These winds are most
destructive in Arabia the Desert.
Chapter IV
The author's conjecture on the name of the Red Sea. An account of
the cocoa-tree. He lands at Baylur.
To return to the description of the coast: sixty leagues from
Suaquem is an island called Mazna, only considerable for its ports,
which make the Turks reside upon it, though they are forced to keep
three barks continually employed in fetching water, which is not to
be found nearer than at a distance of twelve miles. Forty leagues
from hence is Dalacha, an island where many pearls are found, but of
small value. The next place is Baylur, forty leagues from Dalacha,
and twelve from Babelmandel.
There are few things upon which a greater variety of conjectures has
been offered than upon the reasons that induced the ancients to
distinguish this gulf, which separates Asia from Africa, by the name
of the Red Sea, an appellation that has almost universally obtained
in all languages. Some affirm that the torrents, which fall after
great rains from the mountains, wash down such a quantity of red
sand as gives a tincture to the water: others tell us that the
sunbeams being reverberated from the red rocks, give the sea on
which they strike the appearance of that colour. Neither of these
accounts are satisfactory; the coasts are so scorched by the heat
that they are rather black than red; nor is the colour of this sea
much altered by the winds or rains.
