When
These Winds Assailed Us In This Manner We Were At A Port Named Shaona,
Or Shawna; And Going On
In this manner, sometimes hoisting and at
other times striking our sails, sometimes laughing at what we saw, and
other
Times in dread, we went on till near sunset, when we entered a
port named Gualibo,[306] signifying in Arabic the port of trouble,
having advanced this day and part of the former night about 13 leagues.
[Footnote 306: Perhaps Kalabon. - Astl.]
From Gadenauhi to a port named Shakara which is encompassed by a
very red hill, the coast trends N.W. by N. and S.E. by S. the distance
about 10 leagues; and from this red hill to a point about a league
beyond Gualibo, the coast runs N.N.W. and S.S.E. distance about 6
leagues. In these 16 leagues, the coast is very clear, only that a
league beyond the Red Hill there is a shoal half a large league from the
land. In these 16 leagues there are many excellent ports, more numerous
than I have ever seen in so short a space. At one of these named
Shawna, which is very large, the Moors and native inhabitants say
there formerly stood a famous city of the gentiles, which I believe to
have been that named Nechesia by Ptolomy in his third book of Africa.
Along the sea there runs a long range of great hills very close together
and doubling on each other, and far inland behind these great mountains
are seen to rise above them. In this range there are two mountains
larger than the rest, or even than any on the whole coast, one of which
is black as though it had been burnt, and the other is yellow, and
between them are great heaps of sand. From the black mountain inwards I
saw an open field in which were many large and tall trees with spreading
tops, being the first I had seen on the coast that seemed planted by
man; for those a little beyond Massua are of the kind pertaining to
marshes on the borders of the sea or of rivers; as those at the port of
Sharm-al-Kiman and at the harbour of Igidid are wild and pitiful,
naked and dry, without boughs or fruit. These two mountains are about
two leagues short of the port of Sharm-al-Kiman. Gualibo, which is
122 leagues beyond Swakem, is very like the port of Sharm-al-Kiman;
except that the one is environed by many mountains, while the land round
the other is an extensive plain. The entry to this port is between
certain rocks or shoals on which the sea breaks with much force, but the
entry is deep and large. After sunrise on the 13th we left the port of
Gualibo, and as the wind was strong at N.W. making a heavy sea, we
rowed along shore, and at ten in the morning went into a port named
Tuna, a league and half beyond Gualibo.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 275 of 423
Words from 143685 to 144196
of 221361
