$4* TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



" Why did you not tell me, faid I, when I hired you, that all! 

 the rocks in the fea would get out of the way of your vef- 

 fel? This ill-mannered fellow here did not .know bis duty ; . 

 he was ileeping I fuppofe, and has given us a hearty jolt,, 

 and I was abufmg him for it, till you mould chaHife him 

 fome other way." He fhook his head, and faid, " Well!, 

 you do not believe, but God knows the truth ; well now 

 where is the rock ? Why he is gone/' However, very pru-. 

 dently, he anchored foon afterwards, though we had recei^ 

 ved no damage. 



At night, by an obfervation of two ftars in the meridian,, , 

 I concluded the latitude of Cape Mahomet to be 27 54', N... 

 It mull be underftood of the mountaineer highJandy which 

 forms the Cape, not the low point. The ridge of- rocks 

 that run along behind Tor, bound that low fandy country* 

 called the Defert of Sin, to - the eaflward^ and end in this 

 Gape, which is the high land obferved at fea; but the 

 lower part, or fouthermoft extreme of the Cape, runs a- 

 bout three leagues off from the high land, and is fo low, 

 that it cannot be feen from deck above three leagues. It 

 was called, by the ancients, Pharan Promontorium ; not be* 

 caufe there was a light-houfe * upon the end of it, (though 

 this may have perhaps been the cafe, and a very necefTary and 

 proper iituation it is) but from the Egyptian and Arabic word, 

 Farekf, which ngnines to divide, as being the point, or high ^ 

 land that, divides the Gulf of Suez from the Elanitic Gulf. 1 



I went. 



* Anciently called Pharos. 



-J- The Koran is, therefore, called El FaKkan, or the Divider^ or Diftingui/her between tme*. 

 feith and hexefyc 



