Swakem was called by the ancients the port of Aspi, as may be seen in the third table of Africa by Ptolemy. At this day it is one of the richest cities in the East[292]. It is situated within the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea, on the coast of Ethiopia sub Egypto, now called the land and coast of the Abexii or Abyssinians. Among famous places, this may be reckoned equal or superior to them all in four things. The first is the goodness and safety of the haven. The second in the facility and good service for lading and unlading ships. The third in its traffic with very strange and remote people of various manners and customs. The fourth in the strength and situation of the city. As touching the goodness and security of the port I shall first speak. Nature hath so formed this port that no storm from the sea can enter it in any direction. Within the haven the sea is so quiet, and runs so insensibly, that scarcely can we perceive it to have any tide. The ground is mud. The road in all places has five or six fathoms, and seven in some places; and is so large that two hundred ships may ride commodiously at anchor, besides rowing-vessels without number. The water is so clear that you may plainly perceive the bottom; and where that is not seen the depth is at least ten or twelve fathoms. The ships can be laden or unladen all round the city, merely by laying a plank from them into the warehouses of the merchants; while gallies fasten themselves to stones at the doors of the houses, laying their prows over the quays as so many bridges. Now touching the trade and navigation of this port with many sorts of people, and with strange and remote countries, I know not what city can compare with it except Lisbon: as this city trades with all India, both on this side and beyond the Ganges; with Cambaya, Tanacerim, Pegu, Malacca; and within the Straits with Jiddah, Cairo, and Alexandria. From all Ethiopia and Abyssinia it procures great quantities of gold and ivory. As to the strength and situation of this city enough can hardly be said; since to come to it, the inconveniences, difficulties, and dangers are so great, that it seems almost impossible: as for fifteen leagues about, the shoals, flats, islands, channels, rocks, banks, and sands, and surges of the sea, are so many and intricate that they put the sailors in great fear and almost in despair. The situation of the city is this: In the middle of a great nook or bay, is a perfectly flat island almost level with the sea and exactly round, being about a quarter, of a league in circuit, upon which the city of Swakem is built; not one foot of ground on the whole island but is replenished with houses and inhabitants, so that the whole island, is a city. On two sides this insular city comes within a bow-shot of the main land, that is on the E.S.E. and S.W. sides, but all the rest is farther from the land. The road, haven, or bay surrounds the city on every side to the distance of a cross-bow shot, in all of which space, ships may anchor in six or seven fathoms on a mud bottom. All around this bay there is a great shoal; so that the deep water is from the edge of the city all round to the distance of a bow-shot, and all beyond is full of shoals. In this bay there are three other islands on the land side to the north-west. The two which lie farthest in are small, but that nearest to the channel is about as large as the city. Between this island and the main sea, there is a large and very long channel, having seven fathoms water, all along which a great navy might safely ride at anchor, without any danger of annoyance from the city, whence only their masts could be seen. When the moon appears in the horizon it is full sea, and as the moon advances it ebbs till the moon comes to the meridian, when it is dead low water; and thence it begins again to flow till the moon sets, when it is again full sea. The entire ebb and flow of the sea at this city does not exceed a quarter of a yard. The most that it rises along the coast is a yard and a half, and in some places less than three quarters of a yard. But when I made this observation it was neap tide.
[Footnote 292: This is to be understood of 1541, when visited by De Castro. Since the Turkish conquest, Mokha and other places have greater trade.--Purch.]
SECTION VI.
Continuation of the Voyage from Swakem to Comol.
We remained in the haven of Swakem from the 1st to the 9th of March 1541, when an hour before sunset we weighed from before the city, and anchored for the night at the mouth of the channel. We weighed again on the 10th, and came again to anchor at night, when the dew was wonderfully great. On the 11th it blew a storm from the north, so violent that it raised great mountains of sand along the sea coast, after which it dispersed them, and the air remained obscured by the sand as if it had been a great mist or smoke. We remained at anchor all this day, and on the 12th we left this channel two leagues beyond Swakem, and being without the channel we made sail. About a league and a half from the coast there were so many rocks, shoals, and flats, on which the sea continually broke, that we had to take in our sails and row for three hours, till we got beyond these shoals, after which we again made sail. At evening we came to anchor within the bank by a very narrow channel, a league beyond that we had been last in, and three leagues from Swakem, but the channel within the entrance was large, with clean ground, and perfectly secure in all winds.
The 13th we went out of this channel an hour before day, and about a cannon-shot to seaward we saw a long range of shoals with broken water, seeming to stretch in the same direction with the coast. At eleven o'clock the wind turned to the N.N.W. and as our course was N.W. we were unable to make way, and had to fasten our vessels to the rocks on these shoals, where we lay about three hours. About two o'clock afternoon the wind freshened at N.N.E. and we made sail N.W. But coming to the bank landward, we took in our sails and rowed into a channel within the bank, where we came to anchor. This channel is very narrow and winding, being about seven leagues beyond Swakem, whence the coast to this place runs N. and S. and then N. by W. and S. by E. I went ashore on the 15th to observe the order and flowing of the tide, and found it was full sea when the moon was two hours past the meridian, and was dead ebb two hours after the moon set. I found likewise that the ebb and flow of the tide at this place was 22 cubits[293]. The 16th we left this channel, with the wind at north, and cast anchor half a league out at sea. The 17th we entered a very good harbour named Dradate or Tradate, the coast from Swakem here winding N. by W. and S. by E. distance 10 leagues. The land behind the shore is all very low in that space, but three leagues back from the coast it rises into great and high mountains. This harbour of Tradate, in lat. 19° 50' N. 10 leagues beyond Swakem, is one of the best in the world. The entrance is about a falcon-shot across, and grows narrower inwards, but has 20 fathoms water in its whole length with a mud bottom; and a quarter of a league within the land there is a famous watering-place at certain wells, where is the best water and in greatest plenty of any place on all these coasts. The 19th we sailed at day-light, and advanced 3-1/2 leagues that day, having many shoals to seaward of us, and the coast for these 3-1/2 leagues trended N. and S. On the 20th at sunrise the wind blew from the N. and the sea was rough, for which reason we had to seek shelter within the shoal, entering by a very narrow and difficult channel. After we were in, the wind came N.N.E. and we remained all day at anchor. The 21st we left the shoal with fine weather, the wind being at W.N.W. and sailed N. keeping about half a league from the land; and an hour after sunrise we came to a long and fair point of land called by Ptolomy the promontory of Diogenes. On the north side of this point is a large fine bay named Doroo, and at the extremity of this long bare point there is a large round tower like a pillar. At the entrance of this harbour or channel there are six fathoms water, which diminishes gradually inwards to three. The ground is hard clay, and the bay is very large with many creeks and nooks within, and many islands; many of these creeks penetrating deep into the main-land, so that in every place there may be many vessels hidden without being observed from the other branches of the harbour. A quarter of a league off to sea from the mouth of this harbour there is a shoal which defends it completely from the admission of any sea, as this shoal is above water, and has no passage except by the entrance already mentioned, which trends E. by N. and W. by S. A cannon-shot from this bay there is a great well, but the water is very brackish.
[Footnote 293: Considering the very small rise and fall of the tide at Swakem, the text in this place ought perhaps only to have been inches.--E.]
On the 22d we left this harbour of Doroo at day light, proceeding by means of our oars, and found the sea very full of rocks, so that escaping from some we got foul of others, and at half past ten o'clock we had to fasten our vessels to the rocks. Proceeding onwards, we got towards evening in with the land, and having doubled a point we entered a very large bay named Fuxaa, or Fushaa, three leagues and a half beyond Doroo, the coast between stretching N. and E. with a tendency towards N.W. and S.E. This bay of Fushaa is remarkable by a very high sharp peaked hill, in lat. 20 15' N. In the very mouth of the harbour there are two very low points, lying N. by E. and S. by W. from each other, distant a league and half. As no great sea can enter here it is a very good harbour, having 10 and 12 fathoms water on a mud bottom, diminishing inwards to five fathoms. Along the land within the bay on the south side there are nine small islands in a row, and in other places there are some scattered islets, all very low and encompassed by shoals. The land at this bay is very dry and barren, and it has no water.
On the 25th we continued along the coast, having many rocks to seawards about a league off; and at ten o'clock we entered a very large harbour named Arekea, four leagues beyond Fushaa, the coast between running N. and S. with some tendence to N.W. and S.E. Arekea, the strongest and most defensible harbour I have ever seen, is 22 leagues beyond Swakem. In ancient times it was called Dioscori according to Pliny. In the middle of the entry to this port there is a considerable island, about a cross-bow shot in length and breadth, having a bank or shoal running from it on the south side to the main land, so shallow that nothing can pass over it. But on the north side of this island the channel is about a cross-bow shot in breadth and 15 fathoms deep, running N.W. and S.E. and on both sides this channel is very shallow and full of rocks, the fair way being in the middle. This channel is about a gun-shot in length, after which the coasts on both sides recede and form within a large fine and secure harbour, about a league long and half a league broad, deep in the middle but full of shoals near the land, and it hath no fresh water. At this place it was agreed to send back all the ships to Massua, and to proceed with only sixteen small gallies or row boats.
Arrangements being accordingly formed, we set sail from Arekea on the 30th at noon, and came to an anchor in a port called Salaka four leagues beyond Arekea and 96 from Swakem, the coast trending N. and S. with a slight deviation to N.E. and S.W. The land next the sea has many risings or hillocks, behind which there are high mountains. It must be noted that all the land from Arekea onwards close behind the shore puts on this uneven appearance, whereas before that it was all plain, till in the inland it rises in both into high mountains. The 31st we sailed from Salaka, and an hour before sunset we made fast to the rocks of a shoal a league from the land and 17 leagues from Salaka, being 43 leagues from Swakem. From the port of Salaka the coast begins to wind very much; and from Raseldoaer or Ras al Dwaer, it runs very low to the N.N.E. ending in a sandy point where there are 13 little hillocks or knobs of stone, which the Moorish pilots said were graves. From this point of the Calmes[294] about two leagues, the coast runneth N.N.W. to a shoal which is 43 leagues from Swakem. This point is the most noted in all these seas, as whoever sails from Massua, Swakem, and other places for Jiddah, Al Cossir, and Toro, must necessarily make this point. The sea for the last seventeen leagues is of such a nature that no rules or experience can suffice for sailing it in safety, so that the skilful as well as the unskilful must pass it at all hazards, and save themselves as it were by chance, for it is so full of numerous and great shoals, so interspersed everywhere with rocks, and so many and continual banks, that it seems better fitted for being travelled on foot than sailed even in small boats. In the space between Salaka and Ras-al-Dwaer, but nearer to the latter, there are three islands forming a triangle, the largest of which is called Magarzawn, about two leagues long and very high ground, but has no water. This island bears N. and S. with Ras-al-Dwaer distant three leagues. The second island lies considerably out to sea, and is called Al Mante, and is high land without water; the third island is all sand and quite low, being four leagues from Salaka towards Ras-al-Dwaer, but I did not learn its name.