NOTES TO APPENDIX III.
BY CAPT. SMEE AND LIEUT. HARDY.
[Note 1] (p. 460). Socotra, or Socotora, so well known for the production of the drug aloes, is in most charts, except Horsburgh’s, laid down too far to the westward. It bears E. by N. of Cape Guardafui 138 miles, the latter being in long 51° 13′ E., and the western extremity of Socotra in long. 53° 26′ and lat. 12° 24′ N. It has several good harbours and anchoring-places, the best of which is said to be Tivee, on the N. E. side of the Island, where water is easily procured. Between it and Cape Guardafui are situated the Isles of Sumhaa and Duraga, or, as we name them, the Brothers and Adulcasia, all of which are also placed too much to the westward in the charts. The last-mentioned island is said to afford plenty of excellent fresh water. It is inhabited by Arabs, who are subject to the chief of Socotra. Socotra is governed by an Arab Sheik. The produce of the island being insufficient to support the population, the ports of Arabia furnish it with grain, &c., &c. I believe that aloes, fish, and salt are the only articles it produces. The inhabitants are chiefly Arabs.
[Note 2] (p. 466). Since the 25th we had been steering along that part of the African Continent known to the English by the name of Agan.[[156]] It is in general a low even coast, and is justly represented as desert and barren. In passing along it some natives were seen tending a few cattle on the shore, but there is reason to believe, from the apparent extreme infertility of the sand, that the number of inhabitants can be but very small;[[157]] even the sea-shore, where the abundance of fish would render the means of subsistence so easy to be attained, seemed totally neglected; not a hut or boat of any kind was to be seen throughout its whole extent—a strong proof of the thinness of the population, and of the country near the coast being destitute of the material requisite for constructing these necessaries. The few inhabitants probably belong to the Saumalie tribe, whose limits of residence are said to extend to the line. We did not remark any inlets or traces of rivers on this coast.
[Note 3] (p. 467). A little north of Cape Bassas is a hill, or long ridge, of an uncommon red colour, and along the land from it to the Cape itself are a number of white sand hillocks which form excellent marks to vessels approaching it from the northward and eastward.
[Note 4] (p. 468). From the information afterwards received the Doara seems to be an inconsiderable stream.
[Note 5] (p. 470). We afterwards discovered these to be really islands, and the commencement of the chain which extends beyond Patta.
[Note 6] (p. 471). The opinion upon which the existence of this supposed river rests[[158]] is founded on certain accounts transmitted some time ago to the Governor of Bombay by the late Captain David Seton, the Company’s resident at Muscat. This communication states the information to have been obtained from some people of respectability in that place, who were well acquainted with the part of the African coast in question. The substance of this detail is as follows:—‘That a river of immense extent, known to the natives in its neighbourhood by the appellation of the Neelo (Nilo), and said to have its source in common with the Egyptian river of that name, discharges itself in the Indian Ocean, in about 0° 5′ N. lat.; near to its mouth it is called Govind Khala. That the length of its course is about three months’ journey; and nine weeks’ journey from the mouth stands a large city named Gunamma,[[159]] up to which, the river being navigable, immense quantities of slaves, elephants’ teeth, &c., are brought down within a short distance of Brava, to which (the river then taking a more southerly direction) these articles of merchandise are afterwards carried overland, and either disposed of there, or sent to Zanzibar.’ This story, though sufficiently plausible, would of itself, considering the known credulity and extreme propensity to exaggeration prevalent among the natives of the East, be entitled to very little regard did it not happen to receive some countenance from Herodotus, the Grecian historian, who says that when in Egypt he was told that a branch of the Nile bearing the same name took an easterly course, and was supposed to fall into the Indian Ocean, somewhere on the coast of East Africa.[[160]] These taken together were strong, but still left ample room to believe that the river called by the Portuguese Dos Fuegos, and known to us by the name of the Rogues River, which disembogues itself in 0° 17′ S. lat., might eventually turn out to be the same with this African Nile,[[161]]—22 miles the difference between their supposed mouths, being an error which people such as those of Muscat, unaccustomed to make accurate observations, may easily be supposed to fall into. It may here be seen that the truth of this surmise respecting the identity of the two rivers has been clearly established, though it will hereafter appear, from the information received at Patta, that the source of this river, viz. Dos Fuegos, will still be found to agree with and authenticate the reports and conjectures derived from the above authority,—and at all events cannot fail to render it an object of interest and curiosity to the civilized world in general.
[Note 7] (p. 474). Or rather to the island on which Patta and Sieull stand, called Peer Patta.
[Note 8] (p. 474). This town is by the natives called Humoo.
[Note 9] (p. 476). Amounting in value to better than Rs 300.