5.Coru.

SOME

ORIGINAL JOURNAL of a VOYAGE into
the RED SEA, in the SWIFT Sloop
of War, 1795. (See Plate II)
(Continued from page 11.)
OME days before our departure,
and in the abfence of the Captain,
the fhip was endangered by a violent
hurricane, which raged with fuch fury
as to force molt of the fhips from their
anchorage. About 8 o'clock in the
evening we perceived the Generous
Friends, to have parted from her an-
chors: no fooner did the drive at the
mercy of the form, than we faw her
evidently moving towards us; mean
time the violence of the wind increafed,
and it grew fo dark that we could only
difcern a huge body for fome moments
approaching with great velocity, at others
concealed by the intervening waves. At
length the reached us, and with a tre-
imendous crafh tore away the bowfprit
and part of the fhip's head; the cable
was then cut with difficulty, while in
veering it rushed through the hawle, and
the two fhips fell fide by fide; we being
to leeward, the other was repeatedly
dashed against us by the fury of the
waves, and the concuffions were fo vio-
lent, that nothing but the projection of
the
guns which defended the thip's fide
faved us from deftruction, and thefe
we apprehended would foon give way.
In this perilous fituation it was thought
advifeable, notwithstanding an alarm-
ing deficiency of ballaft, to make fail;
but authority was at an

fecurity, long difcerning us through a night-glafs in an agony of fufpence. With the remaining anchor we fecured the hip for the night; an extraordi nary allowance of grog was then adminiftered, and, like two armies weary with contention, the wind became calm, and the failors retired to reft.

Early next morning all hands were fuminioned to clear the wreck; we rigged a temporary bowfprit to fecure the mafis which depend on it for fupport, and ufed every oth other exertion to repair the damages we had received; our boats were employed in fweeping the bottom of the fea with a frong rope called a hawfer, in order to recover the anchors; and in this we fortunately fucceeded: The fame day the boatfwain and feveral men. were, by the violence of the fwell, wafhed from a flage where they were at work under the bowfprit, and fwept into the fea; bat the next wave returned them all into the fhip in this adventure the boatlwain broke his arm, which was the fecond fracture he received during the voyage; and now the lofs of his affiftance was doubly regretted.

さ

As foon as we were in condition to depart we fet fail for Jedda; the firft object that attracted our notice was an expiring volcano called Gibel-tar, not many leagues from Mocha; from the fummit iffued a little light fnioke, which difcovered itself only at night;

of the mafts was end, the lofs near this we attempted to found, but

found no bottom, at the depth of many hundred fathoms.

The fresh water at Mocha had fo brackish a tafte, that in hopes of a fa vourable paflage we failed with a very feanty fupply; but now, as if Boreas in the late form had exhaufted all his energy upon is, we were tormented

momentarily expected; and though the order refounded from a hundred tongues, nobody ventured to obey it. At length a failor who was in confinement for riotous behaviour, and amidst all this difinay enjoying with compofure his quid of tobacco, fuddenly intreated to be releafed, which was no fooner granted perpetual calms, and it became that he intrepidly mounted aloff, and neceflary to limit the daily allowance having with difficulty cut the gafkets, for a few days to a pint per man; a we were enabled to fet part of the fore- quantity fo iufufficient in this burning fail. This and our other exertions climate, that fome bartered rum for an were finally fuccefsful; for foon the equal measure of water; others enother fhip in a violent furge tore away deavoured to fteal it in the night, in our quarter gallery, and we feparated: fpite of padlocks and centinels; and the wind afterwards fubfided, and we leveral moiftened their parched mouths. faw with emotion how narrowly we by chewing lead to excite the faliva; efcaped the edge of a dangerous hoal. indeed, juft before we arrived at Jedda At midnight the Captain returned; he we were in ferious diftrefs, having had prevented from rejoining us by the fuddennels of the form, which forced him to take refuge in the Succefs galley, where he remained in perfonal GENT. MAG. February, 1906.

dipped into the laft water cafk. The pallage occupied above three weeks.

The entrance into Jedda is difficult, and in rough weather dangerous, on

account

account of the multitude of sand-banks and rocks of coral which inclofe the harbour as it were in a triple fence. The moft fecure mode of entrance, and that which we adopted, was by means of a look-out, flationed at the fore topmaft head, to give timely notice of the approach of danger, and of the courfe which must be taken to avoid it; as the fight from that elevation penetrates fufficiently into the fea to difcover every obftacle which might oppofe the thip's paffage. Thefe branching clufters of coral, which may be called the forefts of the deep, fo fhelter the harbour from every wind and fea, that fhips may reft at all times in perfect fecurity about a mile and a half from the town, near which the fand-banks are numeroutly fcattered, forming a variety of little channels, and through them the boats pafs to the thore. When we arrived, the Captain landed to wait on the Vizier, who refides here in authority under the Xerif of Mecca, the fucceffor of thofe potent Caliphs, of whofe atchievements we read in the Arabian Nights.

This place has the fame general afpect as Mocha, only that the fandy mountains are fkirted by a range of dark rocks, which render the

manner of fleering is very remarkable,
being performed by tackles attached to
the tiller, which projects from the back
of the rudder; to aid this a strong beam
traverles the thip abaft the mizen maft,
whofe two ends extending beyond the
hip's fide, fupport the centers of two
levers which are placed in an upright
pofition; the lower arms of thefe com-
municate by ropes with the tiller,
their upper arms are attached to tackles
which lead into the fhip for the pur-
pofe of fteering. One of thefe vellels
fometimes conveys four or five hun-
dred pilgrims, each of whom is allotted
a narrow space on the open deck, for
himfelf, his jar of water, and his fcanty
ftore of food; here he lives or rather
vegetates during the voyage, for it is
impoffible to move but on the most ur
gent occafions, fo that the fatigue of
pilgrimage feems here to be the fatigue
of fitting fill. When the vellel an-
chors, feveral of the mof indigent of
thefe devotees, impatient to arrive at
the fanctum fanctorum, fing them-
felves into the fea, and fwim afhore,
taking breath at intervals upon the
fand-banks. When we had been here
about two months, the heat of the
weather was for fome days intolerable,

of the town more confpicitenefs much exceeding any thing we ever ex

The neighbouring country is a thirfty defart, in the midft of which ftands Mecca, the celebrated refidence of Mahomet, little more than 20 miles diftant; but our unballowed eyes were not permitted to behold it. It is the refort of pilgrims from all parts of the world; we faw many fhips arrive ab folutely laden with them from Egypt and Abyffinia.

The fmaller kind with one maft are called Dows; they have a laticen fail of coarse matting, attached to a yard formed of two poles, roughly united in the centre, round which the fail is occafionally furled; the deck is fheltered by an awning, and the ftern terminates in what is called a goofe-neck: when they are loaded they fail remark ably near the wind; when light they fcarcely draw three feet of water. The larreft veffels have three mafts, the top-mafis contrary to the ufual mode are abaft the lower mafts; and the latter have finall circular tops; under the bowfprit hangs an ornament which the Tailors called Jacob's ladder, and on the forecastle refides the Matter or Captain, ander a thick awning. Their

perienced in the Eaft. One morning
I was informed that the thermometer
flood at 120 degees, and the clofenefs
of the air produced an univerfal relaxa-
tion; it was now understood that a
fcorching wind which penetrates te
the Red Sea, from the Arabian Defart,
was fhortly to be expected; this wind
(called in Arabic Samiel) becomes
heated in its paffage over an endless
wafte of burning lands, whofe finer
particles are hurried into the air, and
driven in mifts before it: hence it re-
fembles at a diflance an immenfe cloud
of duft, at the approach of which the
terrified Arabs fall on their faces to
avoid fuffocation.

Every precaution was fpeedily adopted
to fecure us from the effects of this pef-
tilence; which, according to the Ma-
hometan creed, is one of the, torments
of Hell the ports and ftern windows
were carefully clofed, awnings were
fread over all the decks with canvafs
curtains hung from their fides, and the
decks were well fprinkled with vine-
gar. Soon after noon the wind in-
created in warmth and in force; a few
hours after it blew with all its violence,
but in the evening it gradually abated;

we