438 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



coaft, and great fwell, it was absolutely impoffible with oars 

 'to fave themfelves from deftruction. 



At laft philofophy and obfervation, together with the 

 unwearied perfeverance of man bent upon his own views 

 and intereft, removed thefe difficulties, and fhewed the raa- 

 rinersof the Arabian Gulf, that thefe periodical winds, which, 

 in the beginning, they looked upon as invincible barriers to 

 the trading to Sofala, when once underftood, were the very 

 means of performing this voyage fafely and expeditiously. 



The veffel trading to Sofala failed, as I have faid, from the 

 bottom of the Arabian Gulf, in fummer, with the monfoon 

 at north, which carried her to Mocha. There the monfoon 

 failed her by the change of the direction of the Gulf. The 

 fouth-weft winds, which blow without Cape Gardefan in 

 the Indian Ocean, forced themfelves round the Capefo as to 

 be felt in the road of Mocha, and make it uneafy riding 

 there. But thefe foon changed, the weather became mo- 

 derate, and the veilei, I fuppofe in the month of Augufl, was 

 fafe at anchor under Cape Gardefan, where was the port 

 which, many years afterwards, was called Promontorium 

 Aromatum. Here the fhip was obliged to flay all No- 

 vember, becaufe all thefe fummer months the wind fouth 

 of the Cape was a ftrong fouth-wefler, as hath been before 

 faid, directly in the teeth of the voyage to Sofala. But this 

 time was not loft ; part of the goods bought to be ready for 

 the return was ivory, frankincenfe, and myrrh ; and the fhip 

 was then at the principal mart for thefe. 



I suppose in November the vefTel failed with the wind at 

 north-eaft, with which lire would foon have made her voy- 



i age. 



