On the 2d of April 1541, casting loose from the before-mentioned shoal, which is 43 leagues beyond Swakem, we rowed along the coast, and entered a river called Farate, about four leagues from the shoal; whence setting our sails we got into a fine haven a league from thence called Kilfit. All this day we saw no rocks to landward, but there was a shoal to seaward. Farate is a large and fair river, the mouth of which is in lat. 21°40' N. Its mouth is formed by two low points about a gun-shot apart, from each of which a shoal stretches towards the middle, where only there is any passage. The river runs from the west to the east, having very low land on both sides, without either tree or shrub or bush of any kind. At the entrance it is 30 fathoms deep, and from thence diminishes to 18 fathoms. Kilfit is a fine harbour and very safe, as when once in, no wind whatever need be feared. There are at the entry two very low points bearing N.W. 1/4 N. and S.E. 1/4 S. distant near a quarter of a league. It is rather more than three leagues in circuit, and every part of it is safe anchorage, having 12 fathoms water throughout; the shore is however rocky. This harbour is rather more than a league from the river of Farate, between which is a range of mountains, one of which is higher than the others. We left Kilfit on the 3d, an hour before day, and rowed along the coast till an hour before sunset, when we anchored in a haven called Ras al Jidid, or the new cape, about nine leagues from Kilfit. This day we saw a few shoals to seawards, but fewer than before. Two leagues from Kilfit there is a very good haven named Moamaa; and from the point of the shrubs to another very long sandy point, about two leagues distant, before the port of Ras-al-Jidid, the coast runs N. and S. with a small deviation to the N.W. and S.E. the distance being about three and a half leagues294. Ras-al-Jidid295 is a small but very pleasant haven, 57 leagues beyond Swakem, and so exactly circular that it resembles a great cauldron. There are two points at its entrance bearing N. and S. and on the inside the eastern winds only can do harm. All the ground is very clean, having 18 fathoms at the mouth and 13 within; and half a league inland there is a well of water, though not very plentiful, and bitterish. This port is a large half league in circuit. It is a singularity in all the rivers or harbours which I have seen on this coast, that they have no bars or banks at their mouths, which are generally deeper than within. On the land round this port, I found certain trees which in their trunk and bark resembled cork-trees, but very different in all other respects. Their leaves were very large, wonderfully thick, and of a deep green, crossed with large veins. They were then in flower, and their flowers in the bud resembled the flowers of the mallow when in that state: But such as were opened were white, and like the white cockle. On cutting a bough or leaf there run out a great stream of milk, as from the dug of a goat. On all this coast I saw no other trees, except a grove a little beyond Massua, in some marshy ground near the sea. Besides these trees, there are some valleys inland producing a few capers, the leaves of which are eaten by the Moors, who say they be appropriate to the joynts. On the 4th of April, from sunrise till eleven o'clock, the wind blew a storm from the N.W. after which there was much and loud thunder, accompanied with hail, the stones being the largest I ever saw. With the thunder the wind veered about to every point of the compass, and at last it settled in the north. This day I carried my instruments on shore, when I found the variation 1-1/4 degree north-east296, and the latitude by many observations 22° N. Though these observations were made on shore with great care, so that I never stirred the instrument when once set till the end of my observations, I am satisfied there must be some error; because the great heat cracked the plate of ivory in the middle, so that there remained a great cleft as thick as a gold portague. On the 6th, an hour before day, we weighed from the port of Ras-al-Jidid, and advanced about three and a half leagues. The 7th in the morning, the wind blew fresh at N.W. and we rowed to the shore, where at eight o'clock we fastened our barks to certain stones of a shoal or reef, lying before a long point which hereafter I shall name Starta. We went in this space about three leagues. About noon we made sail and proceeded in our voyage, but in no small doubts, as we saw on both sides of our course a prodigious number of shelves; we were therefore obliged to take in our sails and use our oars, by means of which we came about sunset to a good haven named Comol, in which we anchored.

From a point two leagues beyond the harbour of Igidid, or Ras-al-Jidid, to another very long and flat point may be about four leagues, these two points bearing N.W. and S.E. between which there is a large bay; within which towards the long point at the N.W. is a deep haven so close on all sides that it is safe from every wind. This point is an island; from which circumstance and its latitude it seems certainly the island named Starta by Ptolomy. From thence to a great point of land over the harbour of Comol the distance may be five leagues; these two points bearing N.W. by W. and S.E. by E. and between them is a large fair bay. From the port of Igidid till half a league short of the harbour of Comol, the land close to the shore is all raised in small hills very close together, behind which, about a league farther inland, are very high mountains rising into many high and sharp peaks; and as we come nearer to Comol these hills approach the sea, and in coming within half a league of Comol they are close to the shore. Comol is eleven leagues beyond Igidid, and 68 from Swakem, and is in lat. 22° 30' N. This port is in the second bay, very near the face of the point which juts out from the coast on the north-west side of this second bay. Though not large, the port of Comol is very secure, as towards the seaward it has certain reefs or shoals above water which effectually defend it from all winds. The land around it is very plain and pleasant, and is inhabited by many Badwis297. The north-west point which ends the bay and covers this port is very long and fair, being all low and level, being what was named by Ptolomy the promontory of Prionoto in his third table of Africa, since the great mountains which range along the whole of this coast end here.

Three hours after midnight of the 7th April 1541298, we left the harbour of Comol, using our oars for a small way, and then hoisting sail we proceeded along the coast; but an hour before day-light some of our barks struck upon certain rocks and shoals, on which we again struck sails and took to our oars till day-light. At day-light, being then the 8th, we came to a spacious bay, of which to the north and north-west we could see no termination, neither any cape or head-land in that direction. We accordingly sailed forwards in that open sea or bay, but which had so many shoals on each side that it was wonderful we could make any profit of a large wind; for, now going roamour, and now upon a tack, sometimes in the way and sometimes out of it, there was no way for us to take certain and quiet299. About sunset we came to a very great shelf or reef, and fastening our barks to its rocks we remained there for the night. The morning of the 9th being clear, we set sail from this shelf, and took harbour within a great shelf called Shaab-al-Yadayn300. After coming to anchor, we noticed an island to seaward, called Zemorjete. This port and shelf trend N.E. by E. and S.W. by W. From the cape of the mountains301, to another cape beyond it on which there are a quantity of shrubs or furzes; the coast runs N.E. by N. and S.W. by S. the distance between these capes being about three and a half or four leagues. From this last point the coast of the great bay or nook winds inwards to the west, and afterwards turns out again, making a great circuit with many windings, and ends in a great and notable point called Ras-al-Nashef, or the dry cape, called by Ptolomy the promontory Pentadactilus in his third table of Africa. The island Zemorjete is about eight leagues E. from this cape; and from that island, according to the Moorish pilots, the two shores of the gulf are first seen at one time, but that of Arabia is a great deal farther off than the African coast. This island, which is very high and barren, is named Agathon by Ptolomy. It has another very small island close to it, which is not mentioned in Ptolomy. Now respecting the shelf Shaab-al-Yadayn, it is to be noted that it is a great shelf far to seaward of the northern end of the great bay, all of it above water, like two extended arms with their hands wide open, whence its Arabic name which signifies shelf of the hands. The port of this shelf is to landward, as on that side it winds very much, so as to shut up the haven from all winds from the sea. This haven and cape Ras-al-Nashef bear from each other E.S.E. and W.S.W. distant about four leagues.