Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/439

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CHAP. XIII.

Sails for Masuah — Passes a Volcano — Comes to Dahalac— Troubled with a Ghost — Arrives at Masuah.

ALL being prepared for our departure, we sailed from Loheia on the 3d of September 1769, but the wind failing, we were obliged to warp the vessel out upon her anchors. The harbour of Loheia, which is by much the largest in the Red Sea, is now so shallow, and choked up, that, unless by a narrow canal through which we enter and go out, there is no where three fathom of water, and in many places not half that depth. This is the case with all the harbours on the east-coast of the Red Sea, while those on the west are deep, without any banks or bars before them, which is probably owing, as I have already said, to the violence of the north-west winds, the only constant strong winds to be met with in this Gulf. These occasion strong currents to set in upon the east-coast, and heap up the sand and gravel which is blown in from Arabia.

next day, the 4th, we were employed at warping out our vessel against a contrary wind. The 5th, at three quarters past five in the morning, we got under sail with little