Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/428

316 wind favourable, you fall in with a great number of low smail islands, where there is danger. At ten o'clock, with the wind fair, our course almost north-east, we passed three rocky islands about a mile on our left.

the 2d, at sun-rise, we saw land a-head, which we took to be the Main, but, upon nearer approach, and the day becoming clearer, we found two low islands to the leeward; one of which we fetched with great difficulty. We found there the stock of an old acacia-tree, and two or three bundles of wreck, or rotten sticks, which we gathered with great care; and all of us agreed, we would eat breakfast, dinner, and supper hot, instead of the cold repast we had made upon the drammock in the Straits. We now made several large fires; one took the charge of the coffee, another boiled the rice; we killed four turtles, made ready a dolphin; got beer, wine, and brandy, and drank the King's health in earnest, which our regimen would not allow us to do in the Straits of Babelmandeb. While this good chear was preparing, I saw with my glass, first one man running along the coast westward, who did not stop; about a quarter of an hour after, another upon a camel, walking at the ordinary pace, who dismounted just opposite to us, and, as I thought, kneeled down to say his prayers upon the sand. We had launched our boat immediately upon seeing the trunk of the tree on the island; so we were ready, and I ordered two of the men to row me on shore, which they did.

is a bay of but ordinary depth, with straggling trees, and some flat ground along the coast. Immediately behind is a row of mountains of a brownish or black colour. The man remained motionless, sitting on the ground, till the