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They have no villages, and live a very hard and miserably wandering life; but their country extends almost as far as Aden and Judda on the coast of Yaman, or Arabia the happy. From Judda, it stretches up into the continent, as far as the coast of Syria, and ends at Kolzum.
The west side of it was in their time nearly deserted by merchant ships; those from the Persian Gulf sailed to Judda on the Arabian coast of it: here were always found many small coasting vessels, by means of which the goods from India, Persia, &c. were conveyed to Cairo.
When the Siraff ships arrive in the Red Sea, they go no farther than Judda, whence their cargo is transported to Cairo, or Kahira by ships of Kolsum, the pilots of which are acquainted with the navigation of the upper end of this sea, which is full of rocks up to the water's edge; because, also, along the coast there are no kings , and scarcely any inhabitants; and because, every night ships are obliged to put into some place for safety, for fear of striking on the rocks, or must ride all night at anchor, sailing only in the day-time.
The Red Sea, washed on one side by Asia, and on the other by Africa, seems the natural transit, from this consideration, of the commerce of the former quarter of the globe to that of the latter. Its commerce is carried on by the Arabians, and by vessels from Hindostan: Mocha and Judda are its principal ports.
It is true that Lopez Suarez, when governor of India, had navigated the Red Sea, as far as Judda, the haven of Mecca, in lat. 23° N. 150 leagues from the straits of Babelmandel; but Gama penetrated to the very northern extremity of the gulph . In the same year, Diego de Almagro killed the Marquis Francis Pizarro, and his brother Francis Martinez de Alcantara, in the city of Lima, or de los Reyes, and usurped the government of Peru.
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