e dry cape, called by
Ptolomy the promontory _Pentadactilus_ in his _third_ table of Africa.
The island _Zemorjete_ is about eight leagues E. from this cape; and
from that island, according to the Moorish pilots, the two shores of the
gulf are first seen at one time, but that of Arabia is a great deal
farther off than the African coast. This island, which is very high and
barren, is named _Agathon_ by Ptolomy. It has another very small island
close to it, which is not mentioned in Ptolomy. Now respecting the shelf
_Shaab-al-Yadayn_, it is to be noted that it is a great shelf far to
seaward of the northern end of the great bay, all of it above water,
like two extended arms with their hands wide open, whence its Arabic
name which signifies _shelf of the hands_. The port of this shelf is to
landward, as on that side it winds very much, so as to shut up the haven
from all winds from the sea. This haven and cape _Ras-al-Nashef_ bear
from each other E.S.E. and W.S.W. distant about four leagues.

[Footnote 299: In our mode of counting time, three in the morning of the
8th.--E.]

[Footnote 300: This nautical language is so different from that of the
present day as to be almost unintelligible. They appear to have sailed
in a winding channel, in which the wind was sometimes scant, sometimes
large and sometimes contrary; so that occasionally they had to tack or
turn to windward. The strange word _roamour_, which has occurred once
before, may be conjectured to mean that operation in beating to
windward, in which the vessel sails contrary to the direction of her
voyage, called in ordinary nautical language the short leg of the
tack.--E.]

[Footnote 301: Signifying in Arabic the shelf of the two hands.--Astl.]

[Footnote 302: Probably that just before named _Prionoto_ from Ptolomy,
and called cape of the mountains, because the Abyssinian mountains there
end.--E.]

At sunrise on the 10th we set sail to the N.N.E. the wind being fresh
and the sea appearing clear and navigable. When about half a league from
the point we saw, as every one thought, a ship under sail, but on
drawing nearer it was a white rock in the sea, which we were told
deceives all navigators as it did us. After this we stood N. by E. By
nine o'clock we reached an island named _Connaka_, and passed between it
and the main-land of Africa. This island is small and barren, about half
a league in circuit, and is about a league and a half from the main. It
resembles a