Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/354

246 or a hundred Christians, who have been so protected: So that when this Arab marries a daughter, he gives perhaps his revenue from four or five protected Christians, as part of his daughter's portion. I had, at that very time, a Gafeer, called Ibn Talil, an Arab of Harb tribe, and I should have been detained perhaps three days till he came from near Medina, and carried me (had I been shipwrecked) to Yambo, where I was going.

On the 15th we came to an anchor at El Har*, where we saw high, craggy, and broken mountains, called the Mountains of Ruddua. These abound with springs of water; all sort of Arabian and African fruits grow here in perfection, and every kind of vegetable that they will take the pains to cultivate. It is the paradise of the people of Yambo; those of any substance have country houses there; but, strange to tell, they stay there but for a short time, and prefer the bare, dry, and burning sands about Yambo, to one of the finest climates, and most verdant pleasant countries, that exists in the world. The people of the place have told me, that water freezes there in winter, and that there are some of the inhabitants who have red hair, and blue eyes, a thing scarcely ever seen but in the coldest mountains in the East.

The 16th, about ten o'clock, we passed a mosque, or Shekh's tomb on the main land, on our left hand, called Kubbet Yambo, and before eleven we anchored in the mouth


 * El Har signifies extreme heat.