92 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



what importance is it, after all, to make an exact 

 division of those sandy heaps, those immense, 

 blanks on the habitable globe, and which no na- 

 tion can have an interest to parcel out, as no man 

 can possibly convert them into a habitation ? 



But if those shores present nothing attractive to 

 commerce or to curiosity, they oppose tremendous 

 risks to navigation. Scarcely raised above the level 

 of the sea, they are uot perceptible at any distance. 

 A vessel with this coast on her lee, under a wind 

 blowing in-shore, in that prodigious bay laid down 

 in our geographical charts under the name of the 

 Gulf of the Arabs } has no shelter to expect ; no 

 port, no road opens to her a safe retreat ; and if it 

 be impossible for her to brave the impetuosity of 

 the winds and waves which are driving her toward 

 the land, she must be lost. There is no confidence 

 to be placed in the assertion of certain Arabs who 

 indicated to me, in the gulf which bears their 

 name, three ports, one of which thej represented 

 as affording excellent anchorage, and which they 

 called Port Sotiman. It would be madness in na- 

 vigators to expose themselves, on the faith of in- 

 formation so very problematical ; and on the sup- 

 position that they might, in reality, have the good 

 fortune, in desperate situations, to find some re- 

 fuge there, they would run an incredible risk, un- 

 less their ships were better armed than most of 



those 



