Mecara, perhaps by mistake for Mecara or Mezara, which is
very near Mesr as it is called by the Turks.
Cairo is an Italian
corruption of Kahera or al Kahira - Astl.]
SECTION VIII.
Continuation of the Voyage from Taro or al Tor to Suez.
We set sail the day after our arrival at Toro, being the 23d of April
1541, and on the 24th we were in the lat. of 27 deg. 17' N. At this place,
which is 20 leagues beyond Toro and 52 leagues from al Kossir, the
land of Egypt, or that coast of the Red Sea which continueth all the way
from Abyssinia, comes out into the sea with a very long and low point,
which winds a great way inwards to the land and more crooked than any
other I have seen. After forming a large fine bay, it juts out into a
large high cape or point, which is three short leagues from Suez, at
the other extremity of this bay, and from that first promontory to
Suez the land bears N.W. by N. and S.E. by S. The shore of this bay is
very high and rough, and at the same time entirely parched and barren.
The whole of this large bay, except very near the shore, is so deep that
we had no ground with fifty fathom, and the bottom is a soft sand lake
ouze. This bay I hold to have been undoubtedly the Sinus Elaniticus of
the ancients, though Strabo and Ptolemy, being both deceived in regard
to its situation, placed it on the coast of Stony Arabia at Toro.
This I mentioned before, when describing Toro, that Strabo says the
Arabian Gulf ends in two bays, one called Elaniticus on the Arabian
side, and the other on the Egyptian side where stands the City of
Heroes[321]. Ptolemy evidently fixes the elanitic sinus on the coast
of Arabia, where Toro now stands; which is very wonderful, considering
that Ptolemy Was born in Alexandria, where he wrote his Cosmography and
resided all his life, and which city is so very near these places.
[Footnote 321: No description can be more explicit: but Don John
unfortunately knew not of the eastern sinus, and found himself
constrained to find both sinuses in one gulf. - E.]
The 26th of April we set sail, and at eleven o'clock we lowered our
sails, rowing along shore, where we cast anchor. Two hours before sunset
we weighed again with the wind at north and rowed along shore; and
before the sun set we anchored behind a point of land on the Arabian
shore, which sheltered us effectually from the north wind, having
advanced only a league and a half this day. This point is three small
leagues short of Suez, and is directly east of the N.W. point of the
Great Gulf, distance about a league. From this point, about half a
league inland, is the fountain of Moses already mentioned.
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