V 4© The Difcovery, Settlement, and Commerce 
Book 
1 < 
Thefe People have a Number of Kings, who are always at 
War with each other. About their Kings they have cer- 
tain Men called Moharamin , becaufe each of them bore 
their Nofe, and wear therein a Ring : They haVe Chains 
alfo fattened about their Necks* and when they are at 
War and going to fight, they each take one End of his 
Companion’s Chain, and pafs it thro* the Ring that hangs 
under his Nofe ; two Men holds this Chain, and fo pre- 
vent the reft from advancing towards the Enemy till De- 
puties have been from Side to Side to negotiate a Peace ; 
which if it is concluded, they take their Chains about their 
Necks again and retire without fighting : But when they 
once begin to unftieath the Sword, not one Soul of them 
quits his Pott, but remains there ’till he is flain. 
They have all of them a profoundVenerationfor the Arabs, 
and when they chance to fee any of them they fall down 
before him, and cry, this Man comes from the Kingdom 
where fiourifh.es the Date-bearing Palm, for they are very 
fond of Dates. Among thefe People there are Preachers 
who harangue them in their own Tongue, nor may the 
'Catebs or Orators of any other Nation whatfoever, be 
compared with them. Some of thefe profefs a religious 
Life, and are covered with the Skin of a Leopard or Ape. 
One of thefe Men with a Staff in his Hand, fhall prefent 
himfelf before them, and haying gathered a Multitude of 
People about him, preach all the Day long to them. He 
fpeaks of God, and recites the Aftions of their Country- 
men who are gone before them. From this Country they 
bring the Leopard Skins called Zingiet, fpotted with red 
and black, very great and broad. 
65. In this fame Sea is the Ifland of Socotra , whence come 
the Socotrin Aloes. This Ifle lies near the Land of Zinges , 
and near alfo to the Country of the Arabs, and moft of its 
Inhabitants are Chriftians, which is thus accounted for . 
When Alexander fubdued the Kingdom of the Perfians, 
his Preceptor Ariflotle, to whom he had by Letters com- 
municated his Conquefts, wrote back to him to defire, 
that by all Means he would feek after the Ifland of Socotra, 
which afforded Aloes, an excellent Drug, and without 
which they could not make up the famous Medicament 
called Hiera : That the beft Way would be to remove the 
Inhabitants thence, and inftead of them plant a Colony of 
Greeks, that they might fend Aloes into Syria, Greece and 
Egypt. Accordingly Alexander gave the neceffary Orders 
to difpoffefs the Inhabitants, and to fettle a Colony of 
Greeks in their Stead. Then he commanded the Kings of 
the Nations who divided his Empire after he had flain the 
Great Darius, to execute the Orders he had ifliied out for 
the Prefervation of thefe Greeks : They remained then as a 
Garrifon upon this Ifland, till God fent JESUS CHRIST 
into the World. When the Greeks of this fame Ifle being 
informed thereof, embraced the Chriftian Faith as the 
other Greeks had done before them, and in the Profeffion 
of this Faith, have they perfevered to this Day, as well 
as all the Inhabitants of the other Hies. 
In the former Book, no mention is made of the 
Sea which ftretches away to the right, as Ships part 
from Oman and the Coaft o! Arabia, to launch into the 
Great Sea •, but the. Author defcribes only the Sea on the 
Left, and in which is comprehended the Seas of India and 
China, which he feems to have particularly had in his Eye. 
In this Sea, which is as it where on the Right of the In- 
dies as you leave Oman , in the Country of Sihar or Shihr, 
where Frankincenfe grows, and the other Countries pof- 
fes J d by the Nations of Cedd, Hamyer, JoJham and T heo- 
teba. The People in this Country have the Sonna in Ara- 
bic of very antient Date, but in many Things different 
from what is the Hands of the Arabs, and containing 
many Traditions to us unknown : They have no Villages, 
and they lead a hard and a very miferable Lifek 
The Country they inhabit, extends almoft as far as Aden 
and Judda, upon the Coaft of Yemen or Arabia the Happy 1 
from Judda it ftretches up into the Continent as far as the 
Coaft of Syria, and ends at Kolzum. The Seas in this Part 
divide by a Slip of Land, which God has fix’d as a Line of 
Separation between thefe two Seas, as it is written in the Ko- 
ran : From Kolzum the Sea ftretches along the Coaft of 
the Barbarians to the Weft Coafts, which is oppofite to 
Taman , and then along the Coaft of Mthiopea from 
whence you have the Leopard Skins of Barbary, which 
are the beft of all, and moft ikilfully dreflfed ; and laftly, 
along the Coaft of Zeilah, whence you have Amber and 
Tortoife-Shell. 
When the Siraf Ships arrive in this Sea, which is to 
the right of the Sea of India, they put into Judda, where 
they remain, for their Cargoe is thence tran (ported to Ke- 
hira (or Cairo ) by Ships of Kolzum , who are acquainted 
with the Navigation of the Red-Sea, which thofe of Siraf 
dare not attempt, becaufe of the extream Danger, and 
becaufe this Sea is full of Rocks at the Waters -Edge ; be- 
caufe alfo, upon the whole Coaft there is no Kings, or 
fcarce any inhabited Place ; and in fine, becaufe Ships are 
every Night obliged to put into fome Place of Safety, for 
Fear of (hiking upon the Rocks. They fail in the Day- 
time only, and all the Night ride faft at Anchor. ■ This 
Sea moreover is fubjeA to very thick Fogs, and to violent 
Gales of Wind, and fo has nothing to recommend it either 
within or without. 
66. It is not like the Sea of India or of China, whofe 
Bottom is rich with Pearls and Amber-greece, whofe 
Mountains of the Coaft are ftored with Gold and precious 
Stones, whofe Gulphs breed Creatures that yield Ivory., 
and among the Plants of whofe Shores are Ebony, Red- 
Wood, the Wood of Hairzan , Aloes, Camphire, Nut- 
megs, Cloves, Sandal- Wood, and all other Spices and 
Aromatics ; where Parrots and Peacocks are Birds of the 
Forreft, and Mu(k and Civet are collefted upon the Lands : 
In (hort, fo produdtive are thofe Shores of ineftimable 
Things, that it is impoflible to reckon them up tt . 
Amber-greece which is thrown upon the Coaft of this 
fame Sea, is wafhed to Shore by the Swell : It begins to 
be found in the Indian Sea, but whence it comes is un- 
known . W e only know, that the beft of it is thrown upon 
the Barbary Coaft, or upon the Confines of the Land 
of Negroes, towards Sihar, and Places thereabouts : It is 
of a bluifh- white in round Lumps. The Inhabitants of 
this Country have Camels trained up to the Bufinefs which 
they mount, and go in Search of it by Moon-dune, and 
ride for that Purpofe along Shore. Thefe Camels are 
broke to this, and asfoon as they perceive a Piece of Am* 
ber-greece, they bend their Knees, and their Rider picks 
it up w . 
Anchors and Oars. That Subftanoe like Thread, which covers the Nut, and which may be drawn out and fpun, makes the moft excellent Cordage 
in the World, inafmuch as it never decays in the Water. The Anchors are not to be boafted of, but they ferve wed enough for fuch Veflels . The 
Liouor in the Nut when fermented, becomes a kind of Wine ; when four it is an excellent Vinegar, and diftilied, it affords a foft, pleafant Brandy. It 
is certain, that the Inhabitants of the Maldives, fubfift chiefly on their Trade in Cocoa-nuts, Cocoa Plank, and the Cordage, made from this free; 
the Manufacture of which, they are better fulled in than any other People in the Indies. . • 
t The Arabs befides the Koran, have many Traditions relating to the Mohammedan Religion, which they received from the Companions of their 
Prophet and his Difciples j from thefe Traditions and Stories, they form the Body of their Sonna, which therefore is very different in different Places ; 
fo that not only the Sonna of the Perfians differs from that of the Arabians , but that of the Africans varies from that of Mecca , and the Arabians of the 
Defert : In a Word, the Sonna with Refpeft to the Mohammedans, is pretty near the fame Thing with the Talmud among the Jews ; and it is owing 
to both, that there are fo many differet Sects, and fuch a Variety of Fabulous Notions amongft the People of both Religions. 
u This is at once a very magnificent, and a very juft Account of the Wealth of the Indies, and it proves very plainly, that fcarce any Part of its Riches 
were concealed from the Arabs at this Time ; fo that what fome Writers report of the Defigns formed by the Khaiiffs and Sultans of Egypt , for making 
themfeives Mailers of the Coafts of India, and even of its Blands, hath nothing in it abfurd or incredible. . . 
w Amber-greece, or as it ought to be wrote Amber-grife, is a very rich Perfume, and it is certain, that there is more of it, and in greater Perfection in 
the Indian-Sea, than in any other of the whole World . How it is formed, or from whence it comes, is as great Secret to us. as it was to the Arabs. It is 
of different Colours, viz dark-grey, light- grey, black and red ; but the firft is the mod efteemed, as having by rarthe richeft Scent. What our A m 
thor reports of its being found in this Manner by Camels, is not very improbable ; for the beft Ambergreece in the World is driven on the Shore or 
the Ifland of Prince Maurice, and the Butch affurc us, that their Flogs fmell it out at a great Diftance, ana run furioully to the Shore in. order ta. 
devour it. 
3 
Thera 
