But The Ship Of Sues Escaped Us In The
Night, As We Found On Our Return Towards The South.
Sec. 5.
Voyage from the Red Sea to Surat, and Transactions there.
We set sail from the neighbourhood of Mokha in the morning of the 9th
August, 1611, and in the evening cast anchor three leagues short of the
straits of Bab-al-Mondub. The 10th, the Darling and Release[338] went
out by the western passage, which they found to be three leagues over,
from the main land of Habesh to the island Bab-Mandel, [Prin.] One
third of the way over from the island they had no ground at forty
fathoms, the channel being quite clear and free from danger, though the
Turks and Indians reported it was full of rocks and shoals, and not
navigable for ships. We in the Increase, accompanied by the
Pepper-corn, went out by the eastern narrow channel at which we came in,
which does not exceed a mile and half between the island and the Arabian
shore, of which a considerable distance from the main is encumbered with
shoals. We all met outside of the straits in the afternoon, in nineteen
fathoms water, about four miles from the Arabian shore. From the 12th to
the 27th, we were much pestered with contrary winds, calms, and a strong
adverse current, setting to the S.W. at the rate of four miles an hour.
The 27th, we had a favouring gale to carry us off, and by six p.m. had
sight of Mount Felix, [Baba Feluk,] a head-land to the west of Cape
Guardafui.
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