BOMBAY TO BUSHIRE. 
Sclavonian ship, when the lyra accompanies the voice of some naval 
Apollo, and is followed by a chorus of his shipmates. 
We were off Cape Verdistan this morning, and descried the Hummocks 
of Kenn . The shoal that runs out from Cape Verdistan , is rendered 
dangerous by a reef of rocks which extends itself about six or seven 
miles from the shore. There are good mud soundings on the shoal, and 
a ship may cross ite extremity without danger, though it is as well to 
give it a good birth. We stood off in the night of the 12 th. The sound¬ 
ings in the shoal as laid down by Mac Cluer are not all correspondent 
to those which we got. We were in seven fathoms for more than an 
hour, and he has not got such a sounding amongst his. From seven we 
got to half six, and then to four, when we thought it time to tack. The 
cause which has been assigned for our ignorance of the gulph, is the 
prudential reserve which has influenced our Indian governments in their 
transactions with the states of Persia and Arabia. To avoid suspicion 
and complaint, they have never professedly made surveys of the shores, 
though much might yet have been done indirectly, if the object had 
been considered of sufficient importance. Few, except merchant 
vessels visited the gulph; and as the charts, which they already pos¬ 
sessed (and what is better, their own experience) served their purpose 
sufficiently in the line of their own navigation, there was seldom any 
particular demand for more correct surveys. The geographer and 
philosopher indeed require something more, and therefore it is still 
matter of regret, that we are comparatively ill-informed in countries, 
where we have had easy opportunities of acquiring knowledge. 
13th Oct. We were becalmed all night under the Asses Ears. These 
are points of land, which stand a little more erect, and are more con¬ 
spicuous than the other points which surround them. The whole 
displays a line of coast the most rugged, barren, and inhospitable that I 
ever saw ; and constitutes, after we passed Verdistan shoal, a very bold 
shore. We sailed along it, keeping in eleven and twelve fathoms. In 
the evening we opened Hallilah peak, which is a high and remarkable 
c 
