The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythræan Sea: Being a Translation of the Periplus Maris Erythræi, by an Anonymous Writer, and of Arrian's Account of the Voyage of Nearkhos, from the Mouth of the Indus to the Head of the Persian Gulf
History
The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythræan Sea: Being a Translation of the Periplus Maris Erythræi, by an Anonymous Writer, and of Arrian's Account of the Voyage of Nearkhos, from the Mouth of the Indus to the Head of the Persian Gulf
Classical geography; Geography, Ancient; India -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Indian Ocean Region -- Commerce -- History
(11) After Mosulon occurs Cape Elephant, at some distance
beyond +Neiloptolemaios+, +Tapatêgê+, and the Little
Laurel-grove. At the Cape is a river and the Great Laurel-grove
called +Akannai+. Strabo in his account of this coast mentions a
Neilospotamia which however can hardly be referred to this particular
locality which pertains to the region through which the Khori or San
Pedro flows, of which Idrisi (I. 45) thus writes: “At two journeys’
distance from Markah in the desert is a river which is subject to
risings like the Nile and on the banks of which they sow dhorra.”
Regarding Cape Elephant Vincent says, “it is formed by a mountain
conspicuous in the Portuguese charts under the name of Mount Felix
or Felles from the native term Jibel Fîl, literally, Mount Elephant.
The cape [Ras Filik, 800 ft. high, lat. 11° 57´ N., long. 50° 37´ E.]
is formed by the land jutting up to the North from the direction of
the coast which is nearly East and West, and from its northernmost
point the land falls off again South-East to Râs 'Asir—Cape Guardafui,
the Arômata of the ancients. We learn from Captain Saris, an English
navigator, that there is a river at Jibel Fîl. In the year 1611 he
stood into a bay or harbour there which he represents as having a safe
entrance for three ships abreast: he adds also that several sorts of
gums very sweet in burning were still purchased by the Indian ships
from Cambay which touched here for that purpose in their passage to
Mocha.” The passage in the _Periplûs_ where these places are mentioned
is very corrupt. Vincent, who regards the greater +Daphnôn+
(Laurel-grove) as a river called +Akannai+, says, “Neither place
or distance is assigned to any of these names, but we may well allot
the rivers Daphnôn and Elephant to the synonymous town and cape; and
these may be represented by the modern Mete and Santa Pedro.” [Müller
places Elephas at Ras el Fîl, long. 50° 37´ E., and Akannai at Ulûlah
Bandar, long. 50° 56´ E., but they may be represented by Ras Ahileh,
where a river enters through a lagoon in 11° 46´, and Bonah, a town
with wells of good water in lat. 11° 58´ N., long. 50° 51´ E.]
12. After this, the coast now inclining to the south, succeeds the mart
of +Arômata+, and a bluff headland running out eastward which
forms the termination of the Barbarine coast. The roadstead is an open
one, and at certain seasons dangerous, as the place lies exposed to the
north wind. A coming storm gives warning of its approach by a peculiar
prognostic, for the sea turns turbid at the bottom and changes its
colour. When this occurs, all hasten for refuge to the great promontory
called +Tabai+, which affords a secure shelter. The imports into
this mart are such as have been already mentioned; while its products
are cinnamon, gizeir (_a finer sort of cinnamon_), asuphê (_an ordinary
sort_), fragrant gums, magla, motô (_an inferior cinnamon_), and
frankincense.
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