having a bank or shoal
running from it on the south side to the main land, so shallow that
nothing can pass over it. But on the north side of this island the
channel is about a cross-bow shot in breadth and 15 fathoms deep,
running N.W. and S.E. and on both sides this channel is very shallow and
full of rocks, the fair way being in the middle. This channel is about a
gun-shot in length, after which the coasts on both sides recede and form
within a large fine and secure harbour, about a league long and half a
league broad, deep in the middle but full of shoals near the land, and
it hath no fresh water. At this place it was agreed to send back all the
ships to Massua, and to proceed with only sixteen small gallies or row
boats.

Arrangements being accordingly formed, we set sail from _Arekea_ on the
30th at noon, and came to an anchor in a port called _Salaka_ four
leagues beyond _Arekea_ and 96 from _Swakem_, the coast trending N. and
S. with a slight deviation to N.E. and S.W. The land next the sea has
many risings or hillocks, behind which there are high mountains. It must
be noted that all the land from Arekea onwards close behind the shore
puts on this uneven appearance, whereas before that it was all plain,
till in the inland it rises in both into high mountains. The 31st we
sailed from _Salaka_, and an hour before sunset we made fast to the
rocks of a shoal a league from the land and 17 leagues from _Salaka_,
being 43 leagues from Swakem. From the port of _Salaka_ the coast begins
to wind very much; and from _Raseldoaer_ or _Ras al Dwaer_, it runs very
low to the N.N.E. ending in a sandy point where there are 13 little
hillocks or knobs of stone, which the Moorish pilots said were graves.
From this _point of the Calmes_[294] about two leagues, the coast
runneth N.N.W. to a shoal which is 43 leagues from _Swakem_. This point
is the most noted in all these seas, as whoever sails from _Massua_,
_Swakem_, and other places for _Jiddah_, _Al Cossir_, and _Toro_, must
necessarily make this point. The sea for the last seventeen leagues is
of such a nature that no rules or experience can suffice for sailing it
in safety, so that the skilful as well as the unskilful must pass it at
all hazards, and save themselves as it were by chance, for it is so full
of numerous and great shoals, so interspersed everywhere with rocks, and
so many and continual banks, that it seems better fitted for being
travelled on foot than sailed eve