The
Germans Greatly Wondered To See Such A Boat And Strange People, Not
Knowing Whence They Came, Nor Being Able To Understand Their Language,
Especially As There Was Then No Knowledge Of Their Country.
Although the
boat was small in comparison with the seas it had to cross, it is yet
possible that
It might have been conveyed by the winds and waves; for in
our days the _almadias_ of the negroes, which are very small boats,
venture to navigate from Quiloa, Mosambique, and Sofala, around the
Cape of Good Hope, even to the island of St Helena, a very small spot in
the ocean, at a great distance from land.
In the year 1300 after Christ, the great soldan of Cairo restored the
trade of spiceries, drugs, and merchandize from India, by the Red Sea; at
which time they unloaded the goods at the port of Judea[45], and carried
them to Mecca; whence they were distributed by the Mahometan pilgrims[46],
so that each prince endeavoured to increase the honour and profit of
his own country. The soldans translated this trade to their own city of
Cairo; whence the goods were carried to the countries of Egypt, Lybia,
Africa, Tunis, Tremessen, Fez, Morocco, and Suz; and some of them were
carried beyond the mountains of Atlas, to the city of Tombuto, and the
kingdom of the Jalophos; till afterwards the Portuguese brought the
Indian trade round the Cape of Good Hope to Lisbon, as we propose to shew
more at large in a convenient place.
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