Within The Straits There Is A Shoal Some Two
Leagues Off Shore, Which It Is Necessary To Keep Clear From.
From the
straits it is about six leagues to Mokha, where is a good road and fair
ground for vessels to ride in 14 fathoms.
This port is never without
shipping, being a place of great trade, and frequented by caravans from
Sanaa, Mecca, Cairo, and Alexandria. There is good vent here for tin,
iron, lead, cloth, sword-blades, and all kinds of English commodities.
It has a great bazar, or market, every day in the week; and has plenty
of apricots, quinces, dates, grapes, peaches, lemons, and plantains,
which I much wondered at, as the inhabitants told me they had no rain
for seven years before, and yet there was abundance of good corn to be
had at 18d. a bushel. There is such abundance of cattle, sheep, and
goats, that we got an ox for three dollars, and a goat for half a
dollar. Of dolphins, mow-fish, basse, mullets, and other good fish,
there was such plenty, that we could buy as much for 3d. as would
suffice ten men for a meal. The town is under the government of the
Turks, who punish the Arabians severely for any offence, having gallies
for that purpose, otherwise they would be unable to keep them in awe and
under subjection.
[Footnote 288: In the original it is Mockoo, and on the margin Moha, but
these are not the Straits of Mokha, but of Mecca - Astl.
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