A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the Years 1808 and 1809. James Justinian Morier
thus separated from each other by alternate ranges of higher land. The plain of Merdasht, beyond Shiraz, is the Hollow Persis of ancient geography. These great inequalities of surface naturally produce a corresponding variety of climates.
The administration of the provinces of Persia is now committed to the Princes. The jurisdiction of Prince Hossein Ali Mirza, one of the King’s Sons, is very extensive: it comprises, under the general name of Farsistan, not only the original province of which Shiraz was the capital (as subsequently it became that of all Persia, and as it still is of the governments combined under the Prince) but Laristan also, to the south; and Bebehan to the north-west; which severally, as well as Farsistan, possessed before their particular Beglerbegs.
Of Farsistan, under this its present more extensive signification, the hot and desert country is called the Germesir, a generic term for a warm region, which will be recognised under the ancient appellations of Germania, Kermania, or Carmania. The termination of the Persian dominion in this direction, is an undefined tract between the Germesir and the Mekran. It was the ancient boast of Persia, that its boundaries were not a petty stream or an imaginary line, but ranges of impervious mountains or deserts as impervious. In this quarter there is little probability that the country will ever become less valuable as a frontier, by becoming more cultivated and better inhabited. The land is put to so little use, that no power would greatly care to press the extension of an authority so unprofitable. Every age has marked the unalterable barbarism of the soil and of the people. The Balouchistan, or the country of the Balouches, the most desert region of the coast begins about Minou, on the west of Cape Jasques. Their country is perhaps nearly the Mekran of geography. They once owned subjection to Persia, but they have now resumed the independance of Arabs, and live in wandering communities under the government of their own Sheiks, of whom two are pre-eminent. They have indeed still some little commercial connexion with Persia, and occasionally a Balouche is to be seen in Bushire selling his scanty wares, mostly the mats of their own manufacture. One of their Sheiks lives at Guadel on the coast of Mekran; but in the interior, according to the account given by a Balouche to Captain Salter, there is a very potent king, though I cannot add from the same authority, whether he is of their own extraction. They live in continual wars with each other; or let themselves out to the different small powers in the gulph as soldiers. Many of the guards of the Sheik of Bushire are Balouches; and the Seapoys also on board the Arab ships are of the same tribes.
In religion they are Mahomedans; and like all those of India, are Sunnis: but they have few means of preserving the genuineness of any profession of faith; and their ignorance has already confounded their tenets with those of a very different original. The same common barbarism has indeed blended the Affghan, the Seik, and the Balouche into one class: there may be among them some beard or whisker more or less, some animal or food which they hold unclean above all others, some indescribable difference of opinion which severs them from their neighbours, but in savageness they are all identified. Those on the coast still live almost exclusively on fish, as in the days of Nearchus; though I am told they no longer build their houses with the bones. The grampus (possibly, the whale of Arrian) is still numerous on the shores. The Envoy remembered to have seen at Bushire on a former occasion, a dog of an immense size, which a Balouche had given to Mr. Galley, the Resident at that time: the man added, that the mountains towards his country were all very high. His dog seemed to confirm the assertion, for he was defended against the cold of his native region, by a coat of thick and tufted hair.
Though the Balouches scarcely advance within the gulph, yet the native Persians do not fully occupy their own shores. The coast still retains a great proportion of Arab families. The Dashtistan, which extends from Cape Bang to the plain of Bushire, was till lately governed by them. The district of Dasti, also along the coast from Bushire to below Congoon, still remains under their rule: and the Arab Sheik of Congoon in the adjoining territory, possesses a kind of independance.
At Tauhree, (or Tahrie) a port just below Congoon, are extensive ruins and sculptures, with the Persepolitan character. The landmarks for the entrance of the harbour are two large white spots, on the summit of a mountain, which the people of the country affirm to have been made by the hand of man; and which, on the same traditional authority, are said to have been formerly covered with glass. The reflection thus produced by the sun’s rays, rendered the object visible to a great distance at sea, and guided the navigator in safety into the road. Some of the glass is said to remain at this day. Among the ruins of the city are two wells pierced to a great depth; and stabling for a hundred horses excavated from the solid rock: the existence of these remains, I understand, Mr. B—k of the E. I. Company’s service ascertained himself.
At Kharrack, a place still further in the progress down the Gulph, between Cape Sertes and Cape Bustion, is a town which was once in the possession of the Danes; and it is singular that the people who claim a Danish blood are still very fair complexioned, and have light red hair, which may confirm their traditional accounts of their origin. The same nation had also an establishment in a deep bay near Musseldom; and the fort exists to this day. On Cape Bustion there is a mine of copper, which was formerly worked by the Portuguese: they built also a fort there, which still exists, but the mine is no longer worked, and indeed is almost forgotten. Some years ago, Mr. Bruce, the Assistant Resident at Bushire, was a prisoner among the Arabs on this part of the coast. He was told, that immediately behind the range of mountains which lines their shore, there was a river that came from near Shiraz, and run down to Gombroon; this is, probably, the Bend-emir, which, according to other accounts, is traced indeed towards Gombroon, but there expends itself in the sands. Khoresser is the name of a small river which falls into the sea nearly under the Asses Ears; and on the banks of which is situated the town of Tangistoun. At the mouth of this river is a small island, formed by the sands brought down; which adapts this situation to Arrian’s account of Hieratemis. At the place marked by Dr. Vincent as Podargus there is now no torrent: but I learn from Dr. Jukes and Mr. Bruce, that at Harem, situated thirty miles inland on the declivity of the mountains to the eastward, there is a water which finds its way to the sea, and may, perhaps, accord with the position required.
The islands in the Gulph of Persia retain little of their political celebrity. Ormus (ever the most barren, its soil being composed of salt and sulphur) still displays its arched reservoirs, which afford good watering places for vessels, and which are said never to dry up. On the island of Kenn, according to the people of the country, is found, after rain, gold dust in the channels of the torrents. And Bahrein, which is now in the hands of the Wahabees, is still noted for the fresh springs which issue from the earth under the sea, and from which the Arabs contrive to water their ships by placing over the spot a vessel with a syphon attached to it. Captain Skeine, who commanded an Arab ship, told the gentleman (who communicated the circumstances to me), that he had himself drawn the water at the depth of one fathom. The same submarine springs extend along the neighbouring coast of Arabia. Kharrack, which is now the principal watering place on the north of the Gulph, and the island, where the pilots for the Bussorah river are stationed, is perhaps good for few other purposes. The Sheik indeed, though enjoying profound peace, presented memorials to the Sheik of Bushire, representing that his troops and himself were in a state of starvation. Among the duties entrusted by the Government of Shiraz to the Nasakchee Bashee, he was instructed to proceed to Kharrack, to inspect the fortifications, and to report on their capability of defence.
Pearl-Fishery.—There is, perhaps, no place in the world where those things which are esteemed riches among men, abound more than in the Persian gulph. Its bottom is studded with pearls, and its coasts with mines of precious ore. The island of Bahrein, on the Arabian shore, has been considered the most productive bank of the pearl oysters: but the island of Kharrack now shares the reputation. The fishery extends along the whole of the Arabian coast, and to a large proportion of the Persian side of the gulph. Verdistan, Nabon, and Busheab, on that side, are more particularly mentioned; but indeed it is a