Although this is the miserable state of Dahalac at present, matters were widely different in former times. The pearl fishery flourished greatly here, under the Ptolemies; and even long after, in the time of the Caliphs, it produced a great revenue, and, till the sovereigns of Cairo, of the present miserable race of slaves, began to withdraw themselves from their dependency on the port (for even after the reign of Selim, and the conquests of Arabia, under Sinan Basha, the Turkish gallies were still kept up at Suez, whilst Masuah and Suakem had Bashas) Dahalac was the principal island that furnished the pearl fishers, or divers. It was, indeed, the chief port for the fishery on the southern part of the Red Sea, as Suakem was on the north; and the Basha of Masuah passed part of every summer here, to avoid the heat at his place of residence on the Continent. The fishery extended from Dahalac and its islands nearly to lat. 20°. The inhabited islands furnished each a bark, and so many divers, and they were paid in wheat, flour, &c. such a portion to each bark, for their use, and so much to leave with their family, for their subsistence; so that a few months employment furnished them with every thing necessary for the rest of the year. The fishery was rented, in latter times, to the Basha of Suakem, but there was a place between Suakem, and the supposed river Frat, in lat. 21° 28´ north, called _Gungunnah_, which was reserved to the Grand Signior in particular, and a special officer was appointed to receive the pearls on the spot, and send them to Constantinople. The pearls found there were of the largest size, and inferior to none in water, or roundness. Tradition says, that this was, exclusively, the property of the Pharaohs, by which is meant, in Arabian manuscrip’s, the old kings of Egypt before Mahomet. In the same extent, between Dahalac and Suakem, was another very valuable fishery, that of[207] tortoises, from which the finest shells of that kind were produced, and a great trade was carried on with the East Indies, (China especially) at little expence, and with very considerable profits. The animal itself (the turtle) was in great plenty, between lat. 18° and 20°, in the neighbourhood of those low sandy islands, laid down in my chart.