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We know that 'Egra' is the name of a town in the interior, and it was the constant habit to call the port after the capital of the country, e.g., Arabia Emporium = Aden. We have now only to inquire whether El-Wijh had claims to be considered the seaport of El-Hijr." This difficulty is easily settled.
The objections to El-Wijh are two, both equally invalid. The port is dangerous, especially when westerly winds are blowing: ships during the pilgrimage-season must bank their fires, ever ready to run out. True; but it has been shown that Sharm Dumayghah, the best of its kind, lies only thirty knots to the north. The second, want of water, or of good water, is even less cogent.
El-Wijh is still the main, indeed the only, harbour in South Midian; and, during our stay there, a large caravan brought goods, as will be seen, from the upper Wady Hamz. Under the influence of the quarantine, El-Wijh, the town on the northern bank of its cove, has blossomed into a hauteville, dating from the last dozen years.
The site, they said, is a branch of the Wady Azlam, the first of the three marches between Ziba and El-Wijh, and seven and a half hours' sail along the coast. He made it six hours' march from the seaboard. We will return to this subject when steaming down coast.
They brought back specimens of civilized architecture; and these at once determined one of the objectives of our next journey. The party returned to El-Wijh on the next day, in the highest of spirits, after a successful trip of more than fifty miles.
We returned along the shore to embark; and, shortly after noon, the old corvette of Crimean date again swung round on her heel, and resumed her wanderings, this time northwards. The run of eighteen hours and fifteen minutes was semicircular, but the sea had subsided to a dead calm. The return to El-Wijh felt like being restored to civilization; we actually had a salad of radish leaves delicious!
Far beyond its right bank rose an Ash'hab, or "grey head," which seemed to promise quartzose granite: it will prove an important feature. Before sleeping, I despatched to El-Wijh two boxes of micaceous schist and two bags of quartz, loads for a pair of camels.
The log showed a total of 102 miles between the Sharms Yaharr and El-Wijh, or 107 from the latter to El-Muwaylah. "El-Wijh," meaning the face, a word which the Egyptian Fellah perverts to "Wish," lies in north lat. 26 14'. It is the northernmost of the townlets on the West Arabian shore, which gain importance as you go south; e.g., Yamba', Jeddah, Mocha, and Aden.
During the cotton-full in Egypt, and the cotton-famine of the United States, they fetched as many pounds sterling at the frontier; and the traders of El-Wijh own to having made two hundred per cent., which we may safely double.
"We noticed three dark volcanic summits, very distinguishable from the land. The lava that had streamed from them forms a sort of island in the plain." Again there were preliminaries to be settled before we could leave El-Wijh for the interior. Shaykh Mohammed 'Afnan had been marrying his son; and the tale of camels came in slowly enough.
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