This island is covered with a kind of bent grass, which want of rain, and the constant feeding of the few goats that are kept here, prevent from growing to any height. The end of the island, near the north cape, sounds very hollow, underneath, like Solfaterra, near Naples; and as quantities of pumice stones are found here, there is great appearance that the black hill was once a volcano. Several large shells from the fish called Bisser, some of them twenty inches long, are seen turned upon their faces, on the surface of large stones, of ten or twelve ton weight. These shells are sunk into the stones, as if they were into paste, and the stone raised round about, so as to conceal the edge of the shell; a proof that this stone has, some time lately, been soft or liquified. For, had it been long ago, the weather and sun would have worn the surface of the shell, but it seems perfectly entire, and is set in that hard brown rock, as the stone of a ring is in a golden chasing.
The inhabitants of Foosht are poor fishermen, of the same degree of blackness as those between Heli and Djezan; like them too, they were naked, or had only a rag about their waist. Their faces are neither stained nor painted. They catch a quantity of fish called Seajan, which they carry to Loheia, and exchange for Dora and Indian corn, for they have no bread, but what is procured this way. They also have a flat fish, with a long tail to it, whose skin is a species of shagreen, with which the handles of knives and swords are made. Pearls too are found here, but neither large nor of a good water, on the other hand, they are not dear; they are the produce of various species of shells, all Bivalves[204].
The town consists of about thirty huts, built with faggots of bent grass or spartum, and these are supported within with a few sticks, and thatched with the grass, of which they are built. The inhabitants seemed to be much terrified at seeing us come a-shore all armed; this was not done out of fear of them, but, as we intended to stay on shore all night, we wished to be in a situation to defend ourselves against boats of strollers from the main. The saint, or Marabout, upon seeing me pass near him, fell flat upon his face, where he lay for a quarter of an hour; nor would he get up till the guns, which I was told had occasioned his fears, were ordered by me to be immediately sent on board.
On the 7th, by an observation of the meridian altitude of the sun, I found the latitude of Foosht to be 15° 59´ 43´´ north. There are here many beautiful shell-fish; the concha veneris, of several sizes and colours, as also sea urchins, or sea-eggs. I found, particularly, one of the pentaphylloid kind, of a very particular form. Spunges of the common sort are likewise found all along this coast. The bearings and distances of the principal islands from Foosht are:
| Baccalan, and the two rocks Djund and Mufracken, | E. N. E. | 4 miles. |
| Baida rock, | E. by N. | 4 miles. |
| Sahar, - - | S. E. | 3 do. |
| Ardaina, - | W.N.W. | 8 do. |
| Aideen, - - | N.½E. | 9 do. |
Baccalan is an island, low, long, and as broad as Foosht, inhabited by fishermen; without water in summer, which is then brought from Foosht, but in winter they preserve the rain-water in cisterns. These were built in ancient times, when this was a place of importance for the fishing of pearls, and they are in perfect repair to this day; neither the cement of the work, nor the stucco within, having at all suffered. Very violent showers fall here from the end of October to the beginning of March, but at certain intervals.
All the islands on this east-side of the channel belong to the Sherriffe Djezan Booarish, but none are inhabited except Baccalan and Foosht. This last island is the most convenient watering-place for ships, bound up the channel from Jibbel Teir, from which it bears N. E. by E. ¾ E. by the compass, nineteen leagues distant. It should be remembered, however, that the western watering-place is most eligible, because, in that case, navigators need not engage themselves among the islands to the eastward, where they will have uneven soundings two leagues from the land; but, though they should fall to the eastward of this island, they will have good anchorage, from nine to eighteen fathoms water; the bottom being good sand, between the town and the white rock Baida.
Having supplied our great and material want of water, we all repaired on board in the evening of the 7th; we then found ourselves unprovided with another necessary, namely fire; and my people began to remember how cold our stomachs were from the drammock at Babelmandeb. Firewood is a very scarce article in the Red Sea. It is, nevertheless, to be found in small quantities, and in such only it is used. Zimmer, an island to the northward, was known to afford some; but, from the time I had landed at Foosht, on the 6th, a trouble of a very particular kind had fallen upon our vessel, of which I had no account till I had returned on board.
An Abyssinian, who had died on board, and who had been buried upon our coming out from Loheia bay, had been seen upon the boltsprit for two nights, and had terrified the sailors very much; even the Rais had been not a little alarmed; and, though he could not directly say that he had seen him, yet, after I was in bed on the 7th, he complained seriously to me of the bad consequences it would produce if a gale of wind was to rise, and the ghost was to keep his place there, and desired me to come forward and speak to him. “My good Rais,” said I, “I am exceedingly tired, and my head achs much with the sun, which hath been violent to-day. You know the Abyssinian paid for his passage, and, if he does not overload the ship, (and I apprehend he should be lighter than when we took him on board) I do not think, that in justice or equity, either you or I can hinder the ghost from continuing his voyage to Abyssinia, as we cannot judge what serious business he may have there.” The Rais began to bless himself that he did not know any thing of his affairs.—“Then,” said I, “if you do not find he makes the vessel too heavy before, do not molest him; because, certainly if he was to come into any other part of the ship, or if he was to insist to sit in the middle of you (in the disposition that you all are) he would be a greater inconvenience to you than in his present post.” The Rais began again to bless himself, repeating a verse of the Koran; “bismilla sheitan rejem,” in the name of God keep the devil far from me. “Now, Rais,” said I, “if he does us no harm, you will let him ride upon the boltsprit till he is tired, or till he comes to Masuah, for I swear to you, unless he hurts or troubles us, I do not think I have any obligation to get out of my bed to molest him, only see that he carries nothing off with him.”
The Rais now seemed to be exceedingly offended, and said, for his part he did not care for his life more than any other man on board; if it was not from fear of a gale of wind, he might ride on the boltsprit and be d——n’d; but that he had always heard learned people could speak to ghosts. Will you be so good, Rais, said I, to step forward, and tell him, that I am going to drink coffee, and should be glad if he would walk into the cabbin, and say any thing he has to communicate to me, if he is a Christian, and if not, to Mahomet Gibberti. The Rais went out, but, as my servant told me, he would neither go himself, nor could get any person to go to the ghost for him. He came back, however, to drink coffee with me. I was very ill, and apprehensive of what the French call a Coup de soleil. “Go, said I to the Rais, to Mahomet Gibberti, who was lying just before us, tell him that I am a Christian, and have no jurisdiction over ghosts in these seas.”