o leagues distant, before the
port of _Ras-al-Jidid_, the coast runs N. and S. with a small deviation
to the N.W. and S.E. the distance being about three and a half
leagues[295]. _Ras-al-Jidid_[296] is a small but very pleasant haven, 57
leagues beyond Swakem, and so exactly circular that it resembles a great
cauldron. There are two points at its entrance bearing N. and S. and on
the inside the eastern winds only can do harm. All the ground is very
clean, having 18 fathoms at the mouth and 13 within; and half a league
inland there is a well of water, though not very plentiful, and
bitterish. This port is a large half league in circuit. It is a
singularity in all the rivers or harbours which I have seen on this
coast, that they have no bars or banks at their mouths, which are
generally deeper than within. On the land round this port, I found
certain trees which in their trunk and bark resembled cork-trees, but
very different in all other respects. Their leaves were very large,
wonderfully thick, and of a deep green, crossed with large veins. They
were then in flower, and their flowers in the bud resembled the flowers
of the mallow when in that state: But such as were opened were white,
and like the white cockle. On cutting a bough or leaf there run out a
great stream of milk, as from the dug of a goat. On all this coast I saw
no other trees, except a grove a little beyond Massua, in some marshy
ground near the sea. Besides these trees, there are some valleys inland
producing a few capers, the leaves of which are eaten by the Moors, _who
say they be appropriate to the joynts_. On the 4th of April, from
sunrise till eleven o'clock, the wind blew a storm from the N.W. after
which there was much and loud thunder, accompanied with hail, the stones
being the largest I ever saw. With the thunder the wind veered about to
every point of the compass, and at last it settled in the north. This
day I carried my instruments on shore, when I found the variation 1-1/4
degree north-east[297], and the latitude by many observations 22 deg. N.
Though these observations were made on shore with great care, so that I
never stirred the instrument when once set till the end of my
observations, I am satisfied there must be some error; because the great
heat cracked the plate of ivory in the middle, so that there remained a
great cleft as thick as a _gold portague_. On the 6th, an hour before
day, we weighed from the port of _Ras-al-Jidid_, and adva