the wall, the ladders broke under the weight of the multitudes who pressed to get up; so that Albuquerque was obliged to order down those who had already ascended, by means of a single ladder constructed out of the broken fragments of the rest.  Thus, after four hours engagement, the Portuguese were forced to desist from the attack with some loss, occasioned more by the insufficiency of the ladders than by the prowess of the enemy.  George Sylveyra and five men were killed on the spot, but several others died afterwards of their wounds, and some from bruises occasioned by falling from the walls and ladders.  Submitting to his bad fortune, and by the persuasion of his officers, Albuquerque resolved to abandon this enterprise, that he might have sufficient time remaining to sail for the month of the Red Sea.  But before leaving Aden, he took a redoubt or bulwark which defended the entrance into the harbour, where a great many Moors, or Arabs rather, were slain, and 37 pieces of cannon taken.  Having plundered the ships in the harbour, they were all burnt; and on the fourth day after arriving at Aden, the fleet set sail for the mouth of the Red Sea, on their arrival at which great rejoicings were made by Albuquerque and the Portuguese, as being the first Europeans who had ever navigated that celebrated sea.

The form of the Red Sea is not unlike that of a crocodile, having its mouth at the narrow Straits of Mecca or Babelmandeb, the head being that sea which lies between Cape Guardafu and Fartaque, and the extremity of the tail at the town of Suez.  Its general direction is from N.N.W. to S.S.E. being 530 leagues long, and 40 over where broadest[132].  The channel for navigation is about the middle, where it has sufficient depth of water for the largest ships, but both sides are very shallow, and much encumbered by sand banks and numerous small islands.  No river of any note falls into it during its whole extent.  It is called by the Moors or Arabs, Bahar Corzu or the Closed Sea, and by others the Sea of Mecca; but by Europeans the Arabian Gulf or the Red Sea, owing to the red colour it derives from its bottom, as was proved by a subsequent viceroy, Don Juan de Castro, who caused some of the bottom to be dragged up in several places, when it was found to consist of a red coralline substance; while in other places the bottom was green, and white in some, but mostly red.  The water itself, when taken up, is as clear as in any other part of the sea.  The Red Sea does not abound in fish, but it produces small pearls in many places.  The mouth of the Red Sea, called the Straits of Mecca or of Bab-al-mandeb, is in lat. 12 deg. 40’ N. and is as it were locked up by seven small islands, the largest of which, now Mehun, was called by Ptolemy Perantonomasiam.  On going from the straits towards Suez along the eastern or Arabian shore, there are only a few small ports of no note for the first 44 leagues, till we come to the island