It is a
singularity in all the rivers or harbours which I have seen on this
coast, that they have no bars or banks at their mouths, which are
generally deeper than within.
On the land round this port, I found
certain trees which in their trunk and bark resembled cork-trees, but
very different in all other respects. Their leaves were very large,
wonderfully thick, and of a deep green, crossed with large veins. They
were then in flower, and their flowers in the bud resembled the flowers
of the mallow when in that state: But such as were opened were white,
and like the white cockle. On cutting a bough or leaf there run out a
great stream of milk, as from the dug of a goat. On all this coast I saw
no other trees, except a grove a little beyond Massua, in some marshy
ground near the sea. Besides these trees, there are some valleys inland
producing a few capers, the leaves of which are eaten by the Moors, who
say they be appropriate to the joynts. On the 4th of April, from
sunrise till eleven o'clock, the wind blew a storm from the N.W. after
which there was much and loud thunder, accompanied with hail, the stones
being the largest I ever saw. With the thunder the wind veered about to
every point of the compass, and at last it settled in the north. This
day I carried my instruments on shore, when I found the variation 1-1/4
degree north-east[297], and the latitude by many observations 22 deg. N.
Though these observations were made on shore with great care, so that I
never stirred the instrument when once set till the end of my
observations, I am satisfied there must be some error; because the great
heat cracked the plate of ivory in the middle, so that there remained a
great cleft as thick as a gold portague. On the 6th, an hour before
day, we weighed from the port of Ras-al-Jidid, and advanced about
three and a half leagues. The 7th in the morning, the wind blew fresh at
N.W. and we rowed to the shore, where at eight o'clock we fastened our
barks to certain stones of a shoal or reef, lying before a long point
which hereafter I shall name Starta. We went in this space about three
leagues. About noon we made sail and proceeded in our voyage, but in no
small doubts, as we saw on both sides of our course a prodigious number
of shelves; we were therefore obliged to take in our sails and use our
oars, by means of which we came about sunset to a good haven named
Comol, in which we anchored.
[Footnote 295: This paragraph is likewise obscurely worded, and is
perhaps left imperfect by the abbreviator. - Astl.]
[Footnote 296: In some subsequent passages this harbour is called
Igidid, probably to distinguish it from the point of Ras-al-Jidid.
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