366 
THE EASTERN COAST. 
them by swimming. This extraordinary panic 
opened the eyes of the Portuguese, whose move- 
ments into the harbour were immediately stopped. 
They defeated an attempt made by the Moors 
during the night to cut their anchors, and next 
day set sail for the northward. Their next trial 
was at Melinda, where they were more success- 
ful, the king being induced by liberal presents to 
receive them well, and to grant them a pilot, 
imder whose guidance they reached safely the 
coast of Malabar. 
In giving a general description of the coast of 
Zanguebar, De Barros observes that the w^hole ex- 
tent from Cape Guardafui to Mosambique forms 
an immense bay, extending about fifteen hundred 
and sixty leagues ; not so deeply indented as it 
is described by Ptolemy, but rather resembling 
the rib of a quadruped. That from Mosambique 
to the Cape of Corrientes is a hundred and seventy 
leagues, and describes a curve which may be com- 
pared to an elbow ; while the line of three hun- 
dred and forty leagues, from thence to the Cape 
of Good Hope, is likened to the loin. The whole 
of this coast is low, marshy, covered with a thick 
underwood, like thorns, which scarcely allows a 
passage beneath. The air is still more corrupted, 
and the situation consequently more unhealthy 
than on the opposite shore of Guinea. The coast 
was entirely in possession of the Arabs, who had 
