This Second Appears
To Me To Be Much More Convenient For So Great A Work Than The Other,
Because The Land Is Very Low, The Distance Shorter, And There Is A Haven
At Suez.
All the rest of the coast is lined by great and high mountains
of hard rock.
Hence Suez must be the place to which Cleopatra commanded
the ships to be brought across the isthmus, a thing of such great labour
that shortness was of most material importance: Here likewise for the
same reason must have been the trench or canal from the Nile to the Red
Sea; more especially as all the coast from Toro upwards is waste, and
without any port till we come to Suez.
During all the time which we spent between Toro and Suez, the heaven was
constantly overcast with thick black clouds, which seemed contrary to
the usual nature of Egypt; as all concur in saying that it never rains
in that country, and that the heavens are never obscured by clouds or
vapours: But perhaps the sea raises these clouds at this place, and
farther inland the sky might be clear; as we often see in Portugal that
we have clear pleasant weather at Lisbon, while at Cintra only four
leagues distant, there are great clouds mists and rain. The sea between
Toro and Suez is subject to sudden and violent tempests; as when the
wind blows from the north, which is the prevailing wind here, although
not very great, the sea is wonderfully raised, the waves being
everywhere so coupled together and broken that they are very dangerous.
This is not occasioned by shallow water, as this channel is very deep,
only that on the Egyptian side it is somewhat shoaly close to the shore.
"About this place I saw certain sea foams otherwise called evil
waters, the largest I had ever seen, being as large as a target, of a
whitish dun colour. These do not pass lower than Toro; but below that
there are infinite small ones, which like the other are bred in and go
about the sea[324]." While between Toro and Suez, though the days were
insufferably hot, the nights were colder than any I ever met with.
[Footnote 324: This passage respecting sea foams or evil waters is
altogether unintelligible, unless perhaps some obscure allusion to
water-spouts maybe supposed. - E.]
SECTION IX.
Return Voyage from Suez to Massua.
In the morning of the 28th of April 1541 we departed from before Suez on
our return to Massua[325]. At sunset we were one league short of a sharp
red peak on the coast, 20 leagues from Suez. At night we took in our
sails and continued along shore under our foresails only, the wind
blowing hard at N.N.W. Two hours within the night, we came to anchor
near the shore in 3 fathoms, the heavens being very dark and covered by
many thick black clouds. The 29th we weighed in the morning, and came
into the port of Toro at nine o'clock, but soon weighed again, and came
to anchor a league farther on, in a haven called Solymans watering
place, where we took in water, digging pits in the sand a stones throw
from the sea, where we got abundance of brackish water.
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