[ Page 6 ]
[ Page 6 ]
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map placed at the beginning of this book without saying more here. The Jarri river,[1] which bounds this Kingdom on the Eastern side, has much of its course contained & more so, coming from certain mountains by those of Salices, it is extremely rapid passing through high mountainous & broken country. It does not trouble at all passing three leagues approaching its source. Its banks are high & straight full of hard rocks, it does not however cease to be navigable, mainly on the descent, but on the way up there is much difficulty. It enters the Indian Ocean some nine leagues from the entrance of the gulf by two mouths forming in the middle an island of some five and a half leagues, its course forms a triangular-shaped. The river Bashir limits this Kingdom to the West, just as the river Jarri does to the east, & on the contrary to the other is calm & slow, making several marshes, lakes & swamps with many meadows on those banks which are of little use for pastures. It's navigable almost to the source with large sailing boats. Its course is equal to the other, itself also discharging into the Indian Ocean at a similar distance of sixty-eight leagues by two |
| 1. The author names four principal rivers of Antangil namely, the Jarri, the Bashir, the Patigi, and the Alagir. Compare these to the four rivers of the Garden of Eden named in biblical sources, the Pishon, the Gihon, the Heddekel identified by Biblical scholars as the Tigris and the Phrath also identified by scholars as the Euphrates. Note that one biblical source that mention both the Tigris and the Pishon is the apocryphal Jewish work the Book of Sirach. Notice the similarity of the name of this river with the a mountain range described in Antangil that reads as follows, "high mountains always full of snow, called Sarich, inhabited by very barbarous & cruel people..." [SEE page 2]. |