Page 70 - History of Portuguese in the Gulf_Neat

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174 APPENDIX A.
The Isle of Barhen stands within the narrow sea of Bacord,
between that port and the Isle of Gerun, or Harmuz, and about a
hundred leagues distant from each of these. It lies close against
the Arabian shore, opposite the port of Katifa, in the province of
Lacah, one of the Turkish possessions in that region. The
people are Arabs, excepting a Persian wazir and gairison.1 It
belongs to the kingdom of Harmuz, but ever since a.d. 1602 the
King of Persia has possessed it by treason.2 The soil is good and
1 Thos. Keridge, in “A note of the ports of Perscia, observed from
Sir Robert Sherley,” dated Oct. 1614 (printed in Letters Received by
t the East India Company, vol. ii), says :—“ Bareyne is an island upon
the coast of Arrabya, 40 leagues off the coast of Perscia. It yields
no profit for commodity, except only the fishing of pearls, which are
esteemed to be the richest and best in the world. This island the
king of Perscia took from the Portingals and keepeth a garrison of
800 horse therein. This place is environed with shoals in such sort
that small fustoes very often run aground and is not navigable
i with vessels of burden” (see also Letters Received, vol. ’
p. 99-)—D. F. »> P- 307, vol. ii,
t ■ * Thos. Boys, writing to Lord Salisbury from “Spahune” on
10th June, 1609, refers to “ the Barren, . . . taken by the King of
Persia some six years past” (Calendar of State Papers, Colonial I the pearls fished up in its sea and thereabouts, which matter I
Series, vol. i, No. 446). Ant. Gouvea, who was in Hormuz shortly after
the seizure of Bahrein by the Persians, gives details of the occurrence
in his Rtlaqafn, Liv. I, cap. v. The guazil of Bahrein, having put to
death a wealthy Moor whose pearls he coveted, was in turn assassi­
! nated by the Moor’s brother, who then seized the fort for the Persians.
The captain of Hormuz, D. Pedro Coutinho, dispatched a fleet
under D. Francisco de Sotomayor to retake the place, the guazil of
Hormuz being sent with a large force to besiege it by land.
i Thereupon, Alaverdi Khdn, governor of Shirdz, sent an army under
Adam Sultdn to lay siege to Gombroon, in order to divert the Portu­
guese from Bahrein. Nevertheless, says Gouvea, the Portuguese
would have recaptured the latter place, had not the Viceroy of India,
Aires de Saldanha, misled by certain persons, replaced Pedro Cou­
tinho by Diogo Moniz Barreto, owing to whose illness and the
sickness among the Portuguese, as well as to the enemy’s being
reinforced, the efforts of Gaspar de Mello de Sampaio to retake
Bahrein were of no avail. In cap. xxii Gouvea relates how, in 1603,
on a rumour that D. Jorge de Castelbranco was coming with a fleet
from India against Bahrein, Alaverdi Khdn again beseiged Gombroon,
and seized the territories of the King of Hormuz. By command of
theShdh, he retired once more to Shirdz, and Bahrein was ordered to
be restored to the Portuguese ; but this order was never fulfilled. In
a letter of 25th Feb., 1605, the King of Spain expresses his fear lest
Bahrein be occupied by the Turks, and commands the Viceroy, if the
place be not restored by the Persians, to make war on it by sea and
land, and also to bribe the captain of the fort to give it up. In sub­
sequent letters the King continues to urge the matter on the attention
of successive Viceroys, the latest printed one (in Doc. Rem., tom. iv)
being of date 21st March, 1617. With the loss of Hormuz, in 1622,
disappeared Portugal’s hopes of regaining Bahrein.—D. F.
0
KINGS OF HORMUZ. '75
fruitful, especially of dates, which are .most abundant. There is
little wheat, but some barley. Rice, the staple food after dates,
is brought from India through Harmuz. There is water in plenty,
rather brackish than sweet. The best is that of Nanydh, the %
name of certain very deep wells in the centre of the isle. The
next is that got from the bottom of the sea, as follows. The
chief town of the isle, Manama, is on the sea shore, and near it,
in the depth of three or three and a-half fathoms, are several
great springs of fresh, clear, and wholesome water. There are
some men who make their living by bringing it up from below in
waterskins, which they do very cleverly and easily, where it bubbles
up, and sell it cheap.1
Certain of the oldest Moors of the isle, with whom I spoke of
this, told me that these springs were once far inland ; but the sea
broke in and overflowed them, as we sec at this day. And I think
it likely that from this the isle took the name of Barhen, which in
Arabic means “the Two Seas” : from bar, meaning sea, and hen,
that is two, namely, the salt and the fresh. Yet it might be
derived from two abundant watercourses which run across the
island, but the first derivation sounds more probable.2
This Isle of Barhen is famous for the number and quality of
shall touch on briefly, as well known. There are in the East two
great fisheries of pearls and seed-pearls,3 namely, this of Barhen,
in the Persian Gulf, and that of Manar. The latter is in India,
in the sea between the Isle of Seylan and that part of the conti­
nent which we call Tuto Kory, or more properly, Tutan Kory,
from the Cape Cory, so-called by the natives, but by us Portu­
guese Comory. Inwards,4 this coast is continuous with that of
Choromandel, or Choro Bandell, which is to say the Port of Rice,
for that much is exported thence.
The fishery of Barhen5 begins in some years in June, but more
1 All this description is confirmed by many other writers, ancient
and modern. But this is no place for an article on so considerable a
subject. [See Linschoten, vol. i, p. 52.—D. F.]
2 The name, Bahrein, seems to have firstly and rightly belonged to
the neighbouring peninsula, and afterwards been applied to this island,
the ancient Tylus and modern Awal. Close to it lies Arad, the
classic Aradus. “ Bahrein” certainly does mean “ two seas” or “ two
waters.”
3 « Aljofar."
4 I.e., northwards, further into the Bay of Bengal. The quaint ety­
mologies in this passage are out of favour now (vide Hobson-Jobson,
s. w.). Tutan Kory, naturally, is our Tuticorin.
6 I (d. F.) append the following recent report on “The Bahrein
Pearl Fisheries”:—“In the centre of the broad V-shaped bay that
separates El Katr from Turkish El Katif, lies the object of much soli­
citude, viz., the Island of Bahrein, famous throughout the world for