South America - A General History And Collection Of Voyages And Travels - Volume 7 - By Robert Kerr
 -  At this place there is great abundance of
all kinds of merchandise, being in a manner the resort of all - Page 57
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At This Place There Is Great Abundance Of All Kinds Of Merchandise, Being In A Manner The Resort Of All Nations, Except That It Is Held Unlawful For Jews Or Christians To Come There.

As soon as I entered Juddah I went to the mosque, where I saw a prodigious number of poor people, not less than 25,000, who were attending upon the different pilots, that they might go back to their countries.

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. We continued our voyage till the going down of the sun, for this sea cannot be navigated during the night, wherefore navigators only sail in the day and always come to anchor every night. This is owing _as they say_, to the many dangerous sands, rocks and shelves, which require the ships way to be guided with great care and diligent outlook from the _top castle_, that these dangerous places may be seen and avoided: But after coming to the island of _Chameran_ or Kamaran, the navigation may be continued with greater safety and freedom.

[Footnote 47: The _Mare erythraeum_ of the ancients was of much more extended dimensions, comprising all the sea of India from Arabia on the west to Guzerat and the Concan on the east, with the coasts of Persia and Scindetic India on the north; of which sea the Red Sea and the Persian gulfs were considered branches or deep bays. - E.]

SECTION V.

_Adventures of the Author in various parts of Arabia Felix, or Yemen_.

After six days sailing from Juddah we came to a city named _Gezan_, which is well built and has a commodious port, in which we found about 45 foists and brigantines belonging to different countries.

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