at Massua, we set sail from thence on our return
to India on the 9th of July 1541, one hour before sunrise, and by
day-break we were two or three leagues short of the north point of
_Dallak_, and among some flat islands that have some woods, which
islands are scattered in the sea to the north of Dallak. We sailed
through a channel between two of these islands, having a fair wind
almost N.W. our course being N.E. by N. After doubling a shoal we came
to anchor, and at two in the afternoon we sailed again with a fair wind
at N.N.E. coasting the island of Dallak. An hour before sunset we came
to a very flat sandy island, called _Dorat Melkuna_, from which on all
sides extended great shoals. When the sun set we were a league short of
the island of _Shamoa_, between which and the west side of Dallak,
opposite the Abyssinian coast, is the most frequented channel for such
as sail to Massua. All the coast of Dallak which we sailed along this
day trends N.N.W. and S.S.E. and is very low. The 18th of July by day
break we saw the mouth of the straits[332], about three leagues distant,
"and we saw all the fleet _lye at hull_, and presently we set sail
altogether[333]."

[Footnote 332: A large portion of the Journal is again omitted at this
place, either by Don Juan or his abbreviator, Purchas.--E.]

[Footnote 333: Perhaps in coming in sight of the Strait, the ship of Don
Juan was so much in advance as barely to see the hulls of the rest; and
lay to till the rest came up.--E.]

Before leaving the Gulf of Arabia or of Mecca, it may be proper to
consider the reason why the ancients called this Gulf the _Red Sea_, and
to give my own opinion founded on what I actually saw, whether it differ
in colour from the great ocean. In the _sixth_ book of his Natural
History, Pliny quotes several opinions as the origin of the name
_Erythros_ given to this sea by the ancients[334]. The first is, that it
took its name from _Erythra_, a king who once reigned on its borders,
whence came _Erythros_ which signifies _red_ in the Greek. Another
opinion was that the reflexion of the sun-beams gave a red colour to
this sea. Some hold that the red colour proceeds from the sand and
ground along the sea coast, and others that the water was red itself. Of
these opinions every writer chose that he liked best. The Portuguese who
formerly navigated this sea affirmed that it was spotted or streaked
with red, arising as they alleged from the following circumstances