Page 143 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

European Accounts of Muscat 133
mariners in Arabia, sending 50 trankis, sewed together
without nails, to Basra to carry coffee. The country produces
cheese, barley, lentils, grapes and exports many ship-loads of
dates annually. Europeans pay 5% on imports, Muslims 6$%,
Jews and Banians 7% while Omanis pay 6% on exports of
dates. There are more Banians than elsewhere in Arabia, at
least 1,200 who bring their own wives, set up idols in their
rooms and bum their dead. The Imam maintains a firm and
just rule with the aid of well-paid and disciplined Kaffir slaves
and as a result goods can be safely left on the streets and
people do not lock their doors.
1770(?) RAYNAL, Abb6 G. T. F., Philosophy and History of the
settlements of the Europeans in the East and West Indies,
London, 1813, i, 422. The city sank into obscurity but revived
under stable government from 1744. The main imports are
rice, blue linens, iron, lead, sugar and small amounts of spices.
It exports myrrh, incense, gum-arabic and silver. It is hardly
enough to bring traders but is quicker than Basra and the
British pay \\% at Muscat instead of 5% at Basra.
1775 PARSONS, Abraham, Travels in Asia and Africa, London,
1808, 205-11. He visited in August in H.M.S. Seahorse,
amongst whose officers was Midshipman Horatio Nelson. I
have checked published versions of Nelson’s letters but found
no reference to Muscat. Parsons says that the temperature
was 112 degrees. Muscat appeared a place of great trade and
did not have enough warehouses so that goods lay in the
streets but were never stolen. Caravans from the interior
brought ostrich feathers, hides, sheep, lamb-skins, honey,
becs-wax and took back British and Indian goods, toys,
cutlery, pepper, ginger, rice, tobacco, coffee and sugar. There
was great trade with Mokha and Muscat sailors took 20,000
bales of coffee a year from there to Basra from where they
went overland to Constantinople. In return they brought
Persian silks and carpets, pearls and great sums of dollars and
Venetian zechins. The mangoes were better than those of
India and 2,000 can be brought for 2 rupees. Water is brought
on board by boats which are loaded from skins as the ground
is too rocky to roll casks: this is a bad system as the sea
washes into the fresh water. Fish are caught by a man who
sits naked on catamarans, which are three logs of wood about
nine feet long fastened together; in the front is his basket full
of fish and as he paddles he keeps both them and himself
cool. Muscat is usually at war with Persia and Parsons saw 34
warships about to sail to relieve Basra which was being
besieged.
1779 CAPPER, James, Observations on the Passage to India,
London, 1785, 247. Capper was fired upon for trying to land
after sunset. There were several batteries on the water’s edge