_ 163 _ When I saw that the Commander did not want to give in, but was still determined to go to Jidda, I requested him to send me with the caravel and the nau “Ferros” and I pledged myself to get to an island called Massawa which is as near to the land of Prester John as is Almada to Lisbon. I estimate less than a league. The port for this land of Prester John I spoke of is known as Arkik. Its governor is Cristao Jacobita and the said country is full of monks. The entire trade of Dahlak and Massawa takes place in Arkik. The merchants take their goods there in batels in the morning and stay there till the hour of vespers. They then return to the said island to sleep. The Commander answered me that he did not dare part with a single nau because he was afraid of the Turks might come searching for him. It is a day’s journey from Dahlak to Massawa and the land is overflowing with cattle, wheat, honey, butter and many other foodstuffs, despite the fact that everything comes from the land of Prester John. Item 33: Canacani is an island this shape and completely surrounded by sea and by the mainland. It has many cisterns in which rainwater is collected. It has a well on the mainland at a canon’s shot’s distance from the sea-shore. Round about the island there are numerous Bedouins.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy