an eafy fail. They faw no appearance of any inhabitants; the mountains were broken and pointed, taking the direction of the coaft, advancing and receding as the fhore itself did. They continued this voyage, and, after encountering storms that were nearly proving fatal to them, they arrived fafe at Coffeir, on the 19th, about the close of the evening.

On the 5th of April, Mr. Bruce, after having made his last obfervation of longitude at Coffeir, embarked on board a veffel he had procured for the purpose, and failed from that port. It was neceffary to conceal from fome of his fervants his intention of proceeding to the bottom of the Gulph, least finding themselves among Chriftians fo near Cairo, they might defert a voyage of which they were fick, before it was well begun.

In the morning of the 6th, they made the Jaffateen Islands. They are four in number, joined by fhoals and funken rocks. They are crooked, or bent, like half a bow, and are dangerous for fhips failing in the night, because there feems to be a paffage between them, to which, when pilots are attending, they neglect two fmall dangerous funk rocks, that lie almost in the middle of the entrance, in deep water.

On the 9th. they arrived at Tor, a finall ftraggling village, with a convent of Greek Monks, belonging to Mount Sinai. Don John de Caftro took this town when it was walled and fortified, foon after the difcovery of the Indies by the Portuguefe; it has never fince been of any confideration. It ferves now only as a watering place for fhips going to and from Suez. From this we have a diftinct view of the points of the mountains Horeb and Sinai, which appear behind and above the others, their tops being often covered with fnow in winter.

The Rais, having dispatched his bufinefs was anxious to depart; and, accordingly, on the 11th of April, at day-break, they stood out of the harbour of Tor. At night, by an obfervation of two ftars in the meridian, Mr. Bruce concluded the latitude of Cape Mahomet to be 27954, N. It must be understood of the mountain or high land, which forms the

Cape,

Cape, not the low point. The ridge of rocks that run along behind Tor, bound that low fandy country, called the Defert of Sin, to the eastward, and end in this Cape, which is the high land obferved at fea; but the lower part, or fouthermost extreme of the Cape, runs about three leagues off from the high land, and is fo low, that it cannot be seen from deck above three leagues.

On the 12th, they failed from Cape Mahomet, just as the fun appeared. They paffed the island of Tyrone, in the mouth of the Elanitic Gulf, which divides it near equally into two; or rather the north-weft fide is narroweft. The direction of the Gulf is nearly north and fouth.

On the 15th they came to an achor at El Har, where they faw high, craggy and broken mountains, called the Mountains of Ruddua. These abound with fprings of water; all fort 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 paradife of the people of Yambo; those of any substance have country houfes there; but, strange to tell, they ftay there but for a fhort time, and prefer the bare, dry, and burning fands about Yambo, to one of the finest climates, and most verdant pleasant countries, that exists in the world. The people of the place told Mr. Bruce, 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 feen but in the coldest mountains in the east.

On the 16th, about ten o'clock, they paffed a mofque, or Shekh's tomb on the main land, on their left hand, called Kubbet Yambo, and before eleven they anchored in the mouth of the port in deep water. Yambo, corruptly called Imbo, is an ancient city, now dwindled to a paltry village. Yambo, in the language of the country, fignifies a fountain or spring, a very copious one of excellent water being found there among the date trees, and it is one of the stations of the Emir Hadje in going to, and coming from Mecca. The advantage of the port, however, which the other has not, and the protection of the caftle, have carried trading veffels to the modern Yambo, where there is no water but what is brought from pools dug on purpose to receive the rain when it falls.

Yambo,

four hundred Ababdé, all upon camels, each armed with two fhort javelins. The manner of their riding was very whimfical; they had two finall faddles on each camel, and fat back to back, which might be, in their practice, convenient enough; but, if they had been to fight with our travellers, every ball would have killed two of them.

Mr. Bruce now took up his quarters in the caftle, and as the Ababdé had told strange stories about the Mountain of Emeralds, he determined, till his captain should return, to make a voyage thither. There was no poffibility of knowing the distance by report; fometimes it was twenty-five miles, fometimes it was fifty, and fometimes it was a hundred,

He chose a man who had been twice at these mountains of emeralds, and with the best boat then in the harbour, on Tuefday the 14th of March, they failed, with the wind at north east, from the harbour of Coffeir, about an hour before the dawn of day. They kept coafting along with a very moderate wind, much diverted with the red and green appearances of the marble mountains on the coaft. Their veffel had one fail, like a straw mattrafs, made of the leaves of a kind of a palm tree, which they call Doom. It was fixed above, and drew up like a curtain, but did not lower with a yard like a fail; fo that upon stress of weather, if the fail was furled, it was fo top-heavy, that the flip mult founder, or the maft be carried away. But, by way of indemnification, the planks of the veffel were fewed together, and there was not a nail, nor a piece of iron, in the whole fhip; fo that when you struck upon a rock seldom any damage enfued.

On the 15th, about nine o'clock, Mr. Bruce faw a large high rock, like a pillar, rifing out of the fea. At first, he took it for a part of the continent; but, as he advanced nearer it, the fun being very clear, and the fea calm, he took an obfervation, and as their situation was lat. 25° 6', and the ifland about a league distant, to the S. S. W. of them, he concluded its latitude to be pretty exactly 25° 3′ north. This ifland is about three miles from the flore, of an oval form, rifing in the middle. It seems to be of a granite; and is called, in the language of the country, Jibbel Siberget, which

has

Siberget,

has been tranflated the Mountain of Emeralds. however, is a word in the language of the Shepherds, who, probably, never in their lives faw an emerald; and though the Arabic translation is Fibbel Zumrud, and that word has been transferred to the emerald, a very fine ftone, oftener feen fince the difcovery of the new world, yet Mr. Bruce very much doubts, whether either Siberget or Zumrud ever meant Emerald in old times.

On the 16th, at day break in the morning, our traveller took the Arab of Coffeir with him, who knew the place. They landed on a point perfectly desert; at first, fandy like Coffeir, afterwards, where the foil was fixed, producing fome few plants of rue or abfinthium. They advanced above three miles farther in a perfectly defert country, with only a few acacia-trees fcattered here and there, and came to the foot of the mountains.

At the foot of the mountain, or abort seven yards up from the base of it, are five pits or shafts, none of them four feet in diameter, called the Zumrud Wells, from which the ancients are faid to have drawn the emeralds.

Our travellers

were not provided with materials, and little endowed with inclination, to defcend into any one of them, where the air was probably bad. Mr. Bruce picked up the nozzels, and fome fragments of lamps, like thofe of which we find millions in Italy; and fome worn fragments, but very small ones, of that brittle green chryftal, which is the fiberget and bilur of Ethiopia, perhaps the zumrud, the fmaragdus defcribed by Pliny, but by no means the emerald, known fince, the discovery of the new world, whofe first character abfolutely defeats its pretenfion, the true Peruvian emerald being equal in hardness to the ruby.

Mr. Bruce, having fatisfied his curiofity as to these mountains, without having feen a living creature, returned to his boat, where he found all well, and an excellent dinner of fish prepared.

About three o'clock in the afternoon, with a favourable wind and fine weather, they continued along the coafl, with

an

an eafy fail. They faw no appearance of any inhabitants; the mountains were broken and pointed, taking the direction of the coast, advancing and receding as the fhore itself did. They continued this voyage, and, after encountering storms that were nearly proving fatal to them, they arrived safe at Coffeir, on the 19th, about the clofe of the evening.

On the 5th of April, Mr. Bruce, after having made his last obfervation of longitude at Coffeir, embarked on board a veffel he had procured for the purpose, and failed from that port. It was neceffary to conceal from fome of his fervants his intention of proceeding to the bottom of the Gulph, leaft finding themselves among Chriftians fo near Cairo, they might defert a voyage of which they were fick, before it was well begun.

In the morning of the 6th, they made the Jaffateen Islands. They are four in number, joined by fhoals and funken rocks. They are crooked, or bent, like half a bow, and are dangerous for fhips failing in the night, because there feems to be a paffage between them, to which, when pilots are attending, they neglect two small dangerous funk rocks, that lie almost in the middle of the entrance, in deep water.

On the 9th. they arrived at Tor, a small ftraggling village, with a convent of Greek Monks, belonging to Mount Sinai. Don John de Caftro took this town when it was walled and fortified, foon after the discovery of the Indies by the Portuguefe; it has never fince been of any confideration. It ferves now only as a watering place for fhips going to and from Suez. From this we have a diftinct view of the points of the mountains Horeb and Sinai, which appear behind and above the others, their tops being often covered with snow in winter.

The Rais, having dispatched his business was anxious to depart; and, accordingly, on the 11th of April, at day-break, they stood out of the harbour of Tor. At night, by an obfervation of two ftars in the meridian, Mr. Bruce concluded the latitude of Cape Mahomet to be 27°54', N. It must be understood of the mountain or high land, which forms the

Cape,