The 28th, at five o'clock in the morning, we saw the small island of Rasab; at a quarter after six we passed between it and a large island called Camaran, where there is a Turkish garrison and town, and plenty of good water. At twelve we passed a low round island, which seemed to consist of white sand. The weather being cloudy, I could get no observation. At one o'clock we were off Cape Israel.
As the weather was fair, and the wind due north and steady, though little. of it, my Rais said that we had better stretch over to Azab, than run along the coast in the direction we were now going, because, somewhere between Hodeida and Cape Nummel, there was foul ground, with which he should not like to engage in the night. Nothing could be more agreeable to me. For, though I knew the people of Azab were not to be trusted, yet there were two things I thought I might accomplish, by being on my guard. The one was, to learn what those ruins were that I had heard so much spoken of in Egypt and at Jidda, and which are supposed to have been works of the Queen of Sheba, whose country this was. The other was, to obtain the myrrh and frankincense-tree, which grow upon that coast only, but neither of which had as yet been described by any author.
At four o'clock we passed a dangerous shoal, which is the one I suppose our Rais was afraid of. If so, he could not have adopted a worse measure, than by stretching over from Cape Israel to Azab in the night; for, had the wind come westerly, as it soon after did, we should have probably been on the bank; as it was, we passed it something less than a mile, the wind was north, and we were going at a great rate. At sun-set we saw Jibbel Zekir, with three small
islands,
