3 i2 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



and give us an opportunity to make what obfervations we 

 pleafed in quiet. 



"We caught here a prodigious quantity of the finefl fifh 

 that I had ever before feen, but the filly Rais greatly trou- 

 bled our enjoyment, by telling us, that many of the fifh in 

 that part were poifonous. Several of our people took the 

 alarm, and abftained ; the rule I made ufe of in choofing 

 mine, was to take ail thofe that were likefl the fifh of our 

 own northern feas, nor had' I ever any reafon to complain. 



At noon, I made an obfervation of the fun, juft under 

 the Cape of the Arabian more, with a Hadley's quadrant, 

 and found it to be in lat. 12 38' 30", but by many paflages 

 of the flars, obferved by my large aflronomical quadrant 

 in the ifland of Perim, all dedu&ions made, I found the 

 vrue latitude of the Cape mould be rather 1 2 39' 20" north. 



Peium is a low ifland, its harbour good, fronting the 



Abyffinian more. It is a barren, bare rock, producing, 011 



fome parts of it, plants of abfynthium, or rue, in others kelp, 



that did not feem to thrive ; it was at this time perfectly 



{torched by the heat of the fun, and had only a very faint 



appearance of having ever vegetated. The ifland itfelf 



is about five miles in length, perhaps more, and about 



•two miles in breadth. It becomes narrower at both 



ends. Ever fmce we anchored at the Cape, it had begun to 



blow ftrongly from the weft, which gave our Rais great 



apprehenfion, as, he laid, the wind fumetimes continued in 



that point for fifteen days together. This alarmed me not 



a little, leaft, by miffing Mahomet Gibberti, we mould lofe 



£>ur vovare. We had rice and butter, honey and flour, 



2 The 



