[Footnote 305: This strange expression, as connected with the tide which is dependent on the moon, may possibly mean when the moon was in opposition to the north; or mid-way between her setting and rising.--]
The 12th of April we set sail along shore, the wind being fresher, and more large, at E.S.E. About noon it blew very hard with such impetuous gusts that it drove the sands of the coast very high, raising them up to the heavens in vast whirls like great smokes. About evening when the barks draw together, the wind was entirely calm to some, while others a little behind or before, or more towards the land or the sea, had it still so violent that they could not carry sail, the distance between those becalmed and those having the wind very fresh, being often no more than a stones throw. Presently after, the wind would assail those before becalmed, while those that went very swift were left in a calm. Being all close together, this seemed as if done in sport. Some of these gales came from the E. and E.N.E. so hot and scorching that they seemed like flames of fire. The sand raised by these winds went sometimes one way and sometimes another; and we could sometimes see one cloud or pillar of sand driven in three or four different directions before it fell down. These singular changes would not have been wonderful among hills; but were very singular where we were at such a distance from the coast. When these winds assailed us in this manner we were at a port named Shaona, or Shawna; and going on in this manner, sometimes hoisting and at other times striking our sails, sometimes laughing at what we saw, and other times in dread, we went on till near sunset, when we entered a port named Gualibo,[306] signifying in Arabic the port of trouble, having advanced this day and part of the former night about 13 leagues.
[Footnote 306: Perhaps Kalabon.--Astl.]
From Gadenauhi to a port named Shakara which is encompassed by a very red hill, the coast trends N.W. by N. and S.E. by S. the distance about 10 leagues; and from this red hill to a point about a league beyond Gualibo, the coast runs N.N.W. and S.S.E. distance about 6 leagues. In these 16 leagues, the coast is very clear, only that a league beyond the Red Hill there is a shoal half a large league from the land. In these 16 leagues there are many excellent ports, more numerous than I have ever seen in so short a space. At one of these named Shawna, which is very large, the Moors and native inhabitants say there formerly stood a famous city of the gentiles, which I believe to have been that named Nechesia by Ptolomy in his third book of Africa. Along the sea there runs a long range of great hills very close together and doubling on each other, and far inland behind these great mountains are seen to rise above them. In this range there are two mountains larger than the rest, or even than any on the whole coast, one of which is black as though it had been burnt, and the other is yellow, and between them are great heaps of sand. From the black mountain inwards I saw an open field in which were many large and tall trees with spreading tops, being the first I had seen on the coast that seemed planted by man; for those a little beyond Massua are of the kind pertaining to marshes on the borders of the sea or of rivers; as those at the port of Sharm-al-Kiman and at the harbour of Igidid are wild and pitiful, naked and dry, without boughs or fruit. These two mountains are about two leagues short of the port of Sharm-al-Kiman. Gualibo, which is 122 leagues beyond Swakem, is very like the port of Sharm-al-Kiman; except that the one is environed by many mountains, while the land round the other is an extensive plain. The entry to this port is between certain rocks or shoals on which the sea breaks with much force, but the entry is deep and large. After sunrise on the 13th we left the port of Gualibo, and as the wind was strong at N.W. making a heavy sea, we rowed along shore, and at ten in the morning went into a port named Tuna, a league and half beyond Gualibo. Tuna is a small foul haven, beyond Swakem 123 leagues and a half, in lat. 25° 30' N. The entrance is between rocks, and within it is so much encumbered with shoals and rocks that it is a small and sorry harbour; but round the point forming the north side of this harbour, there is a good haven and road-stead against the wind at N.W. the land round it being barren sand. To the N.W. of this there are three sharp mountains of rock, as if to indicate the situation of the harbour. One hour before sunset we fastened ourselves to a shoal a league beyond Tuna. This coast, from a league beyond Gualibo, to another point a league and a half beyond this shoal, trends N.N.W. and S.S.E distance four leagues.
The 14th April we rowed along shore, the sea running very high so as to distress the rowers; but beating up against wind and sea till past noon, we came into a fine bay, in the bottom of which we came to anchor in an excellent haven. This day and night we went about 5 leagues, and were now about 129 leagues beyond Swakem. For these five leagues the coast extends N.W. and S.E. the land within the coast being in some places low and plain, while it is mountainous in others. By day-light on the 15th we were a league short of Al Kossir, which we reached an hour and half after sunrise, and cast anchor in the harbour. During the past night and the short part of this day we had advanced about seven leagues, the coast extending N.N.W. and S.S.E. According to Pliny, in the sixth book of his Natural History, and Ptolomy in his third book of Africa, this place of Al Kossir was anciently named Phioteras[307]. All the land from hence to Arsinoe, at the northern extremity of the Red Sea, was anciently called Enco. This place is about 15 or 16 days journey from the nearest part of the Nile, directly west. This is the only port on all this coast to which provisions are brought from the land of Egypt, now called Riffa; and from this port of Kossir all the towns on the coast of the Red Sea are provided. In old times, the town of Kossir was built two leagues farther up the coast; but being found incommodious, especially as the harbour at that place was too small, it was removed to this place. To this day the ruins of old Kossir are still visible, and there I believe was Philoteras. New Kossir by observations twice verified is in lat. 26°15' N. being 136 leagues beyond Swakem. The port is a large bay quite open to the eastern winds, which on this coast blow with great force. Right over against the town there are some small shoals on which the sea breaks, between which and the shore is the anchorage for frigates and ships coming here for a loading. The town is very small and perhaps in the most miserable and barren spot in the world. The houses are more like hovels for cattle, some built of stone and clay, and others of sod, having no roofs except a few matts which defend the inhabitants from the sun, and from rain if any happen now and then to fall as it were by chance, as in this place it so seldom rains as to be looked upon as a wonder. In the whole neighbouring country on the coast, fields, mountains, or hills, there groweth no kind of herb, grass, tree, or bush; and nothing is to be seen but black scorched mountains and a number of bare hillocks, which environ the whole place from sea to sea, like an amphitheatre of barrenness and sterility, most melancholy to behold. Any flat ground there is, is a mere dry barren sand mixed with gravel. The port even is the worst I have seen on all this coast, and has no fish, though all the other ports and channels through which we came have abundance and variety. It has no kind of cattle; and the people are supplied from three wells near the town, the water of which differs very little from that of the sea.
[Footnote 307: In Purchas, Al Kossir is named Alcocer. Don John thinks this place to be the Philoteras of Ptolomy; but Dr Pocock places it 2°40' more to the north, making Kossir Berenice, which is highly probable, as it is still the port of Kept, anciently Coptos, or of Kus near it, both on the Nile, as well as the nearest port to the Nile on all that coast, which Berenice was. Dr Pocock supposes old Kossir to have been Myos Hormos: but we rather believe it to have been Berenice.--Ast.]
The most experienced of the Moors had never heard of the name of Egypt[308], but call the whole land from Al Kossir to Alexandria by the name of Riffa[309], which abounds in all kinds of victuals and provisions more than any other part of the world, together with great abundance of cattle, horses, and camels, there not being a single foot of waste land in the whole country. According to the information I received; their language and customs are entirely Arabic. The land, as I was told, is entirely plain, on which it never rains except for a wonder; but God hath provided a remedy by ordaining that the Nile should twice a year[310] overflow its natural bounds to water the fields. They said likewise that the Nile from opposite to Al Kossir, and far above that towards the bounds of Abyssinia, was navigable all the way to Alexandria; but having many islands and rocks, either it was necessary to have good pilots or to sail only by day. They told me likewise that the natives inhabited this barren spot of Al Kossir, as being the nearest harbour on the coast of the Red Sea to the Nile, whence provisions were transported; and that the inhabitants were satisfied with slight matts instead of roofs to their houses because not troubled with rain, and the matts were a sufficient protection from the sun: but made their walls of stone to defend themselves against the malignity and rapaciousness of the Badwis, a perverse people, void of all goodness, who often suddenly assaulted the place in hope of plunder, and frequently pillaged the caravans coming across from the Nile with provisions and other commodities.
[Footnote 308: No wonder, as Messr is the name by which Egypt is known to the Arabs.--E.]
[Footnote 309: More properly Al Rif, which name more particularly belongs to part of Lower Egypt.--Ast.]
[Footnote 310: This is erroneous, as the Nile only overflows once yearly.--E.]