254 



NOETH-EAST AFEIOA. 



and 300 Arab vessels, which carried rice, dates, salt, cowries, and European mer- 

 chandise, to be exchanged for slaves, mules, wild beasts, and the many products of 

 the Abyssinian spurs, such as gum, ivory, ostrich feathers, skins, wax, musk, grains, 

 and coffee. Suakin is the port where the pilgrims embark for Mecca, to the number 

 of six or seven thousand annually ; the distance from here to Jeddah is about 20 

 miles including the deviations caused by the reefs. The slave merchants from the 

 interior present themselves in the disguise of ordinary travellers, accompanied by 

 their wives, concubines, and servants. But on their return from Arabia to Suakin, 



Fig. 84.— Suakin in 1882. 

 Scale 1 : 50.000. 



;.,X..s^^^^^^'t:>V 



N'^^',- -^ 













v^.;i>:; 



57°Q0 



if [7 r e e n '^M r H. 



s/^ea 



Depths. 





to 32 Feet. 32 to 64 Feet. 64 Feet and upwards. 



Sands and coral reefs exposed at low water. 



1.100 Yards. 



they have no longer wives or servants ; divorce, desertion, and unforeseen events 

 being supposed to have relieved them of their families and followers. 



The town, overlooked by several minarets, consists of stone houses with wooden 

 balconies and " musharabiehs " elegantly carved. It is a cosmopolitan cit}'-, where 

 the trade is chiefly in the hands of the Arabs. Turks and Hedarmeh, or " Men 

 of Hadramaut," here meet the Greek, Maltese, or European merchants. But the 

 native population live in huts of branches covered with mats outside the town in the 

 suburb of El-Kef. It is a far more extensive place than Suakin itself, with which 

 it is connected by a low bridge some 330 feet long, and since 1884 by a railway 



