that scarcely can we perceive it to have any tide. The
ground is mud. The road in all places has five or six fathoms, and seven
in some places; and is so large that two hundred ships may ride
commodiously at anchor, besides rowing-vessels without number. The water
is so clear that you may plainly perceive the bottom; and where that is
not seen the depth is at least ten or twelve fathoms. The ships can be
laden or unladen all round the city, merely by laying a plank from them
into the warehouses of the merchants; while gallies fasten themselves to
stones at the doors of the houses, laying their prows over the quays as
so many bridges. Now touching the trade and navigation of this port
with many sorts of people, and with strange and remote countries, I know
not what city can compare with it except Lisbon: as this city trades
with all India, both on this side and beyond the Ganges; with _Cambaya_,
_Tanacerim_, _Pegu_, _Malacca_; and within the Straits with _Jiddah_,
_Cairo_, and _Alexandria_. From all Ethiopia and Abyssinia it procures
great quantities of gold and ivory. As to the strength and situation of
this city enough can hardly be said; since to come to it, the
inconveniences, difficulties, and dangers are so great, that it seems
almost impossible: as for fifteen leagues about, the shoals, flats,
islands, channels, rocks, banks, and sands, and surges of the sea, are
so many and intricate that they put the sailors in great fear and almost
in despair. The situation of the city is this: In the middle of a great
nook or bay, is a perfectly flat island almost level with the sea and
exactly round, being about a quarter, of a league in circuit, upon which
the city of _Swakem_ is built; not one foot of ground on the whole
island but is replenished with houses and inhabitants, so that the whole
island, is a city. On two sides this insular city comes within a
bow-shot of the main land, that is on the E.S.E. and S.W. sides, but all
the rest is farther from the land. The road, haven, or bay surrounds the
city on every side to the distance of a cross-bow shot, in all of which
space, ships may anchor in six or seven fathoms on a mud bottom. All
around this bay there is a great shoal; so that the deep water is from
the edge of the city all round to the distance of a bow-shot, and all
beyond is full of shoals. In this bay there are three other islands on
the land side to the north-west. The two which lie farthest in are
small, but th