326 
MAGOWAR. 
and fresh provisions are in abundance. An amicable intercourse 
with the Bedowee might be established through Emir Mohammed, 
and the Suakini tribe, by which means, not only supplies might 
be obtained for any ship, without the risk of entering the dangerous 
harbour of Jidda, but probably a very considerable trade might be 
carried on direct with the neighbouring Arab tribes, who are at 
present supplied with the coarse Indian cloths, which compose their 
dress, at a very high price, through Suakin, or Jidda. 
Macowar becomes a place of much more importance^ if Monsieur 
D'Anville is right in his conjecture of its being near the Alaki of 
Abulfeda, and the Ollaki of Edresi, described by these authors as 
a mountain rich in mines of gold and silver.* The conjecture 
seems more than probable from the evidence adduced by D'Anville 
of the concurrence of the bearings and distance between Assuan and 
Salaka, and Assuan and Ollaki, and of the agreement between the 
position of Salaka, and the mountains which, in the time of the 
Ptolemies, yielded such great abundance of the precious metals. 
The similarity of the name must also be considered as no trifling 
support to his conjecture, since the modern Arabian names are so 
frequently only corruptions of the classical names given by their 
authors. If D'Anville is right in his conjecture, and even an un- 
supported conjecture ought to be received with the greatest defer- 
ence from such authority, he has also satisfactorily ascertained 
the position of the Berenice Pancrysos of the Egyptians as being 
the present Macowar or Salaka of the Arabs. I can in some degree 
confirm the conjecture of D'Anville by the evidence of the pilots, 
at a time when they fully expected we should reach Macowar, and 
* In my edition of Edresi, by Hartman, I find the name written Alalaki. . 
