Bushire.
Drawn by James Morier Esqr.
Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Paternoster Row, May 1, 1811.
The fortress itself was built by the Portuguese, though the people around are jealous of the acknowledgment, and substitute as its founder their own Shah Abbas. On a hasty calculation it must have been a square of two hundred yards. The reservoirs for water are still to be seen; but a lad, whom we met in the enclosure, told us that he and his companions were at work in destroying the Hummums. Twenty-five years ago the Envoy saw it in many parts entire, with some of the houses still standing. It is now a heap of dirt and rubbish. The line of the fort, indeed, is traced by the ditch, which is excavated from the rock; and the gateways also are discoverable, and some little masonry remains to mark their strength. There are some flat and oblong stones on the outside of the fort, which we conceived to have been placed over Portuguese tombs. There are, however, some curious characters upon them, which Sir Harford Jones, who recollects them when they were more legible, conceives to be between the old Cufick and the Nekshi.
In another excursion we advanced to Halila, about nine miles from the town, and on the south of the peninsula of Bushire. Here, indeed, there is a projection of the land, where it is still possible for very high tides to rise above the surface. The ground is very much broken into caverns and deep chasms. Halila is a small village; it has a trifling square fort, with a tower at each angle, but without any guns. Cotton is sown more systematically in the territory immediately adjacent to Halila than in that of Bushire. Here and there over the plain are some little spots sacred to the dead, and defended by small works of stones.
The Sapphire lay about four miles off the shore, in four feet and a half low water, and in quarter less five at high. The ground was marl and very thick mud, so tenacious, that it was necessary every three or four days to move the anchor. The refraction was so great, that, for their daily observations at the sun’s meridian, they were obliged to allow for it more than what is noted in the nautical tables. In my visit on board, I took the following bearings from the quarter-deck. Town N. 55 E. Concorde Lodge E. Halila Peak S. 70 E. Asses Ears and Reshire Point S. 35 E. Cape Bang (the extremity of the land) N. 11 E.
The water of Bushire has a cathartic quality of most immediate effect in a stranger’s habit, but after the experience of about a month it ceases to have so violent a power.
The meteorological journal which I kept may not be useless, and I give therefore the month of November in the Appendix. On the night of the 10th of that month, a most violent storm blew from the north-west. The whole atmosphere was in a blaze of fire; the claps of thunder succeeded one another with a rapidity, which rendered them scarcely separable, and the rain poured down in torrents; but when all was over, the air possessed a freshness which was most grateful. The storms from the N. W. are very frequent in the winter; and though in no part of the world do I recollect to have seen one so tremendous as this, I am told that it was not to be compared with some which are experienced at Bushire.
In three or four days the mountains which bore N. N. E. from our dwelling were already covered with snow. This was reckoned early in the season. The people soon begun to put on their warmer clothing. Coughs and colds became very prevalent, particularly among the Indian servants, who were clad more lightly than either the Europeans or the natives.
About the 20th of November the people commence ploughing; the soil is so light that it is turned up with very little labour; the plough, therefore, is dragged mostly by one ox only, and not unfrequently even by an ass. All their agricultural implements are of the rudest construction. At this period, larks fly about in large numbers, and feed upon the seed just sowing. There are also great flocks of pigeons, cormorants, curlews, and hoobaras (bustards). On the 25th we saw a white swallow flitting about the house. Sparrows were not so numerous as in the beginning of the month. Flies appeared with a south wind; but were scarce when it blew from the northward. The fruits in season were melons, dates, pomegranates, apples, pears, and sweet limes; and a small and very pleasant orange was just coming in. Our vegetables were spinage, bendes, and onions, and cabbages and turnips from Bussora. Of our meat, the finest was mutton, veal was coarse, but the beef pretty good, and the fowls were admirable. There were no turkies or geese indeed; nor ducks, except some that we occasionally got from Bussora.
The climate of Bushire is healthy, if we might judge from the two or three examples of strong and active old age which came within our notice: one, my own Persian master, Mollah Hassan; another in the Resident’s family, who has trimmed pipes for two-thirds of a century, and who was a young man with mustachios and a sprouting beard, when Nadir Shah was at Shiraz. Another is an old fellow of the name of Ayecal, which, from the keenness of his love of sporting, has been familiarized by the English into Jackall.