Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/329

Rh north-west monsoon which repels it, and keeps it in there, every rock on the Arabian shore becomes an island, and every two or three islands become a harbour.

the ends of the principal of these harbours large heaps of stones have been piled up, to serve as signals, or marks, how to enter; and it is in these that the large vessels from Cairo to Jidda, equal in size to our 74 gun ships, (but from the cisterns of mason-work built within for holding water, I suppose double their weight) after navigating their portion of the channel in the day, come safely and quietly to, at four o'clock in the afternoon, and in these little harbours pass the night, to sail into the channel again, next morning at sun-rise.

, though in the track of my voyage to Tor, I am seen running from the west side of Jibbel Zeit a W. N. W. course (for I had no place for a compass) into the harbour of Tor, I do not mean to do so bad a service to humanity as to persuade large ships to follow my track. There are two ways of instructing men usefully, in things absolutely unknown to them. The first is, to teach them what they can do safely. The next is, to teach them what they cannot do at all, or, warranted by a pressing occasion, attempt with more or less danger, which should be explained and placed before their eyes, for without this last no man knows the extent of his own powers. With this view, I will venture, without fear of contradiction, to say, that my course from Cosseir, or even from Jibbel Siberget, to Tor, is impossible to a great ship. My voyage, painful, full of care, and dangerous as it was, is not to be accounted a surety for the lives of thousands. It may be regarded as a foundation for surveys hereafter to be made by persons more capable, and better Rh