strait; but the Moors, who all entertain dismal apprehensions of the
Franks, plied their oars and sail with the utmost diligence, and as soon
as they reached land, quitted their boat, and scoured to the mountains.
We saw them make signals from thence, and imagining they would come to a
parley, sent out our boat with two sailors and an Abyssin, putting the
ships off from the shore, to set them free from any suspicion of danger
in coming down. All this was to no purpose, they could not be drawn from
the mountain, and our men had orders not to go on shore, so they were
obliged to return without information. Soon after we discovered the isle
of Babelmandel, which gives name to the strait so called, and parts the
sea that surrounds it into two channels; that on the side of Arabia is
not above a quarter of a league in breadth, and through this pass almost
all the vessels that trade to or from the Red Sea. The other, on the
side of AEthiopia, though much larger, is more dangerous, by reason of
the shallows, which make it necessary for a ship, though of no great
burthen, to pass very near the island, where the channel is deeper and
less embarrassed. This passage is never made use of but by those who
would avoid meeting with the Turks who are stationed on the coast of
Arabia; it was for this reason that we chose it. We passed it in the
night, and entered that sea, so renowned on many accounts in history,
both sacred and profane.

In our description of this famous sea, an account of which may justly be
expected in this place, it is most convenient to begin with the coast of
Arabia, on which part at twelve leagues from the mouth stands the city of
Moca, a place of considerable trade. Forty leagues farther is the Isle
of Camaram, whose inhabitants are annoyed with little serpents, which
they call basilisks, which, though very poisonous and deadly, do not, as
the ancients have told us, kill with their eyes, or if they have so fatal
a power, it is not at least in this place. Sailing ninety leagues
farther, you see the noted port of Jodda, where the pilgrims that go to
Mecca and Medina unlade those rich presents which the zeal of different
princes is every day accumulating at the tomb of Mahomet. The commerce
of this place, and the number of merchants that resort thither from all
parts of the world, are above description, and so richly laden are the
ships that come hither, that when the Indians would express a thing of
inestima