whole, from stem to stern, being filled choak-full of wheat, the waste, that is the slope of the vessel, between the height of her stem and stern, is filled up by one plank on each side, which is all that is above the surface of the waves. Sacks, tarpaulins, or mats, are strowed along the surface of the wheat upon which all the passengers lie. On the least agitation of the waves, the sea getting in upon the wheat, increases its weight so prodigiously, that, falling below the level of the gunnel, the water rushes in between the plank and that part of the vessel, and down it goes to the bot

tom.

Though every day produces an accident of this kind from the same cause, yet such is the desire of gaining money in that season, which offers but once a-year, that every ship sails, loaded in the same manner as the last which perished. This was just the case with the vessel that carried the Turks. Anxious to go away, they would not wait the signs of the weather's being rightly settled. "Ullah Kerim !"— they cry, "God is great and merciful;" and upon that they embark in a navigation, where it needs, indeed, a miracle to save them.

The Turks all came ashore but one; the youngest, and, according to all appearance, the best, had fallen overboard, and perished. The Bey received them, and with great charity entertained them all at his own expence, but they were so terrified with the sea, as almost to resolve never to make another attempt.

The Bey had brought with him from Jidda, a small, but tight, vessel, belonging to Sheher*; which came from that country loaded with frankincense, the commodity of that port. The Rais had business down the Gulf at Tor, and he had spoken to the Bey, to recommend him to me. I had no business at

* On the east coast of Arabia Felix, Syagrum Promontorium.

Tor, but as we had grown into a kind of friendship, from frequent conversation, and as he was, according to his own word, a great saint, like my last boatman, a character, that, I thought, I could perfectly manage, I proposed to the Bey, that he and I should contribute something to make it worth this captain's pains, to take our friends, the Turks, on board, and carry them to Yambo, that they might not be deprived of that blessing which would result from their visit to the Prophet's tomb, and which they had toiled so much to earn. I promised, in that case, to hire his vessel at so much a month, upon its return from Yambo; and, as I had then formed a resolution of making a survey of the Red Sea to the Straits of Babelmandel, the Rais was to take his directions from me, till I pleased to dismiss him.

Nothing was more agreeable to the views of all parties than this. The Bey promised to stay till they sailed, and I engaged to take the vessel after it returned; and, as the captain, in quality of a saint, assured us, that any rock that stood in our way in the voyage, would either jump aside, or become soft like a sponge, as it had often happened before, both the Turks and we were now assured of a voyage without danger.

All was settled to our mutual satisfaction, when, unluckily, the Turks going down to their boat, met Sidi Hassan, whom, with reason, they thought the author of all their misfortunes. The whole party drew their swords, and, without seeking sabres from Persia, as he had done, they would have cut Sidi Hassan in pieces, but, fortunately for him, the Turks had great cloth trowsers, like Dutchmen, and could not run, whilst he ran very

nimbly in his. Several pistols, however, were fired, one of which shot him in the back part of the ear; on which he fled for refuge to the Bey, and we never saw him more.

CHAP. XI.

Voyage to Jibbel Zumrud―Return to Gosseir-Sail from Cosseir-Jaffateen Islands-Arrive at Tor.

THE Turks and the Bey departed, and with the Turks I dispatched my Arab, Abd-el-gin, not only giving him something myself, but recommending him to my beneficent countrymen at Jidda, if he should go there.

I now took up my quarters in the castle, and as the Ababdé had told strange stories about the Mountain of Emeralds, I determined, till my captain should return, to make a voyage thither. There was no possibility of knowing the distance by report; sometimes, it was twenty-five miles, sometimes, it was fifty, sometimes, it was a hundred, and God knows how many

more.

I chose a man who had been twice at these mountains of emeralds; with the best boat then in the harbour, and on Tuesday the 14th of March, we sailed, with the wind at north east, from the harbour of Cosseir, about an hour before the dawn of day. We kept coasting along, with a very moderate wind, much diverted with the red and green appearances of the marble mountains upon the coast. Our vessel had

one sail, like a straw mattress, made of the leaves of a kind of palm tree, which they call Doom. It was fixed above, and drew up like a curtain, but did not lower with a yard like a sail; so that, upon stress of weather, if the sail was furled, it was so top-heavy,

that the ship must founder, or the mast be carried away. But, by way of indemnification, the planks of the vessel were sewed together, and there was not a' nail, nor a piece of iron, in the whole ship; so that, when you struck upon a rock, seldom any damage ensued. For my own part, from an absolute detestation of her whole construction, I insisted upon keeping close along shore, at an easy sail.

The continent, to the leeward of us, belonged to our friends the Ababdé. There was great plenty of shell-fish to be picked up on every shoal. I had loaded the vessel with four skins of fresh water, equal to four hogsheads, with cords, and buoys fixed to the end of each of them, so that, if we had been shipwrecked near land, as rubbing two sticks together made us fire, I was not afraid of receiving succour, before we should be driven to our last extremity, provided we did not perish in the sea, of which I was not very apprehensive.

On the 15th, about nine o'clock, I saw a large high rock, like a pillar, rising out of the sea. At first, I took it for a part of the Continent; but, as we advanced nearer it, the sun being very clear, and the sea calm, I took an observation, and, as our situation was lat. 25° 6', and the island about a league distant, to the S. S. W. of us, I concluded its latitude to be pretty exactly 25° 3' north. This island is about three miles from the shore, of an oval form, rising in the middle. It seems to me to be of granite; and is called, in the language of the country, Jibbel Siberget, which has been translated the Mountain of Emeralds. Siberget, however, is a word in the language of the Shepherds, who, I doubt, never in their lives saw an emerald; and though the Arabic translation is Jibbel Zumrud, and that word has been transferred to the emerald, a very fine stone, oftener seen since the discovery of the new world, yet I very much doubt,