God forgive those who have taken upon them, very lately, to ingraft a number of new soundings upon that miserable bundle of errors, that Chart of the upper part of the Gulf from Jidda to Mocha, which has been tossed about the Red Sea these twenty years and upwards. One of these, since my return to Europe, has been sent to me new dressed like a bride, with all its original and mortal sins upon its head. I would beg leave to be understood, that there is not in the world a man more averse than I am to give offence even to a child. It is not in the spirit of criticism I speak this. In any other case, I would not have made any observations at all. But, where the lives and properties of so many are at stake yearly, it is a species of treason to conceal one’s sentiments, if the publishing of them can any way contribute to safety, whatever offence it may give to unreasonable individuals.
Of all the vessels in Jidda, two only had their log lines properly divided, and yet all were so fond of their supposed accuracy, as to aver they had kept their course within five leagues, between India and Babelmandeb. Yet they had made no estimation of the currents without the [187]Babs, nor the different very strong ones soon after passing Socotra; their half-minute glasses upon a medium ran 57´´; they had made no observation on the tides or currents in the Red Sea, either in the channel or in the inward passage; yet there is delineated in this map a course of Captain Newland’s, which he kept in the middle of the channel, full of sharp angles and short stretches; you would think every yard was measured and sounded.
To the spurious catalogue of soundings found in the old chart above mentioned, there is added a double proportion of new, from what authority is not known; so that from Mocha, to lat. 17° you have as it were soundings every mile, or even less. No one can cast his eyes on the upper part of the map, but must think the Red Sea one of the most frequented places in the world. Yet I will aver, without fear of being contradicted, that it is a characteristic of the Red Sea, scarce to have soundings in any part of the channel, and often on both sides, whilst ashore soundings are hardly found a boat-length from the main. To this I will add, that there is scarce one island upon which I ever was, where the boltsprit was not over the land, while there were no soundings by a line heaved over the stern. I must then protect against making these old most erroneous maps a foundation for new ones, as they can be of no use, but must be of detriment. Many good seamen of knowledge and enterprise have been in that sea, within these few years. Let them say, candidly, what were their instruments, what their difficulties were, where they had doubts, where they succeeded, and where they were disappointed? Were these acknowledged by one, they would be speedily taken up by others, and rectified by the help of mathematicians and good observers on shore.