At Day-Light, Being Then The
8th, We Came To A Spacious Bay, Of Which To The North And North-West We
Could See No Termination, Neither Any Cape Or Head-Land In That
Direction.
We accordingly sailed forwards in that open sea or bay, but
which had so many shoals on each side
That it was wonderful we could
make any profit of a large wind; for, now going roamour, and now upon
a tack, sometimes in the way and sometimes out of it, there was no way
for us to take certain and quiet[300]. About sunset we came to a very
great shelf or reef, and fastening our barks to its rocks we remained
there for the night. The morning of the 9th being clear, we set sail
from this shelf, and took harbour within a great shelf called
Shaab-al-Yadayn[301]. After coming to anchor, we noticed an island to
seaward, called Zemorjete. This port and shelf trend N.E. by E. and
S.W. by W. From the cape of the mountains[302], to another cape beyond
it on which there are a quantity of shrubs or furzes; the coast runs
N.E. by N. and S.W. by S. the distance between these capes being about
three and a half or four leagues. From this last point the coast of the
great bay or nook winds inwards to the west, and afterwards turns out
again, making a great circuit with many windings, and ends in a great
and notable point called Ras-al-Nashef, or the dry cape, called by
Ptolomy the promontory Pentadactilus in his third table of Africa.
The island Zemorjete is about eight leagues E. from this cape; and
from that island, according to the Moorish pilots, the two shores of the
gulf are first seen at one time, but that of Arabia is a great deal
farther off than the African coast. This island, which is very high and
barren, is named Agathon by Ptolomy. It has another very small island
close to it, which is not mentioned in Ptolomy. Now respecting the shelf
Shaab-al-Yadayn, it is to be noted that it is a great shelf far to
seaward of the northern end of the great bay, all of it above water,
like two extended arms with their hands wide open, whence its Arabic
name which signifies shelf of the hands. The port of this shelf is to
landward, as on that side it winds very much, so as to shut up the haven
from all winds from the sea. This haven and cape Ras-al-Nashef bear
from each other E.S.E. and W.S.W. distant about four leagues.
[Footnote 299: In our mode of counting time, three in the morning of the
8th. - E.]
[Footnote 300: This nautical language is so different from that of the
present day as to be almost unintelligible. They appear to have sailed
in a winding channel, in which the wind was sometimes scant, sometimes
large and sometimes contrary; so that occasionally they had to tack or
turn to windward.
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