SHEIK BAROUD. 
311 
us some fresh meat, we would take all the provisions he had in his 
vessel, and leave him to get a supply with the money we would pay 
him. Abdallah returned with an answer that the camels were going 
from Suakin to Macowar, and had brought nothing for him; that 
there really were no animals to be purchased near ; but that he had 
sent off a person to a village at a small distance, to try and purchase 
sheep there. If he was successful, he would bring them to the point 
opposite the ship in the morning. He said if we wanted water 
there was plenty to be had, but that we must send our own vessels 
to fetch it, for the inhabitants had no skins. 
Mirza Sheik Baroud appears to be a modern appellation of this 
harbour, for it is undoubtedly the Tradate of Don Juan de Castro, 
though he has laid it down in 19*" 50', instead of 19° 35' 42", which 
is its true position. 1 have before observed that there was a 
mistake in the latitude of Suakin as given by D'Anville of about 
ten miles ; he has made an equal error here, by placing his Dradate 
in 1 9° 4 5 / Though he certainly took his information from De Castro, 
he corrected the latitude five miles, but he has not done it suffi- 
ciently. The narrow passage in which we were sailing, and which, 
the pilot said, reaches to Macowar, would be impassable for any 
vessels, if it were not for the numerous small harbours, into which 
a vessel can run in had weather. As the sea is perfectly smooth, in 
consequence of the reef to the eastward keeping off the swell, vessels 
with oars could always make their way against the strongest mon- 
soon, when the force of the wind in the open channel would be irre- 
sistible. If the ancient navigators kept along the shore, which seems 
probable from the list of promontories, and other land marks, 
given in Ptolemy's tables, it is singular that no notice has been 
