The Strange Word Roamour, Which Has Occurred Once
Before, May Be Conjectured To Mean That Operation In Beating To
Windward, In Which The Vessel Sails Contrary To The Direction Of Her
Voyage, Called In Ordinary Nautical Language The Short Leg Of The
Tack.
- E.]
[Footnote 301: Signifying in Arabic the shelf of the two hands. - Astl.]
[Footnote 302: Probably that just before named Prionoto from Ptolomy,
and called cape of the mountains, because the Abyssinian mountains there
end. - E.]
At sunrise on the 10th we set sail to the N.N.E. the wind being fresh
and the sea appearing clear and navigable. When about half a league from
the point we saw, as every one thought, a ship under sail, but on
drawing nearer it was a white rock in the sea, which we were told
deceives all navigators as it did us. After this we stood N. by E. By
nine o'clock we reached an island named Connaka, and passed between it
and the main-land of Africa. This island is small and barren, about half
a league in circuit, and is about a league and a half from the main. It
resembles a vast crocodile with its legs stretched out, and is a noted
land-mark among navigators. Connaka and Zamorjete bear from each
other N.W. by W. and S.E. by E. distant about six small leagues. About
half an hour past ten, we reached a very long point of sand stretching
far out to sea, called Ras-al-nef, which signifies in Arabic the point
or cape of the nose. There is no nigh land whatever about this cape, but
a vast plain field without tree or any green thing, and in the very face
of the point stands a great temple without any other buildings, and on
each side of it is a very clear sandy coast in manner of a bay. This
cape of Ras-al-nef is famous among navigators, as all their trouble
and danger ends on reaching it, when they consider themselves at home
and secure. We continued our course from this cape along the coast with
the wind at S.E. At noon my pilot took the altitude, and found our
latitude 24 deg. 10' N. at which time we were beyond Ras-al-nef about
three leagues, whence the latitude of that cape is 24 deg. N. From this it
appears that the ancient city of Berenice was built upon this cape
Ras-al-nef as Ptolomy places it on this coast under the tropic of
Cancer, making the greatest declination of the sun at this place
almost 23 deg. 50'. Likewise Pliny says that at Berenice the sun at noon in
the summer solstice gives no shadow to the gnomon, by which that city
appears to have stood under the tropic.[303]
[Footnote 303: It may be presumed that the position given by Ptolomy is
merely accidental, resulting from computed distances; and Pliny only
speaks from the authority of Ptolomy.
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