I Do Not, However Reprove The Opinion Of Former Portuguese
Navigators; But I Affirm, That Having Gone Through This Sea Oftener Than
They, And Having Seen Its Whole Extent, While They Only Saw Small
Portions, I Never Saw Any Such Thing.
Every person with whom I conversed
wondered much at our calling it the Red Sea, as they knew no other name
for it than the sea of Mecca[335].
On the 9th of August 1541, we entered
the port of Anchediva, where we remained till the 21st of that month,
when we went in foists or barks and entered the port of Goa, whence we
set out on this expedition on the 31st of December 1540, almost eight
months before.
[Footnote 335: This might have been the case among the pilots at this
time; but among Arabic geographers it is likewise called the Sea of
Hejaz, the Sea of Yaman, and the Sea of Kolzum. - Astl.]
Table of Latitudes observed in the Journal of Don Juan[336].
Deg. Min.
Socotora, 12 40
Bab-al-Mondub[A] 12 15
Sarbo port,[B] 15 76[337]
Shaback, scarcely 19 0
A nameless island , 19 0
Tradate, harbour 19 50
Fushaa, bay 20 15
Farate, river 21 40
Ras-al-Jidid, port[B] 22 0
Comol, port 22 30
Ras-al-Nef, Cape 24 0
Swairt island 24 10
Gaudenauchi, port 24 40
Tuna, haven 25 30
Kossir[A] 26 15
Safanj-al-bahr, island 27 0
Island, 2 leagues N.W. from Sheduan 27 40
Toro, town 28 10
Anchorage, 20 leagues farther 29 17
Suez 29 45
[Footnote 336: In this Table [A] denotes two observations having been
made at the place; [B] indicates more observations than two; and all the
rest only one. All of course north. - E.]
[Footnote 337: In the enumeration of latitudes in Astleys Collection
this is set down as 15 deg. 17 min. but in the text of Purchas it is
stated as here. - E.]
SECTION XI.
Description of the Sea of Kolzum, otherwise called the Arabian Gulf,
or the Red Sea. Extracted from the Geography of Abulfeda[338].
The following description of the Red Sea was written by Ismael
Abulfeda prince of Hamah in Syria, the ancient Epiphania, who died
in the 733d year of the Hejirah or Mahometan era, corresponding with
the year 1332 of the Christian computation, after having lived sixty-one
years, twenty two of which he was sovereign of that principality.
Greaves has mistaken both the length of his reign, which he makes only
three years, and the time of his death[339]. Abulfeda was much addicted
to the study of geography and history, and wrote books on both of these
subjects, which are in great estimation in the East. His geography
written in 721, A.D. 1321, consists of tables of the latitudes and
longitudes of places, in imitation of Ptolemy, with descriptions, under
the title of Takwin al Boldan. No fewer than five or six translations
have been made of this work, but by some accident or other none of these
have ever been published. The only parts of this work that have been
printed are the tables of Send and Hend, or India, published in the
French collection of Voyages and Travels by Thevenot; and those of
Khowarazm or Karazm, Mawara'l-nahar, or Great Bukharia, and Arabia.
The two former were published in 1650, with a Latin translation by Dr
Greaves; and all the three by Hudson, in the third volume of the Lesser
Greek Geographers, in 1712; from which latter work this description of
the Red Sea is extracted, on purpose to illustrate the two preceding
journals, and to shew that there really is such a gulf on the coast of
Arabia as that mentioned by the ancients, that geographers may not be
misled by the mistake of Don Juan de Castro. In this edition, the words
inserted between parenthesis are added on purpose to accommodate the
names to the English orthography, or to make the description more
strictly conformable to the Arabic. The situations or geographical
positions are here thrown out of the text, to avoid embarrassment, and
formed into a table at the end. We cannot however warrant any of them,
as those which may have been settled by actual observation are not
distinguished from such as may not have had that advantage; which indeed
is the general fault of oriental tables of latitude and longitude. The
latitude of Al Kossir comes pretty near that formed by Don Juan de
Castro; but that of Al Kolzum must err above one degree, while that of
Swakem is more than two degrees erroneous. - Ast.
[Footnote 338: Astley, I. 130. We have adopted this article from Astleys
Collection, that nothing useful or curious may be omitted. In the
present time, when the trade beyond the Cape of Good Hope is about to be
thrown open, it might be highly useful to publish a series of Charts of
all the coasts and islands of the great Eastern Ocean; and among others,
a Chart of the Red Sea, with a dissertation on its geography and
navigation, might be made of singular interest and utility. - E.]
[Footnote 339: See Gagnier's preface to the life of Mahomet by
Abu'lfeda; and the preface of Shulten to that of Saladin - Astl. I. 130.
d.]
The author begins his description of the sea of Kolzum or of Yaman
at Al Kolzum[340], a small city at the north end of this sea; which
from thence runs south, inclining a little towards the east, as far as
al Kasir (al Kossir) the port of Kus[341]. Hence it continues its
course south, bending somewhat westward to about Aidab (Aydhab[342].)
The coast passes afterwards directly south to Sawakan (Swakem), a
small city in the land of the blacks, (or al Sudan). Proceeding thence
south, it encompasses the island of Dahlak, which is not far from the
western shore. Afterwards advancing in the same direction, it washes the
shores of al Habash (Ethiopia or Abyssinia), as far as the cape or
mountain of al Mandab (or al Mondub), at the mouth of the Bahr al
Kolzum or Red Sea, which here terminates; the Bahr al Hind, or Indian
Sea flowing into it at this place.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 152 of 217
Words from 154266 to 155314
of 221361
