# Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile/Volume 1/Book 1/Chapter 9

CHAP. IX.
Voyage to Jibbel Zumrud — Return to Cosseir — Sails from Cosseir - Jaffateen Islands — Arrive at Tor.
THE Turks and the Bey departed, and with the Turks I dispatched my Arab, Abdel Gin, not only giving him something myself, but recommending him to my beneficent countrymen at Jidda, if he should go there.
I now took up my quarters in the castle, and as the Ababdé had told strange stories about the Mountain of Emeralds, I determined, till my captain should return, to make a voyage thither. There was no possibility of knowing the distance by report; sometimes it was twenty-five miles, sometimes it was fifty, sometimes it was a hundred, and God knows how much more.
I chose a man who had been twice at these mountains of emeralds; with the best boat then in the harbour, and on Tuesday the 14th of March, we sailed, with the wind at North East, from the harbour of Cosseir, about an hour before the dawn of day. We kept coasting along, with a very moderate wind, much diverted with the red and green ap​pearances of the marble mountains upon the coast. Our vessel had one sail, like a straw mattress, made of the leaves of a kind of palm-tree, which they call Doom. It was fixed above, and drew up like a curtain, but did not lower with a yard like a sail; so that upon stress of weather, if the sail was furled, it was so top-heavy, that the ship must founder, or the mast be carried away. But, by way of indemnification, the planks of the vessel were sewed together, and there was not a nail, nor a piece of iron, in the whole ship; so that, when you struck upon a rock, seldom any damage ensued. For my own part, from an absolute detestation of her whole construction, I insisted upon keeping close along shore, at an easy sail.
The Continent, to the leeward of us, belonged to our friends the Ababdé. There was great plenty of shell-fish to be picked up on every shoal. I had loaded the vessel with four skins of fresh water, equal to four hogsheads, with cords, and buoys fixed to the end of each of them, so that, if we had been shipwrecked near land, as rubbing two sticks together made us fire, I was not afraid of receiving succour, before we were driven to the last extremity, provided we did not perish in the sea, of which I was not very apprehensive.
On the 15th, about nine o'clock, I saw a large high rock, like a pillar, rising out of the sea. At first, I took it for a part of the Continent; but, as we advanced nearer it, the sun being very clear, and the sea calm, I took an observation, and as our situation was lat. 25° 6', and the island about a league distant, to the S. S. W. of us, I concluded its latitude to be pretty exactly 25 ° 3' North. This island is ​about three miles from the shore, of an oval form, rising in the middle. It seems to me to be of granite; and is called, in the language of the country, Jibbel Siberget, which has been translated the Mountain of Emeralds. Siberget, however, is a word in the language of the Shepherds, who, I doubt, never in their lives saw an emerald; and though the Arabic translation is Jibbel Zumrud, and that word has been transferred to the emerald, a very fine stone, oftener seen since the discovery of the new world, yet I very much doubt, that either Siberget or Zumrud ever meant Emerald in old times. My reason is this, that we found, both here and in the Continent, splinters, and pieces of green pellucid chrystaline substance; yet, though green, they were veiny, clouded, and not at all so hard as rock-crystal; a mineral production certainly, but a little harder than glass, and this, I apprehend, was what the Shepherds, or people of Beja, called Siberget, the Latins Smaragdus, and the Moors Zumrud.
The 16th, at day-break in the morning, I took the Arab of Cosseir with me, who knew the place. We landed on a point perfectly desert; at first, sandy like Cosseir, afterwards, where the soil was fixed, producing some few plants of rue or absinthium. We advanced above three miles farther in a perfectly desert country, with only a few acacia-trees scattered here and there, and came to the foot of the mountains. I asked my guide the name of that place; he laid it was Saiel. They are never at a loss for a name, and those who do not understand the language, always believe them. This would have been the case in the present conjuncture. He knew not the name of the place, and perhaps it had no name, but he called it Saiel, which signifies a male acacia-tree; merely because he saw an acacia growing there; and, ​with equal reason, he might have called every mile Saiel, from the Gulf of Suez to the line.
We see this abuse in the old Itineraries, especially in the * Antonine, from such a town to such a town, so many miles; and what is the next station? (el seggera) ten miles. This el seggera †, the Latin readers take to be the name of a town, as Harduin, and all commentators on the classics, have done. But so far from Seggera signifying a town, it imports just the contrary, that there is no town there, but the traveller must be obliged to take up his quarters under a tree that night, for such is the meaning of Seggera as a station, and so likewise of Saiel.
At the foot of the mountain, or about seven yards up from the base of it, are five pits or shafts, none of them four feet in diameter, called the Zumrud Wells, from which the ancients are said to have drawn the emeralds. We were not provided with materials, and little endowed with inclination, to descend into any one of them, where the air was probably bad. I picked up the nozzels, and some fragments of lamps, like those of which we find millions in Italy: and some worn fragments, but very small ones, of that brittle green chrystal, which is the fiberget and bilur of Ethiopia, perhaps the zumrud, the smaragdus described by Pliny, but by no means the emerald, known since the discovery of the new world, whose first character absolute​ly defeats its pretension, the true Peruvian emerald being equal in hardness to the ruby.
Pliny* reckons up twelve kind of emeralds, and names them all by the country where they are found. Many have thought the smaragdus to be but a finer kind of jasper. Pomet assures us it is a mineral, formed in iron, and says he had one to which iron-ore was sticking. If this was the case, the finest emeralds should not come from Peru, where, as far as ever has been yet discovered, there is no iron.
With regard to the Oriental emeralds, which they say come from the East Indies, they are now sufficiently known, and the value of each stone pretty well ascertained; but all our industry and avarice have not yet discovered a mine of emeralds there, as far as I have heard. That there were emeralds in the East Indies, upon the first discovery of it by the Cape, there is no sort of doubt; that there came emeralds from that quarter in the time of the Romans, seems to admit of as little; but few antique emeralds have ever been seen; and so greatly in esteem, and rare were they in those times, that it was made a crime for any artist to engrave upon an emerald †.
It is very natural to suppose, that some people of the East had a communication and trade with the new world, before we attempted to share it with them; and that the emeralds, they had brought from that quarter, were those which came ​afterwards into Europe, and were called the Oriental, till they were confounded with the * Peruvian, by the quantity of that kind brought into the East Indies, by the Jews and Moors, after the discovery of the new Continent.
But what invincibly proves, that the ancients and we are not agreed as to the same stone, is, that † Theophrastus says, that in the Egyptian commentaries he saw mention made of an emerald four cubits, (six feet long,) which was sent as a present to one of their kings; and in one of the temples of Jupiter in Egypt he saw an obelisk 60 feet high, made of four emeralds: and Roderick of Toledo informs us, that, when the Saracens took that city, Tarik, their chief, had a table of an emerald 365 cubits, or 547½ feet long. The Moorish histories of the invasion of Spain are full of such emeralds.
Having satisfied my curiosity as to these mountains, without having seen a living creature, I returned to my boat, where I found all well, and an excellent dinner of fish prepared. These were of three kinds, called Bisser, Surrumbac, and Nhoude el Benaat. The first of these seems to be of the Oyster-kind, but the shells are both equally curved and hollow, and open with a hinge on the side like a mussel. It has a large beard, like an oyster, which is not eatable, but which should be stript off. We found some of these two feet long, but the largest I believe ever seen composes the baptismal font in the church of Notre Dame in Paris †. The second is the Concha Veneris, with large projecting ​points like fingers. The third, called the Breasts of the Virgin, is a beautiful shell, perfectly pyramidal, generally about four inches in height, and beautifully variegated with mother-of-pearl, and green. All these fishes have a peppery taste, but are not therefore reckoned the less wholesome, and they are so much the more convenient, that they carry that ingredient of spice along with them for sauce, with which travellers, like me, very seldom burden themselves.
Besides a number of very fine shells, we picked up several branches of coral, coralines, yusser*, and many other articles of natural history. We were abundantly provided with every thing; the weather was fair; and we never doubted it was to continue, so we were in great spirits, and only regreted that we had not, once for all, taken leave of Cosseir, and stood over for Jidda.
In this disposition we sailed about three o'clock in the afternoon, and the wind flattered us so much, that next day, the 17th, about eleven o'clock, we found ourselves about two leagues a-stern of a small island, known to the Pilot by the name of Jibbel Macouar. This island is at least four miles from the shore, and is a high land, so that it may be seen, I suppose, eight leagues at sea, but is generally confounded with the Continent. I computed myself to be about 4' of the meridian distant when I made the observation, and take its latitude to be about 24° 2' on the centre of the island. ​ The land here, after running from Jibbel Siberget to Macouar, in a direction nearly N. W. and S. E. turns round in shape of a large promontory, and changes its direction to N. E. and S. W. and ends in a small bay or inlet; so that, by fanciful people, it has been thought to resemble the nose of a man, and is called by the Arabs, Ras el Anf, the Cape of the Nose. The mountains, within land, are of a dusky burnt colour; broken into points, as if intersected by torrents.
The coasting vessels from Masuah and Suakem which are bound to Jidda, in the strength of the Summer monsoon, stand close in shore down the coast of Abyssinia, where they find a gentle steady east wind blowing all night, and a west wind very often during the day, if they are near enough the shore, for which purpose their vessels are built.
Besides this, the violent North-East monsoon raking in the direction of the Gulf, blows the water out of the Straits of Babelmandeb into the Indian Ocean, where, being accumulated, it presses itself backwards; and, unable to find way in the middle of the Channel, creeps up among the shallows on each coast of the Red Sea. However long the voyage from Masuah to Jibbel Macouar may seem, yet these gentle winds and favourable currents, if I may so call those in the sea, soon ran us down the length of that mountain.
A large vessel, however, does not dare to try this, whilst constantly among shoals, and close on a lee-shore; but those sewed together, and yielding without damage to the stress, slide over the banks of white coral, and even sometimes the rocks. Arrived at this island, they set their prow towards ​the opposite shore, and cross the Channel in one night, to the coast of Arabia, being nearly before the wind. The track of this extraordinary navigation is marked upon * the map, and it is so well verified, that no ship-master need doubt it.
About three o'clock in the afternoon, with a favourable wind and fine weather, we continued along the coast, with an easy sail. We saw no appearance of any inhabitants; the mountains were broken and pointed, as before taking the direction of the coast; advancing and receding as the shore itself did. This coast is a very bold one, nor was there in any of the islands we had seen, shoals or anchoring places, unless upon the rock itself; so that, when we landed, we could run our boltsprit home over the land.
This island, Jibbel Macouar, has breakers running off from it at all points; but, though we hauled close to these, we had no soundings. We then went betwixt it and the small island, that lies S. S. E. from it about three miles, and tried for soundings to the leeward, but we had none, although almost touching the land. About sun-set, I saw a small sandy island, which we left about a league to the westward of us. It had no shrubs, nor trees, nor height, that could distinguish it. My design was to push on to the river Frat, which is represented in the charts as very large and deep, coming from the Continent; though, considering by its latitude that it is above the tropical rains, (for it is laid ​down about lat. 21° 25'), I never did believe that any such river existed.
In fact, we know no river, north of the sources of the Nile, that does not fall into the Nile. Nay, I may say, that not one river, in all Abyssinia, empties itself into the Red Sea. The tropical rains are bounded, and finish in lat. 16°, and there is no river, from the mountains, that falls into the desert of Nubia; nor do we know of any river which is tributary to the Nile, but what has its rise under the tropical rains. It would be a very singular circumstance, then, that the Frat should rise in one of the dryest places in the globe, that it should be a river at least equal to the Nile; and should maintain itself full in all seasons, which the Nile does not; last of all, in a country where water is so scarce and precious, that it should not have a town or settlement upon it, either ancient or modern, nor that it should be resorted to by any encampment of Arabs, who might cross over and traffic with Jidda, which place is immediately opposite.
On the 18th, at day-break, I was alarmed at seeing no land, as I had no sort of confidence in the skill of my pilot, however sure I was of my latitude. About an hour after sun-set, I observed a high rugged rock, which the pilot told me, upon inquiry, was Jibbel, (viz. a Rock), and this was all the satisfaction I could get. We bore down upon it with a wind, scant enough; and, about four, we came to an anchor. As we had no name for that island, and I did not know that any traveller had been there before me, I used the privilege by giving it my own, in memory of having been there. The south of this island seems to be high and ​rocky, the north is low and ends in a tail, or sloping bank, but is exceedingly steep to, and at the length of your bark any way from it, you have no soundings.
All this morning since before day, our pilot had begged us to go no farther. He said the wind had changed; that, by infallible signs he had seen to the southward, he was confident (without any chance of being mistaken) that in twenty-four hours we should have a storm, which would put us in danger of shipwreck; that Frat, which I wanted to see, was immediately opposite to Jidda, so that either a country, or English boat would run me over in a night and a day, when I might procure people who had connections in the country, so as to be under no apprehension of any accident; but that, in the present track I was going, every man that I should meet was my enemy. Although not very susceptible of fear, my ears were never shut against reason, and to what the pilot stated, I added in my own breast, that we might be blown out to sea, and want both water and provision. We, therefore, dined as quickly as possible, and encouraged one another all we could. A little pafter six the wind came easterly, and changeable, with a thick haze over the land. This cleared about nine in the evening, and one of the finest and steadiest gales that ever blew, carried us swiftly on, directly for Cosseir. The sky was full of dappled clouds, so that, though I, several times, tried to catch a star in the meridian, I was always frustrated. The wind became fresher, but still very fair.
The 19th, at day-break, we saw the land stretching all the way northward, and, soon after, distinctly discerned ​Jibbel Siberget upon our lee-bow. We had seen it indeed before, but had taken it for the main-land.
After passing such an agreeable night, we could not be quiet, and laughed at our pilot about his perfect knowledge of the weather. The fellow shook his head, and said, he had been mistaken before now, and was always glad when it happened so; but still we were not arrived at Cosseir, though he hoped and believed we should get there in safety. In a very little time the vane on the mast-head began to turn, first north, then east, then south, and back again to all the points in the compass; the sky was quite dark, with thick rain to the southward of us; then followed a most violent clap of thunder, but no lightning; and back again came the wind fair at south-east. We all looked rather down-cast at each other, and a general silence followed. This, however, I saw availed us nothing, we were in the scrape, and were to endeavour to get out of it the best way we could. The vessel went at a prodigious rate. The sail that was made of mat happened to be new, and, filled with a strong wind, weighed prodigiously. What made this worse, was, the masts were placed a little forward. The first thing I asked, was, if the pilot could not lower his main-sail? But that we found impossible, the yard being fixed to the mast-head. The next step was to reef it, by hauling it in part up like a curtain: this our pilot desired us not to attempt; for it would endanger our foundering. Notwithstanding which, I desired my servant to help me with the haulyards; and to hold them in his hand, only giving them a turn round the bench. This increasing the vessel's weight above and before, as she already had too much pressure, made her give ​two pitches, the one after the other, so that I thought she was buried under the waves, and a considerable deal of water came in upon us. I am fully satisfied, had she not been in good order, very buoyant, and in her trim, she would have gone to the bottom, as the wind continued to blow a hurricane.
I began now to throw off my upper coat and trowsers, that I might endeavour to make shore, if the vessel should founder, whilst the servants seemed to have given themselves up, and made no preparation. The pilot kept in close by the land, to see if no bight, or inlet, offered to bring up in; but we were going with such violence, that I was satisfied we should overset if we attempted this. Every ten minutes we ran over the white coral banks, which we broke in pieces with the grating of a file, upon iron, and, what was the most terrible of all, a large wave followed higher than our stern, curling over it, and seemed to be the instrument destined by Providence to bury us in the abyss.
Our pilot began apparently to lose his understanding with fright. I begged him to be steady, persuading him to take a glass of spirits, and desired him not to dispute or doubt any thing that I should do or order, for that I had seen much more terrible nights in the ocean; I assured him, that all harm done to his vessel should be repaired when we should get to Cosseir, or even a new one bought for him, if his own was much damaged. He answered me nothing, but that Mahomet was the prophet of GOD. — Let him prophecy, said I, as long as he pleases, but what I order you is to keep steady to the helm; mind the vane on the top of the mast, and steer straight before the wind, for I am resolved to cut ​that main-sail to pieces, and prevent the mast from going away, and your vessel from sinking to the bottom. I got no answer to this which I could hear, the wind was so high, except something about the mercy and the merit of Sidi Ali el Genowi. I now became violently angry. "D — n Sidi Ali el Genowi, said I, you beast, cannot you give me a rational answer? Stand to your helm, look at the vane; keep the vessel straight before the wind, or, by the great G — d who sits in heaven, (another kind of oath than by Sidi Ali el Genowi), I will shoot you dead the first yaw the ship gives, or the first time that you leave the steerage where you are standing." He answered only, Maloom, i. e. very well. — All this was sooner done than said; I got the main-sail in my arms, and, with a large knife, cut it all to shreds, which eased the vessel greatly, though we were still going at a prodigious rate.
About two o'clock the wind seemed to fail, but, half an hour after, was more violent than ever. At three, it fell calm. I then encouraged my pilot, who had been very attentive, and, I believe, had pretty well got through the whole list of saints in his calendar, and I assured him that he should receive ample reparation for the loss of his main-sail. We now saw distinctly the white cliffs of the two mountains above Old Cosseir, and on the 19th, a little before sun set, we arrived safely at the New.
We, afterwards, heard how much more fortunate we had been than some of our fellow-sailors that same night; three of the vessels belonging to Cosseir, loaded with wheat for Yambo, perished, with all on board of them, in the gale; among these was the vessel that first had the Turks on board. ​This account was brought by Sidi Ali el Meymoum el Shehrie, which signifies 'Ali, the ape or monkey, from Sheher.' For though he was a saint, yet being in figure liker to a monkey, they thought it proper to distinguish him by that to which he bore the greatest resemblance.
We were all heartily sick of Cosseir embarkations, but the vessel of Sidi Ali el Meymoum, tho' small, was tight and well-rigged; had sails of canvas, and had navigated in the Indian Ocean; the Rais had four stout men on board, apparently good sailors; he himself, though near sixty, was a very active, vigorous little man, and to the full as good a sailor as he was a saint. It was on the 5th of April, after having made my last observation of longitude at Cosseir, that I embarked on board this vessel, and sailed from that port. It was necessary to conceal from some of my servants our intention of proceeding to the bottom of the Gulf, least, finding themselves among Christians so near Cairo, they might desert a voyage of which they were sick, before it was well begun.
For the first two days we had hazy weather, with little wind. In the evening, the wind fell calm. We saw a high land to the south-west of us, very rugged and broken, which seemed parallel to the coast, and higher in the middle than at either end. This, we conceived, was the mountain that divides the coast of the Red Sea from the eastern part of the Valley of Egypt, corresponding to Monfalout and Siout. We brought to, in the night, behind a small low Cape, tho' the wind was fair, our Rais being afraid of the Jaffateen Islands, which we knew were not far a-head. ​We caught a great quantity of fine fish this night with a line, some of them weighing 14 pounds. The best were blue in the back, like a salmon, but their belly red, and marked with blue round spots. They resembled a salmon in shape, but the fish was white, and not so firm.
In the morning of the 6th we made the Jaffateen Islands. They are four in number, joined by shoals and sunken rocks. They are crooked, or bent, like half a bow, and are dangerous for ships sailing in the night, because there seems to be a passage between them, to which, when pilots are attending, they neglect two small dangerous sunk rocks, that lie almost in the middle of the entrance, in deep water.
I understood, afterwards, from the Rais, that, had it not been from some marks he saw of blowing weather, he would not have come in to the Jaffateen Islands, but stood directly for Tor, running between the island Sheduan, and a rock which is in the middle of the channel, after you pass Ras Mahomet. But we lay so perfectly quiet, the whole night, that we could not but be grateful to the Rais for his care, although we had seen no apparent reason for it.
Next morning, the 7th, we left our very quiet birth in the bay, and stood close, nearly south-east, along-side of the two southernmost Jaffateen Islands, our head upon the center of Sheduan, till we had cleared the eastermost of those islands about three miles. We then passed Sheduan, leaving it to the eastward about three leagues, and keeping nearly a N. N. W. course, to range the west side of Jibbel Zeit. This is a large desert island, or rock, that is about four miles from the main. ​The passage between them is practicable by small craft only, whose planks are sewed together, and are not affected by a stroke upon hard ground for it is not for want of water that this navigation is dangerous. All the west coast is very bold, and has more depth of water than the east; but on this side there is no anchoring ground, nor shoals. It is a rocky shore, and there is depth of water every where, yet that part is full of sunken rocks; which, though not visible, are near enough the surface to take up a large ship, whose destruction thereupon becomes inevitable. This I presume arises from one cause. The mountains on the side of Egypt and Abyssinia are all (as we have stated) hard stone, Porphyry, Granite, Alabaster, Basaltes, and many sorts of Marble. These are all therefore fixed, and even to the northward of lat 16°, where there is no rain, very small quantities of dust or sand can ever be blown from them into the sea. On the opposite, or Arabian side, the sea-coast of the Hejaz, and that of the Tehama, are all moving lands; and the dry winter-monsoon from the south-east blows a large quantity from the deserts, which is lodged among the rocks on the Arabian side of the Gulf, and confined there by the north-east or summer-monsoon, which is in a contrary direction, and hinders them from coming over, or circulating towards the Egyptian side.
From this it happens, that the west, or Abyssinian side, is full of deep water, interspersed with sunken rocks, unmasked, or uncovered with sand, with which they would otherwise become islands. These are naked and bare all round, and sharp like points of spears; while on the east-side there are rocks, indeed, as in the other, but being between the south- east monsoon, which drives the sand into its coast, and the ​north-west monsoon which repels it, and keeps it in there, every rock on the Arabian shore becomes an island, and every two or three islands become a harbour.
Upon the ends of the principal of these harbours large heaps of stones have been piled up, to serve as signals, or marks, how to enter; and it is in these that the large vessels from Cairo to Jidda, equal in size to our 74 gun ships, (but from the cisterns of mason-work built within for holding water, I suppose double their weight) after navigating their portion of the channel in the day, come safely and quietly to, at four o'clock in the afternoon, and in these little harbours pass the night, to sail into the channel again, next morning at sun-rise.
Therefore, though in the track of my voyage to Tor, I am seen running from the west side of Jibbel Zeit a W. N. W. course (for I had no place for a compass) into the harbour of Tor, I do not mean to do so bad a service to humanity as to persuade large ships to follow my track. There are two ways of instructing men usefully, in things absolutely unknown to them. The first is, to teach them what they can do safely. The next is, to teach them what they cannot do at all, or, warranted by a pressing occasion, attempt with more or less danger, which should be explained and placed before their eyes, for without this last no man knows the extent of his own powers. With this view, I will venture, without fear of contradiction, to say, that my course from Cosseir, or even from Jibbel Siberget, to Tor, is impossible to a great ship. My voyage, painful, full of care, and dangerous as it was, is not to be accounted a surety for the lives of thousands. It may be regarded as a foundation for surveys hereafter to be made by persons more capable, and better ​protected; and in this case wiil, I hope, be found a valuable fragment, because, whatever have been my conscientious fears of running servants, who work for pay, into danger of losing their lives by peril of the sea, yet I can safely say, that never did the face of man, or fear of danger to myself, deter me from verifying with my eyes, what my own hands have put upon paper.
In the days of the Ptolemies, and, as I shall shew, long before, the west coast of the Red Sea, where the deepest water, and most dangerous rocks are, was the track which the Indian and African ships chose, when loaded with the richest merchandise that ever vessels since carried. The Ptolemies built a number of large cities on this coast; nor do we hear that ships were obliged to abandon that track, from the disasters that befel them in the navigation. On the contrary, they avoided the coast of Arabia; and one reason, among others, is plain why they should; — they were loaded with the most valuable commodities, gold, ivory, gums, and precious stones; room for stowage on board therefore was very valuable.
Part of this trade, when at its greatest perfection, was carried on in vessels with oars. We know from the prophet Ezekiel *, 700 years before Christ, or 300 after Solomon had finished his trade with Africa and India, that they did not always make use of sails in the track of the monsoons; and consequently a great number of men must have been neces​sary for so tedious a voyage. A number of men being necessary, a quantity of water was equally so; and this must have taken up a great deal of stowage. Now, no where on the coast of Abyssinia could they want water two days; and scarce any where, on the coast of Arabia, could they be sure of it once in fifteen, and from this the western coast was called Ber el Ajam *, corruptly Azamia, the country of water, in opposition to the eastern shore, called Ber el Arab, where there was none.
A deliberate survey became absolutely necessary, and as in proportion to the danger of the coast pilots became more skilful, when once they had obtained more complete knowledge of the rocks and dangers, they preferred the boldest shore, because they could stand on all night, and provide themselves with water every day. Whereas, on the Arabian side, they could not sail but half the day, would be obliged to lie to all night, and to load themselves with water, equal to half their cargo.
I now shall undertake to point out to large ships, the way by which they can safely enter the Gulf of Suez, so as that they may be competent judges of their own course, in case of accident, without implicitly surrendering themselves, and property, into the hands of pilots.
In the first place, then, I am very confident, that, taking their departure from Jibbel el-Ourée, ships may safely stand ​on all night mid-channel, until they are in the latitude of Yambo.
The Red Sea may be divided into four parts, of which the Channel occupies two, till about lat. 26°, or nearly that of Cosseir. On the west side it is deep water, with many rocks, as I have already said. On the east side, that quarter is occupied by islands, that is, sand gathered about the rocks, the causes whereof I have before mentioned; between which there are channels of very deep water, and harbours, that protect the largest ships in any winds. But among these, from Mocha down to Suez, you must sail with a pilot, and during part of the day only.
To a person used to more civilized countries, it appears no great hardship to sail with a pilot, if you can get one, and in the Red Sea there are plenty; but these are creatures without any sort of science, who decide upon a manœuvre in a moment, without forethought, or any warning given. Such pilots often, in a large ship deeply loaded, with every sail out which she can carry, in a very instant cry out to let go your anchors, and bring you to, all standing in the face of a rock, or sand. Were not our seamen's vigour, and celerity in execution, infinitely beyond the skill and foresight of those pilots, I believe ,very few ships, coming the inward passage among the islands, would ever reach the port in safety.
If you are, however, going to Suez, without the consent of the Sherriffe of Mecca, that is, not intending to sell your cargo at Jidda, or pay your custom there, then you should ​take in your water at Mocha; or, if any reason should hinder you from touching that shore, a few hours will carry you to Azab, or Saba, on the Abyssinian coast, whose latitude I found to be 13° 5' north. It is not a port, but a very tolerable road, where you have very safe riding, under the shelter of a low desert island called Crab Island, with a few rocks at the end of it. But it must be remembered, the people are Galla, the most treacherous and villanous wretches upon the earth. They are Shepherds, who sometimes are on the coast in great numbers, or in the back of the hills that run close along the shore, or in miserable villages composed of huts, that run nearly in an east and west direction from Azab to Raheeta, the largest of all their villages. You will there, at Azab, get plenty of water, sheep, and goats, as also some myrrh and incense, if you are in the proper season, or will stay for it.
I again repeat it, that no confidence is to be had in the people. Those of Mocha, who even are absolutely necessary to them in their commercial transactions, cannot trust them without surety or hostages. And it was but a few years before I was there, the surgeon and mate of the Elgin East-India man, with several other sailors, were cut off, going on shore with a letter of safe conduct from their Shekh to purchase myrrh. Those that were in the boat escaped, but most of them were wounded. A ship, on its guard, does not fear banditti like these, and you will get plenty of water and provision, though I am only speaking of it as a station of necessity.
If you are not afraid of being known, there is a low black island on the Arabian coast called Camaran, it is in ​lat. 15° 39', and is distinguished by a white house, or fortress, on the west end of it, where you will procure excellent water, in greater plenty than at Azab; but no provisions, or only such as are very bad. If you should not wish to be seen, however, on the coast at all, among the chain of islands that reaches almost across the Gulf from Loheia to Masuah, there is one called Foosht, where there is good anchorage; it is laid down in my map in lat. 15° 59' 43" N. and long. 42° 27' E. from actual observation taken upon the island. There is here a quantity of excellent water, with a saint or monk to take care of it, and keep the wells clean. This poor creature was so terrified at seeing us come ashore with fire-arms, that he lay down upon his face on the sand; nor would he rise, or lift up his head, till the Rais had explained to me the cause of his fear, and till, knowing I was not in any danger of surprise, I had sent my guns on board.
From this to Yambo there is no safe watering place. Indeed if the river Frat were to be found, there is no need of any other watering place in the Gulf; but it is absolutely necessary to have a pilot on board before you make Ras Mahomet; because, over the mountains of Auche, the Elanitic Gulf, and the Cape itself, there is often a great haze, which lasts for many days together, and many ships are constantly lost, by mistaking the Eastern Bay, or Elanitic Gulf, for the entrance of the Gulf of Suez; the former has a reef of rocks nearly across it.
After you have made Sheduan, a large island three leagues farther, in a direction nearly north and by west, is a bare rock, which, according to their usual carelessness and indifference, they are not at the pains to call by any other ​name but Jibbel, the rock, island, or mountain, in general. You should not come within three full leagues of that rock, but leave it at a distance to the westward. You will then see shoals, which form a pretty broad channel, where you have soundings from fifteen to thirty fathoms. And again, standing on directly upon Tor, you have two other oval sands with sunken rocks, in the channel, between which you are to steer. All your danger is here in sight, for you might go in the inside, or to the eastward, of the many small islands you see toward the shore; and there are the anchoring places of the Cairo vessels, which are marked with the black anchor in the draught. This is the course best known and practised by pilots for ships of all sizes. But by a draught of Mr Niebuhr, who went from Suez with Mahomet Rais Tobal, his track with that large ship was through the channels, till he arrived at the point, where Tor bore a little to the northward of east of him.
Tor may be known at a distance by two hills that stand near the water side, which, in clear weather, may be seen six leagues off. Just to the south-east of these is the town and harbour, where there are some palm-trees about the houses, the more remarkable, that they are the first you see on the coast. There is no danger in going into Tor harbour, the soundings in the way are clean and regular; and by giving the beacon a small birth on the larboard hand, you may haul in a little to the northward, and anchor in five or six fathom. The bottom of the bay is not a mile from the beacon, and about the same distance from the opposite shore. There is no sensible tide in the middle of the Gulf, but, by the sides, it runs full two knots an hour. At springs, it is high water at Tor nearly at twelve o'clock. ​On the 9th we arrived at Tor, a small straggling village, with a convent of Greek Monks, belonging to Mount Sinai. Don John de Castro * took this town when it was walled, and fortified, soon after the discovery of the Indies by the Portuguese; it has never since been of any consideration. It serves now, only as a watering-place for ships going to, and from Suez. From this we have a distinct view of the points of the mountains Horeb and Sinai, which appear behind and above the others, their tops being often covered with snow in winter.
There are three things, (now I am at the north end of the Arabian Gulf,) of which the reader will expect some account, and I am heartily sorry to say, that I fear I shall be obliged to disappoint him in all, by the unsatisfactory relation I am forced to give,
The first is, Whether the Red Sea is not higher than the Mediterranean, by several feet or inches? To this I answer, That the fact has been supposed to be so by antiquity, and alledged as a reason why Ptolemy's canal was made from the bottom of the Heroopolitic Gulf, rather than brought due north across the Isthmus of Suez; in which last case, it was feared it would submerge a great part of Asia Minor. But who has ever attempted to verify this by experiment? or who is capable of settling the difference of levels, amounting, as supposed, to some feet and inches, between two points 120 miles distant from each other, over a desert that has no settled surface, but is changing its height every ​day? Besides, since all seas are, in fact, but one, what is it that hinders the Indian Ocean to flow to its level? What is it that keeps the Indian Ocean up?
Till this last branch of the question is resolved, I shall take it for granted that no such difference of level exists, whatever Ptolemy's engineers might have pretended to him; because, to suppose it fact, is to suppose the violation of one very material law of nature.
The next thing I have to take notice of, for the satisfaction of my reader, is, the way by which the children of Israel passed the Red Sea at the time of their deliverance from the land of Egypt.
As scripture teaches us, that this passage, wherever it might be, was under the influence of a miraculous power, no particular circumstance of breadth, or depth, makes one place likelier than another. It is a matter of mere curiosity, and can only promote an illustration of the scripture, for which reason, I do not decline the consideration of it,
I shall suppose, that my reader has been sufficiently convinced, by other authors, that the land of Goshen, where the Israelites dwelt in Egypt, was that country lying east of the Nile, and not overflowed by it, bounded by the mountains of the Thebaid on the south, by the Nile and Mediterranean on the west and north, and the Red Sea and desert of Arabia on the east. It was the Heliopolitan nome, its capital was On; from predilection of the letter O, common to the Hebrews, they called it Goshen; but its proper name was Geshen, the country of Grass, or Pasturage; or of ​the Shepherds; in opposition to the rest of the land which was sown, after having been overflowed by the Nile.
There were three ways by which the children of Israel, flying from Pharaoh, could have entered Palestine. The first was by the sea-coast by Gaza, Askelon, and Joppa. This was the plainest and nearest way; and, therefore, fittest for people incumbered with kneading troughs, dough, cattle, and children. The sea-coast was full of rich commercial cities, the mid-land was cultivated and sown with grain. The eastern part, nearest the mountains, was full of cattle and shepherds, as rich a country, and more powerful than the cities themselves.
This narrow valley, between the mountains and the sea, ran all along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, from Gaza northward, comprehending the low part of Palestine and Syria. Now, here a small number of men might have passed, under the laws of hospitality; nay, they did constantly pass, it being the high road between Egypt, and Tyre, and Sidon. But the case was different with a multitude, such as fix hundred thousand men having their cattle along with them. These must have occupied the whole land of the Philistines, destroyed all private property, and undoubtedly have occasioned some revolution; and as they were not now intended to be put in possession of the land of promise, the measure of the iniquity of the nations being not yet full, God turned them aside from going that way, though the nearest, least they "should see war *," that ​is, least the people should rise against them, and destroy them.
There was another way which led south-west, upon Beer-sheba and Hebron, in the middle, between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean. This was the direction in which Abraham, Lot, and Jacob, are supposed to have reached Egypt. But there was neither food nor water there to sustain the Israelites. When Abraham and Lot returned out of Egypt, they were obliged to separate by consent, because Abraham said to his brother, "The land will not bear us both*."
The third way was straight east into Arabia, pretty much the road by which the Pilgrims go at this day to Mecca, and the caravans from Suez to Cairo. In this track they would have gone round by the mountains of Moab, east of the Dead Sea, and passed Jordan in the plain opposite to Jericho, as they did forty years afterwards. But it is plain from scripture, that God's counsels were to make Pharaoh and his Egyptians an example of his vengeance; and, as none of these roads led to the sea, they did not answer the Divine intention.
About twelve leagues from the sea, there was a narrow road which turned to the right, between the mountains, through a valley called Badeab, where their course was nearly south-east; this valley ended in a pass, between two considerable mountains, called Gewoube on the south; and Jibbel Attakah on the north, and opened into the low stripe of ​country which runs all along the Red Sea; and the Israelites were ordered to encamp at Pihahiroth, opposite to Baal-zephon, between Migdol and that sea.
It will be necessary to explain these names. Badeah, Dr Shaw interprets, the Valley of the Miracle, but this is forcing an etymology, for there was yet no miracle wrought, nor was there ever any in the valley. But Badeah, means barren, bare and uninhabited; such as we may imagine a valley between stony mountains, a desert valley. Jibbel Attakah, he translates also, the Mountain of Deliverance. But so far were the Israelites from being delivered on their arrival at this mountain, that they were then in the greatest distress and danger. Attakah, means, however, to arrive or come up with, either because there they arrived within sight of the Red Sea; or, as I am rather inclined to think, this place took its name from the arrival of Pharaoh, or his coming in sight of the Israelites, when encamped between Migdol and the Red Sea.
Pihahiroth is the mouth of the valley, opening to the flat country and the sea, as I have already said, such are called Mouths; in the Arabic, Fum; as I have observed in my journey to Cosseir, where the opening of the valley is called Fum el Beder, the mouth of Beder; Fum el Terfowey, the mouth of Terfowey. Hhoreth, the flat country along the Red Sea, is so called from Hhor, a narrow valley where torrents run, occasioned by sudden irregular showers. Such we have already described on the east side of the mountains, bordering upon that narrow flat country along the Red Sea, where temporary showers fall in great abundance, while none of them touch the west side of the mountains or valley of ​Egypt. Pihahiroth then is the mouth of the valley Badeah; which opens to Hhoreth, the narrow stripe of land where showers fall.
Baal-Zephon, the God of the watch-tower, was, probably, some idol's temple, which served for a signal-house upon the Cape which forms the north entrance of the bay opposite to Jibbel Attakah, where there is still a mosque, or saint's tomb. It was probably a light-house, for the direction of ships going to the bottom of the Gulf, to prevent mistaking it for another foul bay, under the high land, where there is also a tomb of a saint called Abou Derage.
The last rebuke God gave to Pharaoh, by slaying all the first-born, seems to have made a strong impression upon the Egyptians. Scripture says, that the people were now urgent with the Israelites to be gone, for they said, "We be all dead men *." And we need not doubt; it was in order to keep up in their hearts a motive of resentment, strong enough to make them pursue the Israelites, that God caused the Israelites to borrow, and take away the jewels of the Egyptians; without some new cause of anger, the late terrible chastisement might have deterred them. While, therefore, they journeyed eastward towards the desert, the Egyptians had no motive to attack them because they went with permission there to sacrifice, and were on their return to restore them their moveables. But when the Israelites were observed turning to the south, among the mountains, they ​were then supposed to flee without a view of returning, because they had left the way of the desert; and therefore Pharaoh, that he might induce the Egyptians to follow them, tells them that the Israelites were now entangled among the mountains, and the wilderness behind them, which was really the case, when they encamped at Pihahiroth, before, or south of Baal-Zephon, between Migdol and the sea. Here, then, before Migdol, the sea was divided, and they passed over dry shod to the wilderness of Shur, which was immediately opposite to them; a space something less than four leagues, and so easily accomplished in one night, without any miraculous interposition.
Three days they were without water, which would bring them to Korondel, where is a spring of brackish, or bitter water, to this day, which probably were the waters of Marah *.
The natives still call this part of the sea Bahar Kolzum, or the Sea of Destruction; and just opposite to Pihahiroth is a bay, where the North Cape is called Ras Musa, or the Cape of Moses, even now. These are the reasons why I believe the passage of the Israelites to have been in this direction. There is about fourteen fathom of water in the channel, and about nine in the sides, and good anchorage every where; the farthest side is a low sandy coast, and a very easy landing-place. The draught of the bottom of the Gulf given by Doctor Pococke is very erroneous, in every part of it.
It was proposed to Mr Niebuhr, when in Egypt, to inquire, upon the spot, whether there were not some ridges ​of rocks, where the water was shallow, so that an army at particular times might pass over? Secondly, Whether the Etesian winds, which blow strongly all Summer from the north west, could not blow so violently against the sea, as to keep it back on a heap, so that the Israelites might have passed without a miracle? And a copy of these queries was left for me, to join my inquiries likewise.
But I must confess, however learned the gentlemen were who proposed these doubts, I did not think they merited any attention to solve them. This passage is told us, by scripture, to be a miraculous one; and, if so, we have nothing to do with natural causes. If we do not believe Moses, we need not believe the transaction at all, seeing that it is from his authority alone we derive it. If we believe in God that he made the sea, we must believe he could divide it when he sees proper reason, and of that he must be the only judge. It is no greater miracle to divide the Red Sea, than to divide the river of Jordan.
If the Etesian wind blowing from the north-west in summer, could heap up the sea as a wall, on the right, or to the south, of fifty feet high, still the difficulty would remain, of building the wall on the left hand, or to the north. Besides, water standing in that position for a day, must have lost the nature of fluid. Whence came that cohesion of particles, that hindered that wall to escape at the sides? This is as great a miracle as that of Moses. If the Etesian winds had done this once, they must have repeated it many a time before and since, from the same causes. Yet, * Dio​-dorus Siculus says, the Troglodytes, the indigenous inhabitants of that very spot, had a tradition from father to son, from their very earliest and remotest ages, that once this division of the sea did happen there, and that after leaving its bottom sometimes dry, the sea again came back, and covered it with great fury. The words of this author are of the most remarkable kind. We cannot think this heathen is writing in favour of revelation. He knew not Moses, nor says a word about Pharaoh, and his host; but records the miracle of the division of the sea, in words nearly as strong as those of Moses, from the mouths of unbiassed, undesigning Pagans.
Were all these difficulties surmounted, what could we do with the pillar of fire? The answer is, We should not believe it. Why then believe the passage at all? We have no authority for the one, but what is for the other; it is altogether contrary to the ordinary nature of things, and if not a miracle, it must be a fable.
The cause of the several names of the Red Sea, is a subject of more liberal inquiry. I am of opinion, that it certainly derived its name from Edom, long and early its powerful master, that word signifying Red in Hebrew. It formerly went by the name of Sea of Edom, or Idumea; since, by that of the Red Sea.
It has been observed, indeed, that not only the Arabian Gulf, but part of the Indian Ocean *, went by this name, ​though far distant from Idumea. This is true, but when we consider, as we shall do in the course of this history, that the masters of that sea were still the Edomites, who went from the one sea directly in the same voyage to the other, we shall not dispute the propriety of extending the name to part of the Indian Ocean also. As for what fanciful people * have said of any redness in the sea itself, or colour in the bottom, the reader may assure himself all this is fiction, the Red Sea being in colour nothing different from the Indian, or any other Ocean.
There is greater difficulty in assigning a reason for the Hebrew name, Yam Suph; properly so called, say learned authors, from the quantity of weeds in it. But I must confess, in contradiction to this, that I never in my life, (and I have seen the whole extent of it) saw a weed of any sort in it; and, indeed, upon the slightest consideration, it will occur to any one, that a narrow gulf, under the immediate influence of monsoons, blowing from contrary points six months each year, would have too much agitation to produce such vegetables, seldom found, but in stagnant waters, and seldomer, if ever, found in salt ones. My opinion then is, that it is from the † large trees, or plants of white coral, spread every where over the bottom of the Red Sea, perfectly in imitation of plants on land, that the sea has obtained this name. If not, I fairly confess I have not any other conjecture to make. ​No sea, or shores, I believe, in the world, abound more in subjects of Natural History than the Red Sea. I suppose I have drawings and subjects of this kind, equal in bulk to the journal of the whole voyage itself. But the vast expence in engraving, as well as other considerations, will probably hinder for ever the perfection of this work in this particular.
* ↑ *Itin. Anton. aCarth. p. 4.
* ↑ † So the next stage from Syené is called Hiera Sycaminos, a sycamore-tree, Ptol. lib.4. p.108.
* ↑ * Plin. lib. xxxvii. cap. 5.
* ↑ † Ditto.
* ↑ * Tavernier vol. II. Voyag.
* ↑ † Theophrastus Πεξςλςθων.
* ↑ ‡ Clamps.
* ↑ * It is a Keratophyte, growing at the bottom of the sea.
* ↑ * Vide the track of this Navigation laid down on the Chart.
* ↑ * Ezek. chap, xxvii. 6th and 29th verses.
* ↑ * Ajan, in the language of Shepherds, signifies rain-water.
* ↑ * Vide his Journal published by Abbé Vertet.
* ↑ * Gen. chap. xiii. ver. 17th.
* ↑ * Gen. chap. xiii ver. 6th. Exod. chap. xiii. ver. 17th.
* ↑ * Exod. ch. xii. 33.
* ↑ * Such is the tradition among the Natives.
* ↑ * Diod. Sic. Lib. 3. p. 122.
* ↑ * Dionysii Periegesis, v.38. et Comment. Eustathii in eundem. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 765. Agathemeri Geographia, lib. ii. cap. II.
* ↑ * Jerome Lobo, the greatest liar of the Jesuits, ch. iv. p. 46. English translation.
* ↑ † I saw one of these, which, from a root nearly central, threw out ramifications in a nearly circular form, measuring twenty-fix feet diameter every way.