om whence to _Swakem_ is a
days sail. From noon we sailed N.W. by W. till even-song time, when we
entered the channel of _Swakem_, in which, after sailing a league N.W.
we had certain shoals a-head, on which account we altered our course to
W. one quarter N.W. and sometimes W. to keep free of these shoals. We
continued in this course about three leagues, till we saw a great island
a-head of us, when we immediately tacked towards the land, and came to
an anchor between certain great _shoals of stone_ or sunken rocks,
forming a good harbour named _Xabaque_[288], which in the Arabic means a
net. It might be an hour before sunset when we came to anchor. This day
my pilot took the sun at noon, and found our latitude _scarce_ 19 deg.
N[289]. The shoals of Swakem are so many and so intermingled, that no
picture or information were sufficient to understand them, much less to
sail through among them; the islands, shoals, banks, rocks, and channels
are so numerous and intricate. At the entrance among these shoals, there
is to seaward a shoal under water on which the sea breaks very much, and
to landward a small island, these two ranging N.E. and S.W. a quarter
more E. and W. the distance between being three quarters of a league.
Immediately on entering, the channel seemed large and spacious, and the
farther we advanced so much more to seaward there appeared to us an
infinite number of very flat islands, shoals, sand-banks and rocks, that
they could not be reckoned. Towards the land side these were not so
numerous; but it is the foulest and most unnavigable channel that ever
was seen, in comparison with any other sea. What ought chiefly to be
attended to in this channel, is always to keep nearer to the shoals that
are to seawards, and as far as possible from those to landward. The
breadth of this channel in some places is about half a league, in others
a quarter, and in others less than a gun-shot. In the entry to this
channel we had six fathoms, and from thence to the port of _Shabak_
never less, and never more than 12. From the beginning of the shoals to
_Shabak_ may be about five leagues, and their whole length eight or
nine. We have then another channel, more secure for ships and great
vessels; and we may likewise pass these shoals leaving them all to
seaward, going very close to the main-land, which is the best and most
pleasant way.

[Footnote 286: Perhaps this refers to the _west_ channel of the harbour,
though not so expre