18. These marts, we may say, are about the last on the coast of +Azania+—the coast, that is, which is on your right as you sail _south_ from +Berenîkê+. For beyond these parts an ocean, hitherto unexplored, curves round towards sunset, and, stretching along the southern extremities of Ethiopia, Libya, and Africa, amalgamates with the Western Sea. 19. To the left, again, of +Berenikê+, if you sail eastward from +Myos-Hormos+ across the adjacent gulf for two days, or perhaps three, you arrive at a place having a port and a fortress which is called +Leukê Kômê+, and forming the point of communication with Petra, the residence of +Malikhas+, the king of the Nabatæans. It ranks as an emporium of trade, since small vessels come to it laden with merchandize from Arabia; and hence an officer is deputed to collect the duties which are levied on imports at the rate of twenty-five per cent. of their value, and also a centurion who commands the garrison by which the place is protected. (18, 19) Our author having thus described the African coast as far southward as it was known on its Eastern side, reverts to +Berenikê+ and enters at once on a narrative of the second voyage—that which was made thence across the Northern head of the gulf and along the coast of Arabia to the emporium of +Mouza+ near the Straits. The course is first northward, and the parts about +Berenikê+ as you bear away lie therefore now on your left hand. Having touched at +Myos Hormos+ the course on leaving it is shaped eastward across the gulf by the promontory +Pharan+, and +Leukê Kômê+[19] is reached after three or four days’ sailing. This was a port in the kingdom of the Nabathæans (the Nebaioth of Scripture), situated perhaps near the mouth of the Elanitic Gulf or eastern arm of the Red Sea, now called the Gulf of Akabah. Much difference of opinion has prevailed as to its exact position, since the encroachment of the land upon the sea has much altered the line of coast here. Mannert identified it with the modern +Yenbo+ [lat. 24° 5´ N., long. 38° 3´ E., the port of Medina], Gosselin with +Mowilah+ [lat. 27° 38´ N., long. 35° 28´ E.,] Vincent with +Eynounah+ [lat. 28° 3´ N., long. 35° 13´ E.—the +Onne+ of Ptolemy], Reichhard with +Istabel Antai+, and Rüppel with +Wejh+ [lat. 26° 13´ N., long. 36° 27´ E]. Müller prefers the opinion held by Bochart, D’Anville, Quatremêre, Noel des Vergers, and Ritter, who agree in placing it at the port called +Hauara+ [lat. 24° 59´ N., long. 37° 16´ E.] mentioned by Idrisi (I. p. 332), who describes it as a village inhabited by merchants carrying on a considerable trade in earthen vases manufactured at a clay-pit in their neighbourhood. Near it lies the island of +Hassani+ [lat. 24° 59´ N., long. 37° 3´ E.], which, as Wellsted reports, is conspicuous from its _white_ appearance. +Leukê Kômê+ is mentioned by various ancient authors, as for instance Strabo, who, in a passage wherein he recounts the misfortunes which