ABSTRACT
This is that very famous sea crossed dry-shod by the Children of Israel. It is three hundred and eighty leagues long and, at its widest point, is between fifty and sixty leagues wide. Taken in its entirety it has, in the best opinion of those who consider it, the shape of a lizard. The body of the lizard is the entire sea from the narrows up to Sues where it comes to an end and up to which point it keeps getting narrower. The neck or throat is the strait; and the head is all of that part which extends from the strait outward as far as the two Capes, Goardafui and Fartaqui. The full length of this large lizard is thus a matter of five hundred and thirty leagues. Nature divided it, from the strait inward to Sues, into three approximately equal parts. There is the middle part, corresponding to the backbone, free of rocks and shelves and navigable to Sues. It has some small islands, crags, mountains and large rocks, all protruding above the water, scattered everywhere in great profusion. The first of these, a mountain or rock fourteen leagues beyond the strait, is a volcano belching fire day and night. 1 This middle part is navigated safely day or night; for the rocky islands protrude above the water and there is no danger of running into them without seeing them first. The other two parts are very dangerous because they are infested with hidden rocks, shallows and shoals, both on the Arabian side, on the right, and on the Ethiopian side, on the left. Because of so many shoals these two parts can in no way be navigated at night. They can be navigated by day only by experienced pilots which the ships formerly took aboard for this purpose at a poor town where they lived, located in the narrows or entrance to the Red Sea. Nowadays each ship brings its own pilot from India for greater security, since the ships sail to various ports in this sea according to the requirements of their trade,
and since the Turks, having got all of Arabia and the Red Sea under their power, oblige the ships to go and pay duty and sell them merchandise at Moqua, a famous port at this time, twelve leagues beyond the narrows on the Arabian side. To enforce this obligation they keep warships in the narrowest part of this passage to take the entering ships to this port. All the ships from India that do not want to go there, because of the oppressive treatment they receive at the hands of the Turks, try to escape the danger by night, for which purpose they bring pilots to guide them. If they did not bring their pilots with them, they would have to take pilots aboard at the very place where there was the greatest danger of being caught by the Turks. Since my narration has reached the point where we are entering this renowned sea, I shall give a brief account of the famous cities and towns, both of former times and of the present time, which existed or now exist on its shores.
