DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0118
92 TRAVELS IN UPPER
what importance is it, after all, to make an exact
division of those sandy heaps, those immense
blanks on the habitable globe, and which no na-
tion can have an interest to parcel out, as no man
can possibly convert them into a habitation ?
But if those shores present nothing attractive to
commerce or to curiosity, they oppose tremendous
risks to navigation. Scarcely raised above the level
of the sea, they are not perceptible at any distance.
A vessel with this coast on her lee, under a wind
blowing in-shore, in that prodigious bay laid down
in our geographical charts under the name of the
Gulf of the Arabs, has no shelter to expect ; no
port, no road opens to her a safe retreat; and if it
be impossible for her to brave the impetuosity of
the winds and waves which are driving her toward
the land, she must be lost. There is no confidence
to be placed in the assertion of certain Arabs who
indicated to me, in the gulf which bears theiu
narae, three ports, one of which they represented
as affording excellent anchorage, and which they
called Port SoUman. It would be madness in na-
vigators to expose themselves, on the faith of in-
formation so very problematical; and on the sup-
position that they might, in reality, have the good
fortune, in desperate situations, to find some re-
fuge there, they would run an incredible risk, un-
less their ships were better armed than most of
those
what importance is it, after all, to make an exact
division of those sandy heaps, those immense
blanks on the habitable globe, and which no na-
tion can have an interest to parcel out, as no man
can possibly convert them into a habitation ?
But if those shores present nothing attractive to
commerce or to curiosity, they oppose tremendous
risks to navigation. Scarcely raised above the level
of the sea, they are not perceptible at any distance.
A vessel with this coast on her lee, under a wind
blowing in-shore, in that prodigious bay laid down
in our geographical charts under the name of the
Gulf of the Arabs, has no shelter to expect ; no
port, no road opens to her a safe retreat; and if it
be impossible for her to brave the impetuosity of
the winds and waves which are driving her toward
the land, she must be lost. There is no confidence
to be placed in the assertion of certain Arabs who
indicated to me, in the gulf which bears theiu
narae, three ports, one of which they represented
as affording excellent anchorage, and which they
called Port SoUman. It would be madness in na-
vigators to expose themselves, on the faith of in-
formation so very problematical; and on the sup-
position that they might, in reality, have the good
fortune, in desperate situations, to find some re-
fuge there, they would run an incredible risk, un-
less their ships were better armed than most of
those