[Footnote 313:  Don Juan entirely mistakes this point of antiquity, in consequence of not having learnt that there was another and eastern gulf at the head of the Red Sea; the Bahr-akkaba or real Sinus Elaniticus, on which is the town of Ayla, assuredly the ancient Elana or Aylan.—­E.]

[Footnote 314:  If this observation be exact, the great promontory or peninsula between the gulfs at the head of the Red Sea must be extended too far south in the map constructed by Dr Pocock.—­Ast.]

[Footnote 315:  Had Don Juan de Castro been acquainted with the eastern gulf at the head of the Red Sea, called the Bahr-akkaba, he would have more readily chosen Ayla for the seat of Ailan, and the dock-yard of the navy of Solomon, being at the inwardest part of the Red Sea, and the port nearest to Gaza.  Besides, the portion of the text marked with inverted commas, seems a quotation by Don Juan from Strabo, which distinctly indicates the eastern or Elanitic Gulf, and points to Ayla as the seat of Elana and Ailan, and distinctly marks the other or western gulf, now that of Suez.—­E.]

“As this is a point of great moment in geography, it deserves to be examined[316].  It is observable that Don Juan admits that both Ptolemy and Strabo make the Red Sea terminate to the north in two large gulfs, one towards Egypt and the other towards Arabia, at the end of which latter they place Elana.  Yet here he rejects the authority of both geographers, alleging that both were mistaken, because Tor is situated on a very long and straight coast.  He likewise cites Ptolomy as making the latitude of Elana 29 deg.15’ N.[317] yet accounts the difference between that position and the altitude found at Al Tor, 20 deg.10’, as of no significance here, though in former instances he had held the tables of Ptolomy as infallible.  It is still stranger that Don Juan should after all admit of a gulf of Elana, as will be seen presently, and yet place it at a great distance, and at the opposite side of the sea from that on which Elana stands.  However this may be, it is certain that Don Juan, and not the ancients, has been misinformed on this matter; for not only the Arab geographers give a particular account of this eastern gulf, as will appear from the description of the Red Sea by Abulfeda, but its existence has been proved, by two English travellers, Dr Shaw and Dr Pocock.  The errors which Don Juan has here fallen into, has been owing to not having examined the coast on the side of Arabia; for until the fleet came to the island of Sheduam, it had sailed entirely along the African shore; and then, leaving the north part of that island, it passed over to the coast of Arabia[318] for the first time, where it may be presumed that they fell in with the land some way to the north of the S.W. point of the great peninsula between the two gulfs.  This cape in the maps by De L’Isle and Dr Pocock is called