Page 63 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

24 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [CH

make the best of their way to either Mocha
or Hedeidha, when they exchange the bullion

received as passage money from the pilgrims
for coffee, and manage to quit the Red Sea

at the beginning or middle of the month of
May, so as to avoid the first burst of the

south-west monsoon. The coffee brought
hither is then disposed of, and that which

is not required for the consumption of the
people in the town, or for sale to the

Bedowins of the neighbouring provinces, is

shipped off in smaller boats to Bahrain,
Basarah, and the southern parts of the Per­
sian Gulf. Formerly the trade to Basarah

was very extensive, Syria being almost ex­

clusively supplied through this channel, but
the importation of West Indian coffee into

the Levant has now almost exclusively sup­
planted that from Mocha.

At Maskat the coffee trade is in the hands
of the Banians, and is said to be very lucra­

tive. The pearl fisheries in the Persian Gulf
are estimated at forty lacs annually, and

nearly two-thirds of that produce are brought
hither in small boats, and from thence

conveyed to Bombay in ships or bagalas.