RAS ASSEEZ. 
case at Asseez, but which is contrary to fact at Port Mornington. 
It seems probable to me that Ptolemy would fix his station for 
hunting elephants, not at the farthest extremity of the Shumeta 
or Nubian forest, where elephants were procurable, but at the 
place nearest to his own dominions, within the limits of the forest ; 
and this would certainly be at Asseez, which gave him an oppor- 
tunity of hastily, and privately, securing his settlement from any 
hostile assaults of the people, among whom he was settling him- 
self without their consent. This might indeed induce him to prefer 
Asseez to Port Mornington ; but that he should pass so fine a 
harbour to go down still further on the coast to a more incon- 
venient position, seems to be improbable. Port Mornington may 
have afforded protection to his vessels, though the military station 
was at Asseez : and it is not impossible, that the latter place may 
have afforded facilities of embarking the elephants, which the 
former did not. 
Our pilots mentioned as a fact that Cushtan, the district most 
abounding in elephants, was directly behind Asseez, which, if true, 
(and as they could not possibly conjecture what answers I wished 
them to make to my questions, I think there is no reason to doubt it) 
affords a very sufficient argument why Ptolemy fixed his hunting 
station there in preference to any other place. I have only to add, that 
he could not do it much higher up, as they are never seen at Suakin. 
Asseez is, undoubtedly, the long point of sand which is mentioned 
by Don Juan de Castro, and is laid down by him in 18* 30', a 
trifling error in latitude. It is a singular circumstance, that Pliny 
states Ptolemais Theron as being five days sail from Aduli, and 
we were exactly that period in reaching Port Mornington, and 
