This Sea Is Likewise Subject To Very Thick
Fogs, And To Violent Gales Of Wind, And Is Therefore Of Very Dangerous
Navigation, And Devoid Of Any Safe Or Pleasant Anchorage.
It is not, like
the seas of India and China, whose bottom is rich with pearls and
ambergris; whose
Mountains are stored with gold, precious stones, and
ivory; whose coasts produce ebony, redwood, aloes, camphor, nutmegs,
cloves, sandal, and all other spices and aromatics; where parrots and
peacocks are birds of the forest, and in which musk and civet are collected
in abundance: so productive, in short, are these shores of articles of
infinite variety, and inestimable value, that it were vain to endeavour to
make any enumeration.
Ambergris is thrown upon this coast by the flux of the sea, but its origin
is unknown. It is found on the coast of the Indies, but the best, which is
of a bluish white, and in round lumps, is got upon the Barbarian coast: or
on the confines of the land of the Negroes, towards Sihar and that
neighbourhood. The inhabitants of that country have camels trained for the
purpose, on which they ride along the shore in moonshine nights, and when
the camels perceive a piece of amber, he bends his knees, on which the
rider dismounts, and secures his prize. There is another kind which swims
on the surface of the sea in great lumps, sometimes as big as the body of
an ox, or somewhat less. When a certain fish, named Tal, of the whale
tribe, sees these floating lumps, he swallows them, and is thereby killed;
and when the people, who are accustomed to this fishery, see a whale
floating on the surface, they know that this whale has swallowed ambergris,
and going out in their boats, they dart their harpoons into its body, and
tow it on shore, and split the animal down the back, to get out the
ambergris.
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