z66 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



tained, and had abundance of time, Captain Thornhill, and 

 fome other of the gentlemen trading thither, wifhed me 

 to make a furvey of the harbour, and promifed me the 

 amftance of their officers, boats, and crews. I very wil- 

 lingly undertook it to oblige them. Finding afterwards, 

 however, that one of their number, Captain Newland, had 

 undertaken it, and that he would be hurt by my interfering, 

 as he was in fome manner advanced in the work, I gave 

 up all further thoughts of the plan. He was a man of real 

 ingenuity and capacity, as well as very humane, well beha- 

 haved, and one to whom I had been indebted for every fort 

 of attention. 



God forgive thofe who have taken upon them, very 

 lately, to ingraft a number of new foundings upon that 

 miferable bundle of errors, that Chart of the upper part 

 of the Gulf from Jidda to Mocha, which has been toiled 

 about the Red Sea thefe twenty years and upwards. One 

 of thefe, fmce my return to Europe, has been fent to 

 me new duelled like a bride, with all its original and mor- 

 tal fins upon its head. I would beg leave to be under- 

 (lood, that there is not in the world a man more averfe than 

 I am to give offence even to a child. It is not in the fpirit 

 of criticifm I fpeak this. In any other cafe, I would not 

 have made any obfervations at all. But, where the lives 

 and properties of fo many are at Hake yearly, it is a fpecies 

 of treafon to conceal one's fentiments, if the publifhing of 

 them can any way contribute to fafety, whatever offence it 

 may give to unreafonable individuals. 



Of all the vcffcls in Jidda, two only had their log lines 

 properly divided, and yet all were fo fond of their fuppofed 



accuracy, 



