Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 1 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773Bruce, James
History
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 1 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773
Bruce, James
Egypt -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- History; Natural history -- Ethiopia; Nile River
On the 30th we sailed at eight in the morning, but the wind was
unfavourable, and we made little way. We were surrounded with a great
many sharks, some of which seemed to be large. Though I had no line
but upon the small fizgigs for dolphins, I could not refrain from
attempting one of the largest, for they were so bold, that some of
them, we thought, intended to leap on board. I struck one of the most
forward of them, just at the joining of the neck; but as we were not
practised enough in laying our line, so as to run out without hitching,
he leaped above two feet out of the water, then plunged down with
prodigious violence, and our line taking hold of something standing in
the way, the cord snapped asunder, and away went the shark. All the
others disappeared in an instant; but the Rais said, as soon as they
smelled the blood, they would not leave the wounded one, till they
had torn him to pieces. I was truly sorry for the loss of my tackle,
as the two others were really like harpoons, and not so manageable.
But the Rais, whom I had studied to keep in very good humour, and had
befriended in every thing, was an old harpooner in the Indian Ocean,
and he pulled out from his hold a compleat apparatus. He not only had a
small harpoon like my first, but better constructed. He had, likewise,
several hooks with long chains and lines, and a wheel with a long hair
line to it, like a small windlass, to which he equally fixed the line
of the harpoon, and those of the hooks. This was a compliment he saw I
took very kindly, and did not doubt it would be rewarded in the proper
time.
The wind freshening and turning fairer, at noon we brought to, within
sight of Rabac, and at one o’clock anchored there. Rabac is a small
port in lat. 22° 35´ 30´´ north. The entry is E. N. E. and is about
a quarter of a mile broad. The port extends itself to the east, and
is about two miles long. The mountains are about three leagues to the
north, and the town of Rabac about four miles north by east from the
entrance to the harbour. We remained all day, the first of May, in
the port, making a drawing of the harbour. The night of our anchoring
there, the Emir Hadje of the pilgrims from Mecca encamped about three
miles off. We heard his evening gun.
The passengers that had been sick, now insisted upon going to see the
Hadje; but as I knew the consequence would be, that a number of fanatic
wild people would be down upon us, I told him plainly, if he went from
the boat, he should not again be received; and that we would haul out
of the port, and anchor in the offing; this kept him with us. But all
next day he was in very bad humour, repeating frequently, to himself,
that he deserved all this for embarking with infidels.
The people came down to us from Rabac with water melons, and skins full
of water. All ships may be supplied here plentifully from wells near
the town; the water is not bad.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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