Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/445

Rh they should fall to the eastward of this island, they will have good anchorage, from nine to eighteen fathoms water; the bottom being good sand, between the town and the white rock Baida.

supplied our great and material want of water, we all repaired on board in the evening of the 7th; we then found ourselves unprovided with another necessary, namely fire; and my people began to remember how cold our stomachs were from the drammock at Babelmandeb. Firewood is a very scarce article in the Red Sea. It is, nevertheless, to be found in small quantities, and in such only it is used. Zimmer, an island to the northward, was known to afford some; but, from the time I had landed at Foosht, on the 6th, a trouble of a very particular kind had fallen upon our vessel, of which I had no account till I had returned on board.

Abyssinian, who had died on board, and who had been buried upon our coming out from Loheia bay, had been seen upon the boltsprit for two nights, and had terrified the sailors very much; even the Rais had been not a little alarmed; and, though he could not directly say that he had seen him, yet, after I was in bed on the 7th, he complained seriously to me of the bad consequences it would produce if a gale of wind was to rise, and the ghost was to keep his place there, and desired me to come forward and speak to him. "My good "Rais," said I, "I am exceedingly tired, and my head achs much with the sun, which hath been violent to-day. You know the Abyssinian paid for his passage, and, if he does not overload the ship, (and I apprehend he should be lighter than when we took him on board) Rh