Chapter 30
CHAPTER XVII. Departure from Bombay. Smallpox. Muscat. Bandr Abbas.
The Persians. The Kishma Straits. Bushir. Entrance into the shuttle Arab. Basora.
Entrance into the Tigris. Bedouin tribes. Ctesiphon and Seleucia. Arrival at Baghdad. The steamer Sir Charles Forbes, 40 horsepower, Captain Litchfield, had only two cabins, a small and a large one.
The former had already been engaged for some time by an Englishman Mr. Ross. The latter was bespoken by some rich Persians for their wives and children. I was therefore obliged to content myself with a place upon deck. However, I took my meals at the captain's table, who showed me the most extreme attention and kindness during the whole voyage. The little vessel was, in the fullest sense of the word, overloaded by people.
The crew alone numbered 45. In addition to that, there were 124 passengers, chiefly Persians, Mohammedans and Arabs. Mr. Ross and myself were the only Europeans. When this crowd of Persons were collected, there was not the smallest clear space on the deck. To get from one place to another, it was necessary to climb over innumerable chests and boxes,
and at the same time to use great caution not to tread upon the heads or feet of the people. In such critical circumstances, I looked about immediately to see where I could possibly secure a good place. I found what I sought, and was the most fortunate of all the passengers, more so than even Mr. Ross, who could not sleep any night in his cabin on account of the heat and insects. My eye fell upon the under part of the captain's dinner table, which was fixed upon the stern deck.
I took possession of this place, threw my mantle round me, so that I had a pretty secure position, and no cause to fear that I should have my hands, feet or indeed my head trodden upon. I was somewhat unwell when I left Bombay, and on the second day of the voyage a slight attack of bilious fever came on. I had to contend with this for five days. I crept painfully from my asylum at mealtimes to make way for the feet of the people at table.
I did not take any medicine, I carried none with me, but I trusted to Providence and my good constitution. A much more dangerous malady than mine was discovered on board on the third day of the voyage. The smallpox was in the large cabin. Eighteen women and seven children were cramped in there. They had much less room than the negroes in a slave ship. The air was in the highest degree infected, and they were not allowed to go on the deck, filled as it was with men.
Even we, deck passengers, were in great anxiety lest the bad air might spread itself over the whole ship through the opened windows. The disease had already broken out on the children before they were brought on board, but no one could suspect it, as the women came late at night, thickly veiled and enveloped in large mantles, under which they carried the children. It was only on the third day, when one of the children died, that we discovered our danger. The child was wrapped in a white cloth, fastened upon a plank, which was weighted by some pieces of coal or stone, and lowered into the sea.
At the moment that it touched the water, the waves closed over it, and it was lost to our sight. I do not know whether a relation was present at this set event. I saw no tears flow. The poor mother might indeed have sorrowed, but she dared not accompany her child, custom forbaded. Two more deaths occurred, the other invalids recovered, and the contagion happily did not spread any further. 30 April. Today we approached very near to the Arabian coast, where we saw a chain of mountains which were barren and by no means attractive.
On the following morning, the 1st of May, small forts and watchtowers made their appearance, here and there, upon the peaks of beautiful groups of rock, and presently also a large one was perceptible upon the extensive mountain at the entrance of a creek. We came to anchor of the city of Muscat, which lies at the extremity of the creek. This town, which is subject to an Arabian prince, is very strongly fortified, and surrounded by several ranges of extraordinarily formed rocks, all of which are also occupied by forts and towers. The largest of these excites a sad reminiscence.
It was formerly a cloister of Portuguese monks, and was attacked by the Arabs one night, who murdered the whole of its inmates. This occurrence took place about two centuries since. The houses of the town are built of stone, with small windows and terraced roofs. Two houses, distinguished from the others only by their larger dimensions, are the palaces of the mother of the reigning prince, and of the sheikh. Some of the streets are so narrow that two persons scarcely walk together. The bazaar, according to the Turkish custom, consists of covered passages, under which the merchants sit cross-legged before their miserable stalls.
In the rocky valley in which Muscat lies, the heat is very oppressive, 124 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun, and the sunlight is very injurious to the eyes, as it is not in the slightest degree softened by any vegetation. Far and wide there are no trees, no shrubs or grass to be seen. Everyone who is in any way engaged here, go as soon as their business is finished to their country houses, situated by the open sea. There are no Europeans here, the climate is considered fatal to them.
At the back of the town lies a large rocky valley, in which is a village containing several burial places, and, wonderful to say, a little garden with six palms, a fig and a pomegranate tree. The village is larger and more populous than the town, containing 6,000 inhabitants, while the latter has only 4,000. It is impossible to form any conception of the poverty, filth and stench in this village. The huts stand nearly one over the other, are very small and built only of reeds and palm leaves.
Every kind of refuse was thrown before the doors. It requires considerable self-denial to pass through such a place, and I wonder that plague, or some other contagion, does not continually rage here. Diseases of the eyes and blindness are, however, very frequent. From this valley I passed into a second, which contains the greatest curiosity of Muscat, a rather extensive garden, which, with its date palms, flowers, vegetables and plantations, constitutes a true picture of an oasis in the desert.
The vegetation is only kept up, for the most part, by continual watering. The garden belongs to the Arabian prince. My guide seemed to be very proud of this wonderful garden, and asked me whether there were any such beautiful gardens in my country. The women in Muscat wear a kind of mask of blue stuff over the face, fastened upon springs or wires, which project some distance beyond the face. A hole is cut in the mask between the forehead and nose, which allows something more than the eyes to be seen.
These masks are worn by the women only when they are at some distance from home. In and near their houses they are not used. All the women that I saw were very ugly. The men also had not the fine, proud features which are so frequently met with among the Arabians. Great numbers of Negroes are employed here as slaves.
I made this excursion at the time of the greatest heat, 124 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun, and rather weakened by my illness, but did not experience the slightest ill consequences. I had been repeatedly warned that in warm countries the heat of the sun was very injurious to Europeans who were not accustomed to it, and frequently caused fever and sometimes even sunstroke. If I had attended to every advice, I should not have seen much. I did not allow myself to be led astray, went out in all weathers, and always saw more than my companions in trouble. On the 2nd of May we again set sail, and on the 3rd of May entered the Persian Sea, and passed very near to the island of Ormus.
The mountains there are remarkable for a variegated play of colors. Many spots shine as if they were covered with snow. They contain large quantities of salt, and numbers of caravans come annually from Persia and Arabia to procure it. In the evening we reached the small Persian town of Band Rabas, of which we anchored. May 4th.
The town is situated on the low hills of sand and rocks, which are separated from higher mountains by a small plain. Here also the whole country is barren and wild. Solitary groups of palms are found only in the plains. I looked wistfully towards the land. I would gladly have visited Persia.
The captain, however, advised me not to do so in the dress I wore, because, as he informed me, the Persians were not so good-natured as the Hindus, and the appearance of a European woman in this remote district was too uncommon an event. I might probably be greeted with a shower of stones. Fortunately, there was a young man on board who was half English and half Persian. His father, an Englishman, had married an Armenian from Tehran, and spoke both languages equally well.
I asked him to take me on shore, which he very readily did. He conducted me to the bazaar and through several streets. The people indeed flocked from all sides and gazed at me, but did not offer me the slightest annoyance. The houses here are small and built in the Oriental style, with few windows and terraced roofs. The streets are narrow, dirty and seemingly uninhabited.
The bazaar only appeared busy. The bakers here prepare their bread in the most simple manner, and indeed immediately in the presence of their customers. They knead some meal with water into a dough in a wooden dish, separate this into small pieces which they squeeze and draw out with their hands, until they are formed into large thin flakes, which are smeared all over with salt water,
and stuck into the inner side of a round tube. These tubes are made of clay, are about 18 inches in diameter and 22 in length. They are sunk one half in the ground and furnished with an air draught below. Wood charcoal is burnt inside the tube at the bottom. The cakes are baked on both sides at once, at the back by the red hot tube and in front by the charcoal fire.
I had half a dozen of such cakes baked. When eaten warm, they are very good. It is easy to distinguish the Persians from the Arabs, of whom there are many here. The former are larger and more strongly built, their skin is whiter, their features coarse and powerful, and their general appearance rude and wild. Their dress resembles that of the Mohammedans.
Many wear turbans, others a conical cup of black astrakhan, from a foot to one and a half high. I was told of so great an act of gratitude of the young man, Mr. William Hebworth, who accompanied me to Bandra Abbas that I cannot omit to mention it. At the age of 16 he went from Persia to Bombay, where he met with the kindest reception in the house of a friend of his father's,
by whom he was assisted in every way, and even obtained an appointment through his interest. One day his patron, who was married and the father of four children, had the misfortune to be thrown from his house and died from the effects of the fall. Mr. Hebworth made the truly noble resolve of marrying the widow, who was much older than himself and instead of property possessed only her four children,
that he might in this way pay the debt of gratitude which he owed to his deceased benefactor. In Bandra Abbas we hired a pilot to take us through the straits of Kishma. About noon we sailed. The passage through these straits is without danger for streamers, but is avoided by sailing vessels, as the space between the island Kishma and the mainland is in part very narrow,
and the ships might be driven on to the shore by contrary winds. The inland forms an extended plain and is partially covered with thin underwood. Great numbers of people come from the neighbouring mainland to fetch wood from here. The captain had spoken very highly of the remarkable beauty of this voyage, the luxuriance of the island, the spots where the sea was so narrow,
that the tops of the palms growing on the island and mainland touched each other, etc. Since the last voyage of the good captain, a very unfrequent phenomenon would seem to have taken place. The lofty slender palms were transformed into miserable underwood, and at the narrowest point the mainland was at least half a mile from the island.
Strange to say, Mr. Ross afterwards gave the same description of the place. He believed the captain in preference to his own eyes. At one of the most considerable contractions stands the handsome fort Luft. Fifteen years since, the principal stronghold of the Persian pirates was in this neighbourhood. A severe battle was fought between them and the English near Luft,
in which upwards of 800 were killed, many taken prisoners, and the whole gang broken up. Since that event, perfect security has been restored. The 5th of May, we left the straits and three days later came to Angkor of Bushir. There are considerable quantities of seaweeds and molaske in the Persian Gulf. The latter had many fibers, were of milk-white color and resembled a forest agaric in form.
Others had a glistening rose color with small yellow spots. Contour eels of 2 or 3 feet in length were not uncommon. The 8th of May, the town of Bushir is situated on a plain, 6 miles from the mountains, whose highest peak, called by the Persians Hormuzs, by the English Halala, is 5000 feet high. The town contains 15,000 inhabitants and has the best harbor in Persia,
but its appearance is very dirty and ugly. The houses stand quite close together, so that it is easy to pass from one to the other over the terraces, and it requires no great exertion to run over the roofs, as the terraces are enclosed only by walls, 1 or 2 feet high. Upon some houses, square chambers, called wind-catchers, 15 or 20 feet high, are erected,
which can be opened above and at the sides, and serve to intercept the wind and lead it into the apartments. The women here cover up their faces to such a degree that I cannot imagine how they find their way about. Even the smallest girls imitate this foolish custom. There is also no lack of nose ring, bracelets, sandals, etc., but they do not wear nearly so much as the Hindus.
The men are all armed, even in the house they carry daggers or knives, and besides these, pistols in the streets. We remained two days in Bushir, where I was very well received by Lieutenant Hennelt, the resident. I would gladly have left the ship here to visit the ruins of Persepolis, and travel by land from thence to Shiraz, Isfahan, Teheran and so onward, but serious disturbances had broken out in these districts,
and numerous hordes of robbers carried on their depredations. I was in consequence compelled to alter my plans and to go straight on to Baghdad. The 10th of May, in the afternoon we left Bushir. 11th of May, today I had the gratification of seeing and sailing on one of the most celebrated rivers in the world, the Chatelle Arab, river of the Arabs, which is formed by the junction of the Euphrates, Tigris and Kaurun,
and whose mouth resembles an arm of the sea. The Chatelle Arab retains its name as far as the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates. The 12th of May, we left the sea and the mountains behind at the same time, and on both shores immense plains opened before us, whose boundaries were lost in the distance. 20 miles below Basora we turned off into the Kaurun to set down some passengers at the little town of Mahambra,
which lies near the entrance of the river. We immediately turned back again, and the captain brought the vessel round in the narrow space in an exceedingly clever way. This proceeding caused the uninitiated some anxiety. We expected every moment to see either the head or stern run aground, but it succeeded well beyond all measure. The whole population of the town was assembled on the shore.
They had never before seen a steamer and took the most lively interest in the bold and hazardous enterprise. About six years ago, the town Mahambra experienced a terrible catastrophe. It was at that time under Turkish rule and was surprised and plundered by the Persians. Nearly all the inhabitants, amounting to 5,000, were put to death. Since that period it has been retained by the Persians.
Towards noon we arrived at Basora. Nothing is visible from the river but some fortified works and large forests of date trees, behind which the town is situated far inland. The journey from Bombay to this place had occupied 18 days, in consequence of the unfavourable monsoon, and was one of the most unpleasant voyages which I ever made. Always upon deck in the midst of a dense crowd of people, with a heat which at noontime rose to 99°5'F, even under the shade of a tent.
I was only once able to change my linen and dress at Bushir, which was the more annoying as one could not prevent the accumulation of vermin. I longed for a refreshing and purifying bath. Basora, one of the largest towns of Mesopotamia, has among its inhabitants only a single European. I had a letter to the English agent, an Armenian named Barsej, whose hospitality I was compelled to claim as there was no hotel. Captain Litchfield presented my letter to him and made known my request, but the polite man refused to grant it.
The good captain offered me accommodation on board his ship, so that I was provided for for the present. The landing of the Persian women presented a most laughable spectacle. If they had been beauties of the highest order, or princesses from the Sultan's harem, there could not have been more care taken to conceal them from the possibility of being seen by men. I was indebted to my sex for the few glimpses which I caught of them in the cabin, but among the whole 18 women I did not see a single good-looking one. Their husbands placed themselves in two rows from the cabin to the ship's ladder, holding large cloths stretched before them, and forming in this way a kind of opaque movable wall on both sides.
Presently the women came out of the cabin. They were so covered with large wrappers that they had to be led as if they were blind. They stood close together between the walls and waited until the whole were assembled. When the entire party, namely the movable wall and the beauties concealed behind it, proceeded step by step, the scrambling over the narrow ship's ladders was truly pitiable. First one stumbled, then another. The landing occupied more than an hour. 13th May. The captain brought me word that a German missionary was accidentally at Basora who had a dwelling with several rooms and could probably give me shelter.
I went to him immediately, and he was so obliging as to provide me with a room in which at the same time I found a fireplace. I took leave of the good captain with sincere regret. I shall never forget his friendliness and attention. He was a truly good-hearted man, and yet the unfortunate crew, mostly Hindus and Negros, were treated worse on board his ship than I had observed elsewhere. This was the fault of the two mates who accompanied nearly every word with pushes and blows of the fist. In Muscat three of the poor fellows ran away. The Christian Europeans excelled the pagan Hindus and Muscleman in learning and science.
Might they not also at least equal the latter in kindness and humanity? A small English war steamer was expected at Basora in the course of a few days, which carried letters and dispatches between this place and Baghdad, and whose captain was so good as to take European travellers, of whom there are not many that lose themselves here, with him. I availed myself of the few days of my stay to look about the town and see what still remains of its ancient celebrity. Basora, or Basra, was founded in the reign of the Caliph Omar in the year 656.
Sometimes under Turkish, sometimes under Persian dominion, it was at last permanently placed under the latter power. There are no vestiges of antiquity remaining, neither ruins of handsome mosques nor caravanseries. The fortified walls are much dilapidated, the houses of the towns small and unattractive, the streets crooked, narrow and dirty. The bazaar, which consists of covered galleries with wretched stalls, cannot show a single good stock of goods, although Basora is the principled emporium and trading port for the Indian wares imported into Turkey.
There are several coffee stalls and a second-rate caravanserie at the bazaar. A large open space, not very remarkable for cleanliness, serves in the day as a corn market, and in the evening several hundred guests are to be seen seated before a large coffee stall, drinking coffee and smoking nargiles. Modern ruins are abundant in Basora, the result of the plague which in the year 1832 carried off nearly one-half of the inhabitants. Numbers of streets and squares consist only of forsaken and decaying houses.
Where, a few years back, men were busily engaged in trade, there is now nothing left but ruins and rubbish and weeds, and palms grow between crumbling walls. The position of Basora is said to be particularly unhealthy. The plain surrounding it is intersected at one extremity with numerous ditches filled with mud and filth, which give off noxious escalations. At the other it is covered with forests of date trees, which hinders the current of air. The heat is so great here that nearly every house is furnished with an apartment which lies several feet below the level of the street and has windows only in the high arches.
People live in these rooms during the day. The inhabitants consist for the most part of Arabs. The rest are Persians, Turks and Armenians. There are no Europeans. I was advised to wrap myself in a large cloth and wear a veil when I went out.
The former I did, but I could not endure the veil in the excessive heat and went with my face uncovered. The cloth, Isar, I carried so clumsily that my European clothes were always visible. Nevertheless, I was not annoyed by anyone. On the 16th of May, the steamer Nicotris arrived. It was small, 40 horsepower, but very handsome and clean.
The captain, Mr. Jones, declared himself ready to take me, and the first officer, Mr. Holland, gave up his cabin to me. They would not take any compensation, either for passage or board. The journey from Basora to Baghdad would have been very fatiguing and inconvenient if I had not met with this opportunity. With a boat it would have required 40 or 50 days, as the distance is 500 English miles, and the boat must have been for greater part of the distance drawn by men. The distance by land amounts to 390 miles, but the road is through deserts, which are inhabited by nomadic tribes of Bedouins and overrun with hordes of robbers, whose protection must have been purchased at a high price.
17th of May. We weighed anchor in the morning at 11 o'clock and availed ourselves of the current, which extends 120 miles up the stream. In the afternoon we reached the point Corne, also called the Delta, 50 miles from Basora. The Tigris and Euphrates join here. Both rivers are equally large, and as it could not probably be decided which name should be retained, both were given up and that of Chateau Arab adopted. Many learned writers attempt to give increased importance to this place, by endeavoring to prove by indubitable evidence that the Garden of Eden was situated here. If this was the case, our worthy progenitor made a long journey after he was driven out of Paradise to reach Adam's Peak in Ceylon.
We now entered the Tigris. For a distance of 3 miles further, we were gratified by the sight of beautiful forests of date trees, which we had already enjoyed, almost without intermission, from the mouth of the Chateau Arab. They now suddenly terminated. Both sides of the river were still covered with a rich vegetation and beautiful orchards, alternated with extended plots of grass, which were partially covered with bushes and shrub-like trees. This fruitfulness, however, is said to extend only a few miles inland, more distant from the river the country is a barren wilderness. We saw in several places large tribes of Bedouins, who had pitched their tents in long rows, for the most part close to the banks. Some of these hordes had large, closely covered tents. Others, again, had merely a straw mat, a cloth, and some skins stretched on a pair of poles, scarcely protecting the heads of those lying under them from the burning rays of the sun.
In winter, when the temperature frequently falls to freezing point, they have the same dwellings and clothing as in summer. The mortality among them is then very great. These people have a wild appearance, and their clothing consists of only a dark brown mantle. The men have a part of this drawn between their legs, and another part hang round them. The women completely envelop themselves in it. The children very commonly go quite naked until the twelfth year. The color of their skin is a dark brown, the face slightly tattooed. Both the men and women braid their hair into four plates, which hang down upon the back of the head and temples. The weapons of the men are stout knotted sticks. The women are fond of adorning themselves with glass beads, mussel shell, and colored rags. They also wear large nose rings.
They are all divided into tribes and are under the dominion of the Porte, to whom they pay tribute, but they acknowledge allegiance only to the sheikh elected by themselves, many of whom have 40 or 50,000 tents under their control. Those tribes who cultivate land have fixed dwellings. The pastoral tribes are nomadic. Halfway between Basora and Baghdad, the lofty mountain chain of Luristan becomes visible. When the atmosphere is clear, the summits, 10,000 feet high and covered with perpetual snow, may be seen. Every step in advance leads to the scene of the great deeds of Cambyses, Cyrus, Alexander, etc. Every spot of ground has historical associations.
The country is the same, but what has become of its towns and its powerful empires? Ruined walls and heaps of earth and rubbish are the only remains of the most beautiful cities, and where firmly established empires formerly existed are barren steps overrun by robber hoards. The Arabs engaged in agriculture are themselves exposed to the depredations of their nomadic countrymen, especially in harvest time. In order to avoid this evil as much as possible, they bring their crops into small fortified places, of which I observed many between Basora and Baghdad. We took in wood several times during this passage, and on these occasions I could approach the inhabitants without fear, as they were inspired with respect for the well-manned and armed vessel.
In one instance I was led far into the underwood, in pursuit of some beautiful insects, when I found myself on a sudden surrounded by a swarm of women and children, so that I thought it advisable to hasten back again to the ship's people. Not that any of them offered me any violence, but they crowded round me, handled my dress, wanted to put on my straw bonnet, and this familiarity was far from pleasant on account of their extreme dirtiness. The children seemed shockingly neglected, many were covered with pimples and small sores, and both great and small had their hands constantly in their hair. At the places where we stopped they generally brought sheep and butter, both of which were singularly cheap. A sheep cost at the utmost five grans, four shillings six pennies.
They were very large and fat, with long thick wool and fat tails of about fifteen inches long and eight inches broad. Our crew had a better diet than I had ever noticed on board any ship. What pleased me even more was the equal good treatment of the natives, who were not in any particular less thought of than the English. I never met with greater order and cleanliness than here, a proof that blows and thumps are not indispensable necessary, as I had so often been assured. In the districts where the ground was covered with underwood and grass I saw several herds of wild swine, and there were said to be lions here, who come from the mountains, especially during the wintertime, when they carried off cows and sheep.
They very seldom attacked men. I was so fortunate as to see a pair of lions, but at such a distance that I cannot say whether they exceeded in beauty in size those in European menageries. Among the birds the pelicans were so polite so as to make their respects to us by scrapping. 21 May. Today we saw the ruins of the palace of Kushev Anushirwan at Ktazifon. Ktazifon was formerly the capital of the Parthian, and afterwards of the new Persian Empire, it was destroyed by the Arabs in the seventeenth century. Nearly opposite, on the right bank of the Tigris, lay Seleucia, one of the most celebrated towns of Babylon, and which, at the times of its prosperity, had a free independent government and a population of 600,000 souls.
The chief portion were Greeks. One obtained two views of Ktazifon in passing, in consequence of the river winding considerably, almost running back again two miles. I made a trip there from Baghdad and therefore reserved my account of it. The old caliphate appears in marvellous magnificence and extends from a distance, but unfortunately loses this on nearer approach. The minarets and cupolas, inlaid with variegated earthenware tiles, glitter in the clear sunlight. The palaces, gateways and fortified works, in endless succession, bound the yellow muddy Tigris, and gardens with date and other fruit trees cover the flat country for miles round.
We had scarcely anchored when a number of natives surrounded the ship. They made use of very singular vehicles, which resemble round baskets. These are formed of thick palm leaves and covered with asphalt. They are called gufer, are six feet in diameter and three feet in height, are very safe, for they never upset, and may be travelled in over the worst roads. Their invention is very ancient. I had a letter to the English resident, Major Rollinson, but as Mr Holland, the first officer of the ship, offered me the use of his house, I took advantage of this, on account of his being a married man, which Mr Rollinson was not. I found Mrs Holland a very pretty, amiable woman, a native of Baghdad, who, though only three and twenty, had already four children, the eldest of whom was eight years old.
