Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/95

 and weather till November, which surely is ample time for her voyage to Gardafui. In November, as Mr. Bruce himself allows, the north-east monsoon becomes settled in the Indian seas, and the vessel might then have continued her voyage, and must have had full six months of continual fair wind and strong currents in her favour, which could not have failed to carry her down to Sofala; for as to "the anomalous south-west monsoon in the beginning of November, which was to cut off her voyage to Sofala, and oblige her to put into the small harbour of Mocha, near to Melinda, but nearer still to Tarshish, there to continue six months," it is all absolutely without foundation. No such anomalous wind existing, as is sufficiently proved by Admiral Blanket's fleet, which was in this part of the sea from December to April, (vide the accurate observations of Captain Bissell) and no such places as Mocha or Tarshish being known on the coast. The authority I have already quoted is sufficient to bear me out in these facts, but I may, in confirmation, mention, that the Arab boats run this voyage every year at least so far as the Querimbo Islands, and the Portuguese vessels, during the same season, are constantly in the habit of sailing from the Querimbo Islands down to Sofala.

The common track pursued by the Arab traders is as follows: they depart from the Red Sea in August, (before which it is dangerous to venture out of the gulph) then proceed to Muscat, and thence to the coast of Malabar. In December, they cross over to the coast of Africa, visit Mugdasho, Marea, Brava, Lamo, Melinda, and the Querimbo Islands. They then direct their course to the Comoro Islands, and the northern ports of Madagascar, or sometimes stretch down southward as far as Sofala. This occupies them till after April, when they