43 S TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



coaft, and great fvvell, it was abfolutcly impoffible with oars 

 to fave themfelves from deftruction. 



At laft philofophy and obfervation, together with, the 

 unwearied perfeverance of man bent upon his own views 

 and intereft, removed thefe difficulties, and fhewed the ma- 

 riners of the ArabianGulf, that thefe periodical winds, which, 

 in the beginning, they looked upon as invincible barriers to 

 the trading to Sofala, when once underftood, were the very 

 means of performing this voyage fafely and expeditioufly. 



The veffel trading to Sofala failed, as I have faid, from the 

 bottom of the Arabian Gulf in fummer, with the monfoon 

 at north, which carried her to Mocha. There the monfoon 

 failed her by the change of the direction of the Gulf. The 

 fouth-weft winds, which blow without Cape Gardefan in 

 the Indian Ocean, forced themfelves round the Cape fo as to 

 be felt in the road of Mocha, and make it uneafy riding 

 there. But thefe foon changed, the weather became mo- 

 derate, and the veffel, I fuppofe in the month of Auguft, was 

 fafe at anchor under Cape Gardefan, where was the port 

 which, many years afterwards, was called Promontorium 

 Aromatum. Here the fhip was obliged to ftay all No- 

 vember, becaufe all thefe fummer months the wind fouth 

 of the Cape was a ftrong fouth-wefter, as hath been before 

 faid, directly in the teeth of the voyage to Sofala. But this 

 time was not loft ; part of the goods bought to be ready for 

 the return was ivory, frankincenfe, and myrrh ; and the fhip 

 was then at the principal mart for thefe. 



I suppose in November the veffel failed with the wind at 

 north-eaft , with which fhe would foon have made her voy- 



i age- 



