2 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



the capacity of its port, which is diflributed into three divi- 

 fions. The ifland itfelf is very fmall, fcarce three quarters 

 of a mile in length, and about half that in breadth, one- 

 third occupied , by houfes, one by citterns to receive the 

 rain-water, and the laft is referved for burying the dead. 



Masuah, as we have already obferved, was one of thofe 

 towns on the weft of the Red Sea that followed the con- 

 queft of Arabia Felix by Sinan Baiha, under Selim emperor 

 of Conftantinople. At that time it was a place of great com- 

 merce, poneffing a ihare of the Indian trade in common 

 with the other ports of the Red Sea near the mouth of the 

 Indian Ocean. It had a confiderable quantity of exports 

 brought to it from a great tract of mountainous country 

 behind it, in all ages very unhofpitable, and almoft inac- 

 cehible to ftrangers. Gold and ivory, elephants and buffa- 

 loes hides, and, above all, flaves, of much greater value, as 

 being more fought after for their perfonal qualities than 

 any other fort, who had the misfortune to be reduced to ■ 

 that condition, made the principal articles of exportation; 

 from this port. Pearls, confiderable for iize, water, or colour,, 

 were found all along its coaft. The great convenience of; 

 commodious riding for veffels, joined to thefe valuable ar- 

 ticles of trade, had overcome the inconvenience of want of 

 water, the principal neceffary of life, to which it had been 

 fubjected from its creation. 



Masuah continued a place of much refort a« long as com- 

 merce flourished, but it fell into obfeurity veiy fuddenly- 

 under the oppreilion of the Turks, who put the finifhing- 

 hand to the ruin of the India trade in the Red Sea, begun 

 fome years before by the dxfeovcry of the ^ape of Good' 



Hope,, 



