Here I
Suffered Much Trouble And Affliction, Being Constrained To Hide Myself
Among These Poor Wretches And To Feign Myself
Sick, that no one might be
too inquisitive about who I was, whence I came, or whether I was going.
The city of Juddah is under the dominion of the Soldan of Babylon or
Cairo, the Sultan of Mecca being his brother and his subject. The
inhabitants are all Mahometans; the soil around the town is very
unfruitful, as it wants water; yet this town, which stands on the shore
of the Red Sea, enjoys abundance of all necessaries which are brought
from Egypt, Arabia Felix, and various other places. The heat is so
excessive that the people are in a manner dried up, and there is
generally great sickness among the inhabitants. This city contains about
500 houses. After sojourning here for fifteen days, I at length agreed
for a certain sum with a pilot or ship-master, who engaged to convey me
to Persia. At this time there lay at anchor in the haven of Mecca near
an hundred brigantines and foists, with many barks and boats of various
kinds, some with oars and some with sails.
Three days after I had agreed for my passage, we hoisted sail and began
our voyage down the Red Sea, called by the ancients _Mare
erythraeum_[47]. It is well known to learned men that this sea is not
red, as its name implies and as some have imagined, for it has the same
colour with other seas.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 109 of 842
Words from 29216 to 29472
of 230997
