ABSTRACT

Having determined to see other countries we put to sea according to our intention; but as fortune is accustomed to exercise her unstable will on the water, equally unstable, we were turned somewhat from our design ; for, six days from that time we took the route to Persia, sailing for seven days, and then an accident occurred which made us run as far as Ethiopia, together with twenty-five ships laden with madder to dye clothes; for every year they lade as many as twenty-five ships in Aden with it. This madder grows in Arabia Felix.2 With extreme labour we entered into the port of a city named Zeila, and remained there five days, in order to see it and wait for favourable weather.