De Gama Did Not Burn This Town, In Reverence For The
Relics Of St Catharine And The Monastery And Religious Men There, Which
He Visited At Their Request.
He was the first European commander who had
taken that city, where he knighted several of his followers, an
Honour
much prized by those who received it, and which was envied; afterwards
even by the emperor Charles V. From thence De Gama proceeded to Suez;
and after many brave but fruitless attempts to sound the harbour, De
Gama determined to go himself in open day to view the gallies. He
accordingly landed and saw the enemies but endeavouring to force his way
towards them, the enemies shot poured thick from the town, and 2000
Turkish horse broke out from an ambush, by which the Portuguese were
reduced to great straits. Though the Portuguese cannon slew a good many
of the enemy, their numbers were so much superior that the Portuguese
were obliged to retreat with some loss, and much grieved that the object
of their expedition was frustrated. Thus far we have deemed necessary to
premise, relative to the design and success of the expedition, from De
Faria and other authors; because the journal of Don Juan de Castro is
almost entirely confined to observations respecting the places visited
in the voyage, and gives little or no information respecting these
particulars.
The rutter or journal must be allowed to be very curious. - The author,
like an exact and diligent navigator, has not only given the course and
distance from one place to another, with the latitudes of the principal
ports and head-lands; but has noticed the minute windings of the coast,
and the situations of islands, with observations on the tides, currents,
shoals, sand-banks, and other particulars respecting the Red Sea. Yet,
far from confining himself to mere nautical remarks, he has given an
account of all the places at which he touched, together with accounts of
the countries and the inhabitants, so far as he was able to collect from
his own observations, or the accounts of such as he was able to converse
with, particularly the natives. Don John hath gone farther yet, and has
even attempted to draw a parallel between the ancient and modern
geography of this sea. If in all points of this last he may not have
succeeded, the great difficulty of the task, owing to the obscurity of
the subject, is to be considered: most of the ancient places having been
destroyed; the ancient names of others long since out of use and
forgotten; and that very little is known of these coasts by Europeans,
even at this day. For these reasons, as the conjectures of the author
are often erroneous respecting the ancient geography, and as at best
they are very uncertain, we shall for the most part insert them by way
of notes, with our own remarks respecting them[256]. Whether the
altitudes have been taken by Don Juan with that precision which
geography requires, may also be in some measure questioned; since we
find there was a crack in the instrument employed, the size of which
is not mentioned; neither were all the observations repeated.
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