle; and the
people are supplied from three wells near the town, the water of which
differs very little from that of the sea.
[Footnote 307: In Purchas, Al Kossir is named Alcocer. Don John thinks
this place to be the Philoteras of Ptolomy; but Dr Pocock places it
2 deg.40' more to the north, making Kossir Berenice, which is highly
probable, as it is still the port of Kept, anciently Coptos, or of
Kus near it, both on the Nile, as well as the nearest port to the Nile
on all that coast, which Berenice was. Dr Pocock supposes old Kossir
to have been Myos Hormos: but we rather believe it to have been
Berenice. - Ast.]
The most experienced of the Moors had never heard of the name of
Egypt[308], but call the whole land from Al Kossir to Alexandria by
the name of Riffa[309], which abounds in all kinds of victuals and
provisions more than any other part of the world, together with great
abundance of cattle, horses, and camels, there not being a single foot
of waste land in the whole country.
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