Muscat that secured to us the advantages of an enlarged trade; but, owing to our limited merchant marine, England controls the trade of this port. But England has no other relations with the sultan than such as are stip ulated by treaty, which, however, secures to her the su perior advantage of the right to keep at all times one gun-boat in the harbor, and by which she has a commercial advantage over all other nations. From the custom-house we wandered through the town, whose streets are crooked lanes, whose buildings are hovels, whose bazaars are gloomy and filthy. The bazaars were well supplied with English goods, with wet and dried dates, and with native wares. Each merchant had his gun by his side and a sabre in his girdle, not only in accordance with universal custom, but to protect his life and property, as neither is secure under the weak and miserable rule of the Mohammedan sultan. The Arabs, who had come from their farm and their fold to trade, were armed for battle and ready for the fray. The Arab sleeps, eats, drinks, trades, works, travels, marries, prays, and dies with his sabre, matchlock, and pistols on, ready for use at a moment's warning. In the bazaars, women were winnowing grain, and men selling their merchandise. Beauty is not an attribute of the women of Muscat. They had rings in their ears, rings on their toes, and rings in their noses, but beauty nowhere. A single robe of blue cotton cloth covered their person, and the tattered condition of that indicated the poverty to which they are reduced by a false relig ion and a despotic government. From the market-place we ascended the rocks on the right of the town, and entered the old Portuguese fort. Over the entrance is the date "1588." Within the walls are rusty English, Dutch, and Portuguese guns of large calibre; and on one is the date "1625." From the parapet of the fort, six hundred feet high, the view of sea and land was extensive and enchanting. Inland could be seen the town, with its white buildings and the green valleys beyond; seaward, the prospect was grand and boundless. Around us lay the ruins of former greatness; and directly opposite was Fort Jilla Forsah, from whose frowning parapet, and down whose rugged sides, monks and nuns were hurled by their Mohammedan conquerors. Amidst the golden splendor of an Arabian sunset, we left Muscat for Bunder Abbas, two hundred and fifty miles to the north-east, on the Persian shore. The peaks of Oman were the last to cherish the fading light of departing day. A brief twilight, and the greater and lesser stars came forth one by one to attend the crescent moon. There was a calm in the sky; there was a calm on the sea. On the Burmah, quiet had succeeded the excitement of the day. The thunder-tones of the little captain had given place to notes of softness. Pilgrim, traveler, and sailor felt the repose of the evening hour. ""Twas the voice of nature calling Earth's weary children to repose; While, round the couch of nature falling, Numberless stars throughout yond dark From out the veil that hides the Ark." That was the last night of the week. The Christian Sabbath dawned upon a land where its sanctity is unobserved, and where its benedictions are unknown. Our Mohammedan passengers prayed and gambled; the Persians ate and slept; the Jews counted their money; the Parsees examined their accounts; the Armenians read and sung; and six Protestants assembled in the saloon for Divine worship. Late in the afternoon we sighted land—Arabia on the west, Persia on the east. On either shore the mountains were lofty and imposing. On the Persian coast was Ras Jashk, 1720 feet high; beyond was Mount Danghir, whose summit is 3133 feet above the level of the sea; and rising above them all in glory was Mount Biss, the height of whose highest peak is 4600 feet. On the Arabian shore, the mountains were higher and bolder. Mount Kewa rises 5800 feet above the level of the Gulf; further on was Fire Peak, whose altitude is 4470 feet; and higher and grander than all his fellows, was Sham Peak, whose lofty brow is 6700 feet above the surrounding plain. The summits of all the higher mountains were covered with snow, reflecting the rosy tints of the setting sun. When the day had ended, the last zephyr ceased to breathe. The sea became as a plate of glass, and the wake of our steamer through the phosphorescent light shone like a path of silver. As each wave rolled on with unbroken crest, it resembled a silver scroll thricely polished. During the night, we had passed the imaginary boundary of the Sea of Oman; and when the morning came, we were on the Persian Gulf, which is six hundred miles. long, from forty to two hundred miles wide, and has an area of eighty thousand square miles. In outline it describes a curve, and properly it is an arm of the Indian Ocean. Its entrance is through the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman, and the Straits of Ormuz. The latter are less than thirty miles wide. It receives the waters of the Euphrates, of the Tigris, and of other less celebrated rivers. It is frequented by terrific storms, destructive alike to shipping and the towns along the coast. It is a classic sea, and rich in historic associations. In one of its harbors Alexander the Great rejoined his fleet, commanded by Nearchus; and over its waters the great Macedonian general returned to Babylon, to revel in luxury and to die in shame. During eventful wars, Greek and Roman, Persian and Parthian, Portuguese and Briton, have fought thereon for power and glory. On the bottom of this little inland sea are strewed the wrecks of the mighty navies of Europe and Asia, and amidst its corals are the bones of the gallant dead. For two centuries its shores were the seat of European commerce and luxury. One of its cities was the scene of some of the legends in "The Thousand and One Nights." On one of its islands lived the Fire-worshipers, described in Moore's famous "Lalla Rookh." For many years it has been the resort of pirates, whose bloody deeds are the bloodiest in piratical annals. The Joassamee pirates have long bidden defiance to Persia, to Turkey, and to England, and plundered the merchantman thereon, cargoed with the "wealth of Ormuz and of Ind." Nor is their occupation gone. Not a month before our arrival, they boarded a companion steamer of the Burmah, wounded the officers, and stole the immense treasure on board. And we were in like danger; but, happily, we were fully prepared to meet the pirates. At two o'clock in the afternoon, we dropped anchor in the harbor of Bunder Abbas. We were now in Persia, whose warrior-kings fill so large a space in ancient and modern history. Situated on a sandy plain of crescent shape, Bunder Abbas is at the base of a lofty range of mountains. So shallow is the water along the rocky coast, that even small boats can not land. When within a hundred feet of the shore, we were carried to dry land on the backs of the boatmen. Hundreds of Per sians and Arabs crowded to see us, and followed us in our wanderings through the town. Homely and untidy as were the women, they ran at the approach of the strangers. They were veiled, but not to hide their beauty, for with this they were not embarrassed. The dwellings are of mud, without form or comeliness. The custom-house has some pretensions to shape, and near it is a round tower, but a poor defense. The village contains a post-office and an English residency. In the ba zaars were luscious oranges, a hundred for a dollar; and Persian rugs, the best, twenty dollars each. South of the town are extensive gardens, where the palm grows in its beauty. In summer the air is as the blast of a furnace, and mortal vapors are exhaled from the earth: the fields are then dry and black as if scorched with fire, and the people fly to the mountains to escape the consuming sirocco. Those mountains are high and grand. To the south was Shemil, whose altitude is 8500 feet; to the east was Ginnoch, 7690 feet above the sea; and far away could be seen Mount Bukûn, 11,000 feet above the adjacent plain. We were now at the centre of the commercial wealth and luxury of the Portuguese in the sixteenth and in the seventeenth century. On our right was "Kishm's fair isle;" before us was Larrack; on our left was Ormuz. Less than twelve miles to the south-west of Bunder Abbas the celebrated island of Ormuz is thirty miles in circumference. Its barren rocks are seven hundred feet high, and the peaks thereof are covered with a transparent ice-like incrustation of salt. Some of the soil is yellow with sulphur, some gray with copper, some red with the oxide of iron. Toward the south, the rocks rise from the shore like a vast cyclopean wall. Ormuz is an island of salt. In former days, the article was placed between the |