However This May Be, It Is Certain That Don Juan,
And Not The Ancients, Has Been Misinformed On This Matter;
For not only
the Arab geographers give a particular account of this eastern gulf,
as will appear from the description
Of the Red Sea by Abulfeda, but
its existence has been proved, by two English travellers, Dr Shaw and Dr
Pocock. The errors which Don Juan has here fallen into, has been owing
to not having examined the coast on the side of Arabia; for until the
fleet came to the island of Sheduam, it had sailed entirely along the
African shore; and then, leaving the north part of that island, it
passed over to the coast of Arabia[318] for the first time, where it may
be presumed that they fell in with the land some way to the north of the
S.W. point of the great peninsula between the two gulfs. This cape in
the maps by De L'Isle and Dr Pocock is called Cape Mahomet. Still
however as the island of Sheduam seems to lie nearer the eastern gulf;
its north end being at least eighteen or twenty miles to the southward
of Cape Mahomet, it is surprising that Don Juan and the whole fleet
should overlook that gulf, which indeed was done before by the Venetian
who sailed along the Arabian shore in the fleet of Solyman Pacha. What
Don Juan says about the identity of Elana and Ailan or Aylan we
shall not contend about, as the authority of Strabo, and the similarity
of names are strong proofs.
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