“It is observed, then, that a vessel starting from Suez, in any of the summer months encounters a very violent north-west wind, which will carry it direct from the gulf to Mocha. At Mocha the coast goes from east to west, as far as the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. Thus a vessel sailing from Mocha will, in a short space of time, experience variable winds but mostly blowing from the west, and these winds will soon carry it to the straits. It therefore no longer wants the monsoon of the gulf, which blew from the north; and when it has passed into the Indian Ocean, it meets with another monsoon blowing in an opposite direction, during the six summer months, to the one which had favoured its progress in the Red Sea. This monsoon is no less favourable; it blows from the south-west, and carries the ship full sail, without delay or obstacle, into any required port of India. “Returning, the same advantages may be secured by setting sail during the winter months with the monsoon peculiar to that sea, which then blows from the north-east, and will carry the ship to the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. When the straits are passed it will meet with a south-east wind in the gulf, exactly contrary to the one in the ocean, but the course of the ship is also contrary, and this south-east wind, following the direction of the gulf, will bring it to Suez. All this is clear, simple, and easily understood, and thus it is, that in the earliest ages the commerce of India was carried on without any difficulty. “Thus the philosophy, the observation and the indefatigable perseverance of man, who endeavours to carry out every project which his interest suggests, triumphing over difficulties, have taught the navigators of the Arabian Gulf, that those periodical winds which they had, at first, regarded as insuperable obstacles to the trade of the Indian Ocean, are, when understood, the safest and the quickest means of performing the voyage.” Mr. Rooke, an English officer, speaks in these terms, of the navigation of the Red Sea in a letter dated April 25, 1782.