Travels to the City of the Caliphs along the shores of the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean: including a Voyage to the coast of Arabia, and a Tour on the Island of Socotra

Front matter

VALLEY of EYN O ONAH, ARABIA . TRAVELS TO THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS, ALONG THE SHORES OF THE PERSIAN GULF AND THE MEDITERRANEAN. INCLUDING A VOYAGE TO THE COAST OF ARABIA, AND A TOUR ON THE ISLAND OF SOCOTRA. By J. R. WELLSTED, Esa., F. R S., F. R. A. S., &c. &c ArjTHOR OF "TRAVELS IN ARABIA." IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1840. Printed by J. L. Cox and Sons, 75, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's-Inn Fields. TO ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES MALCOLM, I.ATE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE INDIAN NAVY, AND PRESIDENT OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF BOMBAY. My Dear Sir : Not so much on account of the great esteem with which I regard your private worth, nor the value which I attach to many years of private friendship, nor wholly either as a token of the high consideration with which myself and brother officers regard the impartial exercise of your public functions, do I dedicate these volumes to you.

My object rather, by so trifling an offering, is to mark above all the sense which I in common with many others entertain of your zeal in the cause of geographical science. Your efforts have never been relaxed during years when the existence of the Indian Navy has either been threatened with total annihilation, or subjected to muta tions equally calculated to unhinge for the time the exer tion and esprit de corps of its several members. No ! although occasionally opposed by those who ought to have displayed a larger mind, you have, in the spirit of a service which could boast of a Cook, a Flinders, and a Parry, uniformly and unflinchingly fostered by strenuous encouragement, both public and private, the exertions of every individual which had for his object the extension of this branch of human knowledge.

To yourself and your illustrious brother, Sir John Malcolm, the scientific world stand in a measure indebted for many of the late admirable Charts of the Eastern Seas, either originating at your recommendation, or executed under your directions. To you, the Geographical Society of Bombay owes, if not its being, its after-existence ; and permit me to add my humble tribute of congratulation to the spirited manner in which the sense of the same has been publicly manifested to you by this body. The pleasing recollection which this and other efforts in the cause of science must now afford, will sooth the tranquil hours you are, after so many years of unceasing service, enjoying ; and whatever fate may have in store for you, whether thus to continue the even tenor of your way, or again to mingle in the active scenes of your glorious profession, you will carry with you the warm wishes of a host of friends, amidst which no one will at all times feel more proud and happy to number himself than Yours most faithfully, J. RAYMOND WELLSTED.

Preface

. This work owes its origin to the following circumstance. Lieut. Ormsby, of the Indian Navy, the hero of the first part of the work, voluntarily quitted that service at the early age of nineteen, and devoted himself for three years to traversing various portions of the East. The buoyancy of spirit with which every hardship encountered by my friend was surmounted ; his courage, and zealous perseverance, where others, amidst pestilence and famine, would have shrunk back, and the facility with which he filled up the variety of characters it was necessary he should assume, are perhaps unequalled even amidst the per- VI formances of the host of celebrated travellers to whom it has been the pride of Great Britain to have given birth. If the several incidents ■O therefore are not portrayed with sufficient strength, the fault lies with the author and not the adventurer, whose graphic mode of relating many of the singular scenes which befel him in his wanderings, rendered his presence, during a brief sojourn in our native land, delightful to every society which he entered.

His adventures form the basis of the greater portion of the accompanying work ; some of them were verbally detailed to me, others given in detached fragments of MS. recast and dovetailed together by myself. Familiar with many of the scenes at tempted to be described, much is added that I was myself in possession of, or could obtain from other sources ; and in the performance of this task I have endeavoured to o-ive the whole an oriental tone and colourino-, which would breathe through the narrative the soul of a young and enthusiastic wanderer. MI To myself, therefore, and not to my friend, belong any faults of arrangement, style, or diction. But it is necessary I should state that, however varying in hue from the colouring with which portions were originally por trayed, all the adventures ascribed to my enterprising friend are facts.

His sudden departure for India compelled me to bring them to a more hasty conclusion than I could have wished. The second volume closes, therefore, with a portion far less interest ing — a voyage of my own to South Arabia, and a tour on the Island of Socotra. The latter has already appeared in another form in one of the leading journals of the day. The nature of the first part of this work precludes the hope of its being enabled to impart any great addition to our scientific knowledge, the object of the Author aiming rather at describing that which, relating to men and manners, has heretofore escaped the mere European ; and I must rely on the same solitary claim of novelty, especially in vm that portion of these pages relating to So cotra (which has been hitherto almost un known), for all the attention or interest I can expect for that part of the work exclu sively mine. J. RAYMOND WELLSTED. Athenæum, Jan. 18/A, 1840. Page CONTENTS 01 THE FIRST VOLUME. PERSIAN GULF.

Chapter I

Quit India— Reflections — Description of Vessel — Crew and their Amusements — Death of a Slave — Invention of the Compass — Persian Poetry — Abstinence from Spirituous Liquors ... ... ... ... ... 1

Chapter II

Calm — Gales — Slave washed from the deck — The Hindu — Vessel fills — Arrival on the Arabian coast — Interview with the Beni-bu-Ali Bedowins-^-The first attack of the British on that people — their Defeat — Captain Thompson— Second expeditiotf— -Sir Lionel Smith — Reflections I!)

Chapter III

Arrival at Muscat — Description of that remarkable City — The Imam of MuscatA-Importance of forming a X CONTENTS. Page more close political connexion with him— The Author engages as a Slave Merchant — Quits Muscat, and sails for Gambrun — Description of the entrance to, and Islands within, the Persian Gulf .<*- 45

Chapter IV

Description of Gambrun, ancient and modern — Sickness of the Slaves — Quit Gambrun, and proceed towards the Interior — Hot Wells — Attempt at Assassination — Caravan plundered by a Persian Khan — Return to the Sea-coast ... ... ... ... 72

Chapter V

Arrival at Gambrun — Embark for Ras el Khyma — Excessive Heat — Description of the Johasmi Pirates'** — History of a Pirate Chief—His singular Feats of Intrepidity — His Death — Power of the Sheikhs - ... 93

Chapter VI

Maude's group of Islets — Pearl Fishery — Mode of obtaining the Pearls — their probable Value— Commerce of Bahrain — Advantages of Position — Surveying Vessels-^ Fresh Water obtained from beneath the Salt ... 114

Chapter VII

Arrival at Bushire — Stay there — Description of that City and its late Ruler — Karak — The importance of its Position considered — Approach Busrah — Description of Khan — Busrah — Its Inhabitants — Its Rulers and Government ... ... ... . j^q CONTENTS. XI Page 166

Chapter VIII

Description of Busrah, continued — Its limits and extent — Unexpectedly meet with an old Acquaintance — Sudden disappearance of Rustom Beg — Is wounded, and returns — Undertake the Survey of the River Euphrates — Quit Bagdat — Koorna — Turkish Fleet- Its condition — Lieut. Lynch— Floods of the River — Sheikh Sook 148

Chapter XXI

Arrive at Tripoli — Set out for Lebanon — Reflections there— Visit Baalbec ILLUSTRATIONS. VOLUME I. Valley of Eynoonah, Arabia Frontispiece. Map of the Author's Route page 1 . VOLUME II. View from the Interior of Socotra .... Frontispiece. PERSIAN GULF.

Chapter I

Quit India — Reflections — Description of Vessel — Crew and their Amusements — Death of a Slave — Invention of the Compass — Persian Poetry — Abstinence from Spirituous Liquors. The earliest years of my naval life were passed on the shores of Arabia. I saw much of its wild and roving inhabitants, and I panted to be away with them on their deserts : with the taste of a wanderer, is it surprising that I experienced the irksomeness and confinement of ships, or that I hailed with delight the per mission obtained from the Indian government, to absent myself for a time from them ? In March 1830, I found myself on board one of those huge, unwieldy vessels, which, as in ancient times, laden with spices and with cloths of gold and tissue, still trade between India and VOL. I. B QUIT INDIA. Arabia ; we were bound for Muscat, our anchor was away, and we were soon clear of the ship ping ; every person on board had assembled to hoist our ponderous yard and enormous sail, accompanying these efforts by the beating of drums and other discordant sounds, to which the more excited shreiked and danced, and amidst the wild confusion the sail was seen gradually ascending the lofty mast, and grace fully unfolding its white bosom to the breeze.

The bustle of parting was now hushed, while wafted by the freshening breeze we flew rapidly to the westward, and were soon to those we had bid adieu but as a white speck in the distance. At sun-set the blue ghauts of the Deccan were partially concealed beneath the eastern horizon, but their summits were still tinged with the golden hue of the setting sun. The evening air was cool. I drew my cloak around me, and seated myself on the stern of the vessel to gaze on the shore, now rapidly receding from my view ; on that shore I had found a second home ; there had my brightest friendships been formed, and there my days of happiness very many : was I ever to renew either ? was a question which, in my situation gave rise to a long train of reflections, some of a REFLECTIONS. painful, others of a pleasing nature.

I was a young wanderer, and alone ; but my youthful imagination had always been deeply embued with an enthusiastic desire to visit the scenes to which I was now about to wend my way, and while communing with such thoughts, my first emotions at leaving all those who made life dear ebbed away, and I knew no solitude. The East is a country of adventures ; nowhere is travelling fraught with more danger nor possessed of more interest ; here our steps lead over trackless deserts, or there we wander amidst the ruins of former cities which have been, and now are not ; yet their mouldering ruins still last above all time, and lead us to ponder on the pages of history, which alone remain to record the purpose for which they were reared, the scenes they have commemorated or have witnessed. Travelling amidst such vestiges, in countries now but little known, hath other charms.

Man is a creature most happy in a state of change, and the young and imaginative, before age shall have chilled the healthful enjoyment of novelty and truth, contemplate with fresh and vivid feelings every successive object their wanderings may bring before them. Wearied at length with such reflections, I laid myself on the deck and was soon asleep. b ARABIAN VESSELS. At the early dawn of day I was awakened by the Mahommedan call to prayer : the morning atmosphere was of a balmy freshness ; no land was in sight, and I turned my eyes from gazing on the waste of waters around me to the vessel in which I had embarked, and my wild and strange companions. The bugalah " Shat-el- Frat," or the good ship Euphrates, was one of those large vessels of antique construction in which the Arabians continue to carry to their shores the precious merchandize of the East : she was registered a hundred, but carried twice that number of tons; her shape is that of a wedge, about eighty feet in length, and twenty three at the extreme breadth ; she was partially decked, had a poop, but the seams of neither were caulked, a sure indication that but little rain is experienced in those voyages.

In order to admit of their striking the mast, which is done whenever they careen, or are laid up in harbour, the middle part of the vessel is either left open, or else closed by hatches ; their spars are of great length : our mast was in one piece, and a little more than eighty feet, and the yard upwards of a hundred ; a single sail of vast size is spread on these. Nothing which walks the waters has a more picturesque appearance than this description of vessel ; from a distance, the THE CREW. rounded swell of their snow-white sail has neither break nor shadow ; the stern is high and richly carved, the prow low and projecting ; in fine weather scarcely a ripple flows before them, and, like the beauteous and gentle swan, they hold their noiseless and graceful course. We were laden with various articles, such as " blue cloths and broider-work, and chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar."

As in the days of Sinbad the sailor, every mer chant embarks with his own venture, and I was probably the only passenger who had not a share in the freight, or in the vessel. Our captain was a Persian, who had made only two voyages ; the Palinurus was a Hindoo — three sailors only (these were the cunning ones) who knew the compass from a block. "Yet they. are all sailors," said the captain, " for they can swim." — " You might just as well, Ali Mun soor," replied I, " call them fishes." He smiled and offered me his pipe. I have noticed the extreme beauty of these vessels when under sail, but out of the water they are the most unsightly and singular-looking craft which can be imagined ; the breast bone of a fowl gives an exact idea of a longi tudinal and midship section of one. From whence they originally obtained their models I ARABIAN VESSELS. know not, but that they have remained the same from as early a period as when they voy aged to China is apparent from drawings which have been preserved of them, and they still, with better models before them, cling tenaci ously to their own.

Various designations, de pending on certain trifling distinctions, mostly about the prow, beside that of bugalah, are given to them, but all may be pronounced as possessing neither strength nor durability : the planks are merely nailed together, and not unfrequently sewn ; the framework is crazy, and upon the whole, they are, as will be seen from the subsequent part of this narrative, wholly unfit to encounter even mode rately bad weather ; on this account they cannot navigate during the S.W. monsoon, nor for more than seven months in the year along the coasts of Arabia and India. They are then hauled up on shore, and cemented over with chinaum and butter.* Without any mechanical aid, these vessels, sometimes 300 to 400 tons, are, by the combination of individual efforts of the same number of people, drawn up com pletely above high-water mark, where they remain until about the 25th of August; two stars, called Sael, then make their appearance, * Ghee, more properly — the Indian name for clarified butter.

OWNERSHIP. and the day is ushered in with ceremonies similar to that of cocoa-nut day in India ; at the conclusion of which they are again launched. The property of these vessels is divided into shares, of which the captain, navigator, and perhaps helmsman, or those who go aloft, may severally have two, but the remainder of the crew but one. No regular wages are re ceived by any ; but on the return to port of one of these vessels, the owners, who retain the remainder of the shares, divide the profits, and take one half as their own, and then, after de ducting the cost of the provisions which have been consumed on the voyage, distribute the remainder to the crew. All have wives, and most of them families, to support ; and their earnings, about twenty dollars a-year, go to board their families in their absence.

I never saw any with a dollar in their possession : they live very abstemiously, subsisting principally on durra (millet) bread, and probably a meal of rice, without butter, once aweek ; to this we may add salt fish and a little coffee. Amongst the ancients, in the earliest efforts of navigation, the life of a sailor was considered one of extreme hardship, and was consequently in very bad repute. In Arabia, in their strictest sense, it continues to be both to this day. PROVISIONS-. Our water was stowed in square wooden tanks, into which those desirous of helping themselves thrust a cocoa-nut shell, split in two, with a long wooden handle. They bake their bread fresh every day, and a slave is constantly employed grinding the flour, which is done on an oblong stone, with a roller of the same material ; then cakes are afterwards made and baked in an oven built up in the middle of the vessel.

This is usually a large jar surrounded with brick-work, and their process is very simple. A few loose sticks are thrown in and lighted, and when the sides of the jar are sufficiently heated, the cakes are plastered to them, and are soon well done. Less fuel is required for this than for any other mode with which I am acquainted. Arabia is wholly destitute of timber for ship building, and these vessels are constructed on the Malabar coast ; they have three sails — a large and small mainsail, and a storm-jib. Their canvas, cables, anchors, &c, come also from India. How strange a transition from European to Asiatic manners has one brief day accom plished ! Yesterday I was clad in the irksome, tight-fitting garb of my nation, surrounded by my countrymen and with attendants, placid and ASSUME MAHOMMEDAN CHARACTER. servile ; to-day I am sashed and turbaned, eating rice with my fingers, and considered by the haughty and intolerant race in whose society I am placed, as of an inferior and polluted order.

Such situations, however, afford us a wholesome lesson, since they teach us how much we are capable of doing when thrown on our own resources. My first object was to endeavour to conciliate my companions, and to acquire a knowledge of their language. Although I have often heard a Moslem inquire, when well pleased with a Christian, " can it be possible that the Almighty — all good — can have created beings so wise and just for eternal perdition?" yet such, by the faith he professes, he is never theless bound to believe it. I therefore endea voured, so far as outward demeanour went, by assimilating myself to their customs, and calling myself a Mahommedan, to remove this barrier to our better acquaintance — and I eventually succeeded. All sea-voyages are, more or less, monoto nous, but I found abundant amusement in thus employing myself, and very soon became reconciled to my new mode of life.

The Asiatics, although fatalists, by an apparent incongruity of character, are extremely fond of resorting to divination aud augury, and an inauspicious DEATH FROM A WATER-SNAKE. event at the commencement of our voyage in duced an old seer with a venerable white beard to prophesy an unfortunate termination to it. As subsequent events will show, he proved correct, and was, of course, elevated to a pseudo prophet for the remainder of his life ; nor let us too hastily condemn the credulity of his simple Moslem companions. In my native land second sight was believed by the many on no better foundation ; in both it appears that, in the midst of numerous predictions, some in the mere order of nature come to pass, and these being well attested, give a colouring of truth to the whole. The event which inspired our seer on this occasion was — a slave, who had been amusing himself with striving to catch the numerous watersnakes which were passing the vessel, at length succeeded in seizing one by the middle, but the creature reared its head and seized him by the fleshy part of the arm ; he immediately relinquished his grasp and came up the vessel's side, but did not mention the circumstance for some hours afterwards : when I saw him he was in a state beyond the power of medicine : he died twenty-four hours after he was bitten.

These snakes are particularly numerous on the coast of India; their size varies, the larger being found in the deeper ACTION OF THE ELEMENTS. water. Until as late as the time of Niebuhr, sailors ascertained their approach to the Indian coast by the appearance of these snakes. Mo dern navigators have, however, independent of chronometers, a safer plan. It has been discovered that the number of fathoms in which they are found gives the distance in miles from the land. This shelving bank is upwards of a hundred miles in width, and is, therefore, besides its singular formation, as regards magnitude, quite commensurate with the scale which has been assumed by nature in the vast continent against which it reclines. The mountains of Asia are ofthe loftiest, its plains the most extensive, and its rivers amidst the mightiest of the earth ; for ages the two former have been sub jected to the ceaseless and abrading action of the elements ; trifling as may be the changes produced by this action in some countries, they are prodigious in India.

In Egypt and Arabia the outline, nay, the very face of a hill, as is demonstrated from the existence of ancient in scriptions, shall remain but little altered from the earliest period to which our information reaches, but there no rain falls ; while in India, for half the year, it falls uninterruptedly, not in showers, but in floods. The countless streams A FLOATING ISLAND. 12 with which the whole country is intersected are thus fed, and towards the conclusion of the season they become so swollen and rapid, that they not only carry with them much of the soil of the country through which they pass, but also its vegetation, and not unfrequently its trees. On one occasion, while cruising in the Bay of Bengal, the man at the mast-head re ported an island to be in sight, and shortly afterwards from the deck we observed several trees ; we steered towards them, and, upon approaching, discovered them to be a connected mass which had been washed away by some of the rivers, the roots being sufficiently numerous and matted to keep the whole together, while their weight retained them in their natural position.

The quantity of soil, and vegetation, which is thus carried by means of these rivers into the ocean, gradually, as their current loses its effect in the mass of waters, subsides and forms this bank, the extent of which, as I have already noticed, is in full proportion to the magnitude and power of the agents employed in its forma tion. A considerable portion of my noviciate was passed in acquiring habits of smoking the boory. Coffee drunk in their fashion, without milk or MAHOMMEDAN ROSARIES. 13 sugar, I took to very readily. The boory is simply a cocoa-nut shell, having an upright tube fixed in its centre ; on the upper part of this, in a small earthern bowl, is placed the tobacco. A second tube is inserted in the side of the shell, and to this the devotee applies his mouth, inhaling, by powerful efforts, the tobacco into the lungs.

Most hideous contortions of features accompany the operation. When not otherwise employed, my companions used a rosary similar to that we see in the hands of Roman Catholics ; but some of the Soonee sect differ from other Mahomedans in having more or less than the ninety and nine. The whole are divided by small rings into three portions, and when either, in the course of their numeration, is arrived at, " bismallah," (in the name ofthe Lord,) escapes from their lips, and the same when they arrive at the fragment which adorns the extremity. Amber, coral, and various other substances, are used for these rosaries ; but the neophite yussur is preferred to all, on account of its lightness and the polish which it bears. Isa manœuvre was to be executed onboard, each had an assigned station, but all talked and gave orders together, excepting the captain, who never gave any at all.

I inquired the reason — " Because if I did nobody would pay HINDOO NAVIGATOR. attention to me." He was more courted for his store of tobacco and coffee, than for any influence as „ "The monarch of a peopled deck. He passed his time principally in smoking, sleeping, eating, and sipping coffee, on a mat and small carpet in the poop cabin, which, though equal in breadth to the vessel, was not more than three feet six inches high. After I had been on board a few days, I succeeded in winning his good graces, and a space similar in extent to his, bounded on the one hand (as geo graphers say) by some bales of coffee, and on the other by tubs of sugar-candy, which attracted hosts of flies during the day, and swarms of ants at night, nor was the apartment free from other insects as industrious as ants.

But I soon ac quired a Moslem-like indifference to such trifles. The Hindoo navigator and two or three of the merchants were admitted of our party ; the for mer was an exceedingly intelligent man, more learned in the Vedas and the observances of Vishnu than he was in the art of navigation. He had two instruments, one an astrolabe, resembling that in general use in Europe before the introduction of Hadley's quadrant, and one ofthe latter-named instruments, the use of which he preferred. I did not trouble myself much INDIAN COMPASSES. about the course or progress of the vessel when at sea and with a fair breeze ; but when it fell calm some days afterwards, I felt convinced, from the appearance of the water, that we were within the influence of a strong current. I took the liberty of examining this instrument, and was not greatly surprised to perceive that it had an error of forty-five minutes of a degree.

I pointed it out to the Hindoo, who merely observed, " that it would be as well to rectify the error," not considering such a trifle as of any moment. The declination by which they compute their latitude is printed for them in the Indian character, at Calcutta ; but so little care is taken in doing so, that these ignorant men make the calculations of one year answer for those of every other year. It would be conducive to the sav ing both of property and life, if all men who commanded vessels above a certain size, whether European or Native, should, previous to their taking command, be compelled to pass an examination before the Marine Board, or the Master Attendant of the different ports. The compasses used in these vessels are of extremely rude construction. They are mostly manufactured in India, and the Arabs have a singular practice of placing the needle on the card, so as to allow for the variation at any CHESS AND STORY-TKLLING. given point ; but the same card is used where there is no variation at all, or where its character may be of a nature opposite to that for which the card is set.

Various writers have considered that the Ara bian navigators possess some claims to the first application, if not invention, ofthe compass; if such is the case they have made but small im provement on the original instrument. I found the Hindoo exceedingly willing to receive any instruction which I had it in my power to give him. He had tolerable notions of English arithmetic, and with little trouble I taught him to observe and calculate the stars. I was much amused on such occasions to observe the Arab's astonishment when I mentioned the name of Aldebaran and some other stars, which in our catalogue have retained their Arabian names. A considerable portion ofthe time of the crew was passed in playing at a rude kind of chess in the same manner as is practised in India ; and although gambling of all kinds is prohibited by their Koran, yet this, as well as cards, were indulged in.

Story-telling was a source of never-failing delight. They would sit up sipping coffee, smoking their boory, and listening to these tales, and would remain night after night assembled in the poop long after midnight. Songs and dancing occasionally entered into POETRY AND DANCING. 17 their amusements. The former never exhibited either mirth or humour, but were usually low monotonous chants, or in a whining falsetto key. Some of their airs were nevertheless exceed ingly simple and pleasing ; and we had a Per sian on board, whose performance would not have been deemed contemptible in his own country. I believe he had the greater number of the odes of Sadi and of Hafiz by heart, as at least a third of his time was devoted to ac quiring them. I am afraid the Arabs were by no means pleased with that peculiar tone in which Persian poetry is recited in the East, for on several occasions I saw them exhibit most unequivocal symptoms of disgust and ridicule.