Near Toro Are
Several Wells, Which, As The Arabs Tell Us, Were Dug By The Order Of
Moses To Quiet The Clamours Of The Thirsty Israelites.
Suez lies in
the bottom of the Gulf, three leagues from Toro, once a place of
note, now reduced, under the Turks, to an inconsiderable village,
where the miserable inhabitants are forced to fetch water at three
leagues' distance.
The ancient Kings of Egypt conveyed the waters
of the Nile to this place by an artificial canal, now so choked with
sand, that there are scarce any marks remaining of so noble and
beneficial a work.
The first place to be met with in travelling along the coast of
Africa is Rondelo, situate over against Toro, and celebrated for the
same miraculous passage. Forty-five leagues from thence is Cocir.
Here ends that long chain of mountains that reaches from this place
even to the entrance of the Red Sea. In this prodigious ridge,
which extends three hundred leagues, sometimes approaching near the
sea, and sometimes running far up into the land, there is only one
opening, through which all that merchandise is conveyed, which is
embarked at Rifa, and from thence distributed through all the east.
These mountains, as they are uncultivated, are in some parts shaded
with large forests, and in others dry and bare. As they are
exceedingly high, all the seasons may be here found together; when
the storms of winter beat on one side, on the other is often a
serene sky and a bright sunshine. The Nile runs here so near the
shore that it might without much difficulty be turned through this
opening of the mountains into the Red Sea, a design which many of
the Emperors have thought of putting in execution, and thereby
making a communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean,
but have been discouraged either by the greatness of the expense or
the fear of laying great part of Egypt under water, for some of that
country lies lower than sea.
Distant from Rondelo a hundred and thirty leagues is the Isle of
Suaquem, where the Bassa of that country chooses his residence, for
the convenience of receiving the tribute with greater exactness,
there being a large trade carried on here with the Abyssins. The
Turks of Suaquem have gardens on the firm land, not above a musket
shot from the island, which supply them with many excellent herbs
and fruits, of which I doubt whether there be not a greater quantity
on this little spot than on the whole coast of Africa besides, from
Melinda to Suez. For if we except the dates which grow between Suez
and Suaquem, the ground does not yield the least product; all the
necessaries of life, even water, is wanting. Nothing can support
itself in this region of barrenness but ostriches, which devour
stones, or anything they meet with; they lay a great number of eggs,
part of which they break to feed their young with.
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