A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the Years 1808 and 1809. James Justinian Morier
set
With cupola or minaret,
Wild crests as pagod ever deck’d
Or mosque of eastern architect.
Lady of the Lake, Canto I. xi. p. 14.
Cape Posmee. Drawn by James Morier Esqr. Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Paternoster Row, May 1, 1811.
One piece of land in particular, forming an entrance to the bay behind Cape Guadel, has the most striking resemblance to a long range of gothic ruin. We perceived three camels grazing on the heights of the cape, and some few signs of cultivation, which we had discovered on no other spot along the coast before.
On the 3d. we saw the town of Chubar; and plainly distinguished among other objects a walled building, which we at first took to be a fort, but which according to the Directory, is a place of burial. We saw several boats with lateen sails, of a canvas very conspicuously white, cut exactly like the sails of the boats on the coast of Italy and Sicily. The thermometer was 84°. The 5th. was very sultry, and the thermometer was 90°. On the 6th. a hot wind came from off the land, and warped the tables, mathematical rulers, and the furniture in the cabin, besides slackening all our rigging. This wind brought with it a thick mist of an impalpable sand, which gradually cleared away, and left us the first view of Cape Jasques.
Oct. 7th. at about one o’clock in the morning, a breeze sprung up from the southward, and in five hours we had passed the Quoins, in the Gulph of Persia, and were abreast of the island of Kishmis. We saw at the same time the high land of the Arabian shore, terminating in a lofty and marked peak; it is the land about Cape Musseldom. The entrance of the gulph may be properly marked between Cape Bombareek and Cape Musseldom. I call these places by their names, as laid down in our sea charts; because their more proper appellations would probably not be understood. Bombareek for instance, which by sailors is also called Bombay rock, is derived originally from “Moobarek, happy, fortunate.” Musseldom is still a stronger instance of the perversion of words. The genuine name of this head-land is Mama Selemeh, derived according to the story of the country from Selemeh, who was a female saint of Arabia, and lived on the spot or in its neighbourhood. The Indians, when they pass the promontory, throw cocoa nuts, fruits or flowers into the sea, to secure a propitious voyage. My informer added, that the superstition was not practised by the Persians.
On the shore of Cape Bombareek is an insulated and very singular mass of rock, in which we could perceive from the ship a large natural aperture. To me the shape of the whole mass appeared like a tankard, and the aperture formed its handle. After having rounded Cape Musseldom (which is eighteen leagues to the westward of Bombareek), we came to the five small islands generally called altogether the Quoins.
Kishmis is the largest island in the gulph; and, according to the account which I received, is capable of being made very productive: it is at present in almost total abandonment, though still nominally the property of Persia. We next passed two small and low islands, called the Great and Little Tomb.
Cape Museldom. Drawn by James Morier Esqr. Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Paternoster Row, May 1, 1811.
The strong south wind, with which we were now favoured, was at this season considered extraordinary. It blew so strong that the Nereide, with every sail set, went ten and eleven knots. It is accompanied with much haze, not indeed to be compared to that which came with the hot wind from off the shore, though in the same manner it warped the furniture and slackened the rigging.
On the 8th. we passed the island of Busheab, which, in Heather’s map, is placed much too far to the eastward, and which ought to be called “Khoshaub, or pleasant water,” from the fresh spring in its territory. It is a long and low slip, but the land on the continent behind it is extremely high. We had a light sea breeze all day, that carried us off Cape Nabon, a part of the province of Farz. The thermometer stood at 93° in the cabin after dinner. On the morning of the 9th. it was reported that a fleet of five ships were seen from the mast-head. We conjectured that they might be Arab ships, bound from Muscat to Bussorah, which about this season proceed on their voyages. They carry thither annually eight thousand bales of coffee; and in return get cargoes of dates. The sea breeze of the day was extremely light, and set in at noon. In the evening the Barnhill, a remarkable piece of land, (which derived its name from its resemblance to an old and decayed thatched building, and which is situated over the town of Congoon,) bore N. and by W. of us. Here the whole coast is very high.
On the morning of the 10th. we were off the Barnhill. The five ships had thus far kept us in a state of suspense; as we imagined that they might be the fleet of the Imaum of Muscat, who possesses thirty sail of different descriptions. Some of his ships, indeed, are of a thousand tons burthen; and one of forty guns, built at Bombay, is rather a formidable vessel.10 The Imaum in person frequently parades about the Persian gulph with his armament. He is an independant prince, and his jurisdiction, though principally confined to Muscat, extends yet generally over the province of Oman. At present he is friendly to us, and we have a resident at his court, who seldom remains there long, for the badness of its air has rendered it the burial place of too many Englishmen.
At length we boarded the Arabs, and they proved to be, as we had originally expected, a fleet of the Imaum’s merchantmen, laden with coffee, rice, &c. bound to Bushire and Bussorah. They had been fifteen days from Muscat. One of the five was a fine vessel of six hundred tons burthen, which about four years before was purchased by the Imaum at the Isle of France, and was then called the Sterling Castle. There were also two grabs, which are ships in every respect like the others, except that they have lengthened prows instead of rounded bows. These grabs the Arabs can manage to build themselves in their own ports, as it is easy to extend the timbers of a ship, until they connect themselves into a prow; but they have not yet attained the art of forming timber fit to construct bows.
Before the sun-set of the preceding day, we had discovered through our glasses, the town of Congoon, under a peak, close in the eastern vicinity of the Barnhill. It then appeared in a wood of dates, above which rose the domes of mosques. The Sheik of Congoon is represented as a young and spirited Arab, who can raise a body of two thousand cavalry, and who is able to lead them. His town is resorted to for wood, but, as far as we could judge at a distance, the date is the only tree of the neighbourhood.
We suffered much from the heat in the night, but when the moon rose over the Barnhill, a little refreshing breeze sprang up, which gave us much relief. An Arab ship was not far from us, and I could just hear their singing on board. It brought to my recollection some of the moonlight scenes in the Archipelago; for the music of these Arabs struck me as being very similar to that which I have heard on board a Greek or Sclavonian ship, when the lyra accompanies the voice of some naval Apollo, and is followed by a chorus of his shipmates.
We were off Cape Verdistan this morning, and descried the Hummocks of Kenn. The shoal that runs out from Cape Verdistan, is rendered dangerous by a reef of rocks which extends itself about six or seven miles from the shore. There are good mud soundings on the shoal, and a ship may cross its extremity without danger, though it is as well to give it a good birth. We stood off in the night of the 12th. The soundings in the shoal as laid down by Mac Cluer are not all correspondent to those which we got. We were in seven fathoms for more than an hour, and he has not got such a sounding amongst his. From seven we got to half six, and then to four, when we thought it time to tack. The cause which has been assigned for our ignorance of the gulph, is the prudential reserve which has influenced our Indian governments in their transactions with the states of Persia and Arabia. To avoid suspicion and complaint,