Page 659 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

GULF OF PERSIA. 615

indigo, vice, sugar, British piece goods, and country chintz from Ben­
gal and the Coromandel Coast; and though I have not now sufficiently
correct data, I believe at one time the exports from British India to
the Gulf were little short of eighty or ninety lakhs of rupees. As the
place gets settled, this trade will revive. About fifteen hundred to
two thousand five hundred African slaves are brought into the Gulf
every year by the way of Muskat, besides which I believe two or three
hundred girls arc brought from the Malabar Coast, Kutch, and even
Bombay—at least I have frequently been told so by Arabs and others.
A great portion of these arc children.
Fruits are in their seasons very plentiful at the head of the Gulf,
particularly on the banks of the Euphrates, and at Bushirc : they
consist of nectarines, peaches, apricots, apples, pears, grapes of various
sorts, plums, melons, quinces, and many others ; carrots, turnips, occa­
sionally cabbages, beet, and various sallads, are also to be had in season ;
onions, cucumbers, and the usual native vegetables. The meat on the
Arabian Coast is mostly good ; on the Persian Coast only occasionally
so, and it is also dear. The poultry at the head of the Gulf is very
large and fine ; low down very indifferent. Fish in all parts plentiful,
and excellent.

WITHOUT TI1E GULF.—PERSIAN COAST FROM ORMUS
TO RAS OR CAPE JASK.
Leaving the eastern anchorage of Ormus, course E. by S., along shore,
in soundings from ten to five and six fathoms, with the mouth of the
Minnow river bearing true NE. The coast from Ormus to this place
is long and jungly, with creeks and swamps, and a flat running off
a mile and a half.
Minnae Fort.
Minnae Fort is situated on a hill fifteen miles inland, and the custom
house, up to which native boats of fifteen or twenty tons go, is seven
miles up the river. The eastern point of the entrance is in lat. 27° G'
4S" N., long. 56° 47' 10" E. This is a place of some trade, particularly
in grain, and dried fruits from Kermaunshaw. Some large boats load
off the entrance of the river, but most of the produce is sent to Bunder
Abbas in smaller boats, and shipped off from thence. The port is
under the Imaum of Muskat. Minnow itself is a large place, and
though only fifteen miles in a line inland, is nearly thirty by the
winding of the river; and this, from the circumstance of the boats being
obliged to come down with the tide, corroborates Patra de la Valles*
account, in 1621, of its being two days* journey from the sea. This is