'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎348] (379/582)

348
BUSH I RE,
out order or regularity in their windings and direction. The
mosques are all open buildings, without domes or minarets, and
are inferior both in general appearance without, and in their neat
ness within, to those seen in the smallest villages of Arabia. Cof
fee-houses there are none that I remember to have seen, as this
beverage is not much in use among the inhabitants. The only
bath that exists here, is small, mean, filthy, and badly attended •
and the bazaars are simply benches covered by a roof of matted
rafters, of the most wretched appearance. There are one or two
good caravanseras near the landing-place for boats, occupied by
and belonging to Armenian merchants ; but those belonging to the
Mohammedans hardly deserve the name.
The town is open to the north-east, which fronts the inner
harbour; to the south-west, which fronts the outer roads; and is
enclosed only across the peninsula by a poor wall extending from
sea to sea, and in which is the gate of exit and entrance to and
from Persia. There is nothing in all this that can deserve the
name of a fortification: and the only defence which it presents
towards an enemy, is a few dismounted guns, without this gate,
on the land side ; a battery of six or eight nearly abreast of the
factory An East India Company trading post. , in the south-west quarter of the town; and half a dozen
others, placed before the Custom-house, in the north-east quarter,
and facing the inner harbour,—all of them of different calibre, and
mounted on carriages of such a crazy kind, as would certainly fall
to pieces on a second or third discharge. On the south-west side,
which faces the outer roads, it is all a level sandy beach, which,
from its being shoal water near it, is beat on by an almost constant
surf, though not of such violence as to prevent the landing of boats
in moderate weather. The north-east, which faces the inner har
bour, has a wharf or two for landing goods on, and is altogether
better sheltered; though, from the number of the sand banks, and
the diversity of channels between this place and the shipping, it is
not easily accessible even in boats, except to those in some degree