3^4 SHEIK BAROUD. 
to Mocha. I therefore gave the necessary directions to Captain Court. 
Our dow had come into Salaka the night before : by her we learned 
that the boy we left at Sheik Baroud had gone on to Macowar. 
We knew that he would be disappointed, but he had ten dollars to 
(console himself. Our dow did not attempt to move. It blew a very 
fresh gale, and we reached Sheik Baroud before dark. 
It was a very great mortification to me to be thus obliged to 
abandon my voyage of discovery, at the moment when our 
difficulties were so nearly ended; for had we once got out into 
the open sea, we should have been able to run over to Jidda, where 
supplies could be procured ; for this, the Shemaul would have 
been a fair wind. Every important object has, however, been 
attained respecting the passage within the shoals, from Suakin to 
Macowar, a passage which no vessel will probably again attempt, 
till an extensive trade shall have taken place in the Red Sea, 
when, probably, the advantages it holds forth of smooth water 
and occasional land and sea breezes, may cause it to be navigated 
by small vessels in the adverse monsoon. I think that a vessel 
with oars would, at such seasons, find it infinitely preferable to the 
open sea, as was the case with the fleet of Don Stephano de Gama, 
to the account of whose voyage by Don Juan de Castro I have so 
frequently had occasion to refer. Had there been any doubt of 
there being a free communication from this passage to the open sea 
near to Salaka, after the account of the Portuguese navigators, it 
would be removed by the track of Captain Court in the Panther 
cruizer in the year 1795, who approached sufficiently near to the 
island of Macowar to ascertain its position, and to perceive that 
the sea was free in its vicinity ; thus confirming the assertions 
