Page 649 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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GULF OF PERSIA.

Ormus.
Ormus was an island formerly the grand emporium of the Portuguese
commerce and power in the Gulf of Persia and Coast of Arabia. The
fort, built by the Portuguese, is in lat. 27° o' 55" N., long. 56° 29' 5" E.
It is a barren rocky island, covered with salt, except the north-east part,
which is low and sandy, It has no water, except what is saved in
reservoirs during the rains, There arc a number of these reservoirs in
good repair, and the ruins of some hundreds, which show what the
place has been. The old Portuguese lighthouse is still standing, though
fast falling to decay. Large quantities of salt are exported from this
island to all parts of the Gulf, and Coasts of Arabia; the Imaum of
Muskat, to whom it belongs, keeps a garrison of about one hundred men
in the fort. There are about four hundred inhabitants, mostly employed
in the salt trade, and as fishermen; they are strict Mahomedans. There
is good anchorage to the eastward of the fort in a north-wester, and to
the westward in a south-easter.
Island of Kisii.m.
The island of Kishm (Jazcerat Towilc of the Arabs, Jazeerat Dras
of the Persians, and the Oaracta of Arrian) was visited by Nearchus in
his voyage from the Indus to the Euphrates. Arrian states that at that
time it produced abundance of corn, vines, and fruit of all descriptions.
The Greeks, with their usual superstition, stated the tomb of the first
monarch of the island, named Erythras, was then in existence, and from
which they named the Gulf the Erylhrian Sea. The island is fifty-four
miles long, and thirty-two wide in the broadest part, and nine in the
narrowest. Before the pirates became so powerful, it had about seventy
small towns and villages, and a population of about twenty thousand
inhabitants. A very great part of these were weavers ; others cultivated
the soil; and others were fishermen. Most of these were destroyed, or
obliged to seek shelter elsewhere, during the time the pirates were in
power : many are now returning ; but the island will never be what it is
said to have been again. It belongs to the Imaum of Muskat.

Goree.
Goree is a small village, producing a few dates, vegetables, and other
supplies, about five miles from Bassadore.

Drakoon.
Drakoon is a similar village, about a mile and three quarters above
Goree.
Point Nakoona.
Point Nakoona is a small projecting point, about a mile past Dark oon.