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The 12th Of April We Set Sail Along Shore, The Wind Being Fresher, And
More Large, At E.S.E.
About noon it blew very hard with such impetuous
gusts that it drove the sands of the coast very high,
Raising them up
to the heavens in vast whirls like great smokes. About evening when the
barks draw together, the wind was entirely calm to some, while others a
little behind or before, or more towards the land or the sea, had it
still so violent that they could not carry sail, the distance between
those becalmed and those having the wind very fresh, being often no more
than a stones throw. Presently after, the wind would assail those before
becalmed, while those that went very swift were left in a calm. Being
all close together, this seemed as if done in sport. Some of these gales
came from the E. and E.N.E. so hot and scorching that they seemed like
flames of fire. The sand raised by these winds went sometimes one way
and sometimes another; and we could sometimes see one cloud or pillar of
sand driven in three or four different directions before it fell down.
These singular changes would not have been wonderful among hills; but
were very singular where we were at such a distance from the coast. 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.
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