Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 2.1.1

2.1.1

THE desire of seeing the world, which had induced me to visit Palestine and Egypt, still prompted me to extend my travels, and I formed the design of exploring the Red Sea from one end to the other. In pursuance of this plan, I quitted Grand Cairo, where I had resided more than a year, and in two-and-thirty hours (travelling at a Caravan-rate) reached the town of Suez. Here I embarked in a galley, and was conveyed in seventeen days, always hugging the coast, from Suez to the port of Gidda, half a day's journey from Mecca. Contrary to my expectation, and in violation of a promise which I had received from the Beig of the Red Sea, I was constrained to land on this so-called holy territory of Mahomet, where no Christian, who is not a slave, dares set his foot. After a detention of nearly five weeks, I took my passage on board a small vessel, which, sailing along the shores of Arabia Felix, brought me in fifteen days to Moka, near the straits of Bab-el-mandel. It was now my intention to pass over to the island of Masotva, and Arkiko, on my way to Gonder, the capital of Habech, or Kingdom of Ethiopia; but I was informed that Catholics were not safe in that country, since the period when, through the intrigues of the Queen-Mother, the Portuguese were slaughtered, or expelled, with the Jesuit Patriarch whom they had brought thither from Goa; and that, in fact, an unhappy Capuchin had been recently beheaded at Suaken, for having attempted to enter the kingdom.