'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.' [‎459] (490/582)

LAHSA —PORT OF EL KATEEF. 459
interior westerly, and nine other such days' journeys from Derr-
iah, the Wahabee capital. The tribe of Arabs living there are
called Beni Asareeah, and the place is reckoned to be of some
strength and importance. During the expeditions of the Portu
guese in these seas, Lahsa was the seat of a king, to whom both
the islands of Bahrein and the port of Kateef were subject; and
an account is given in the Portuguese histories of those times, of
an expedition from Ormuz against Bahrein, on account of Mo-
crim, the King of Lahsa, having refused to pay tribute to them.
Bahrein was taken by the combined arms of the Portuguese and
Persians ; and Antonio Correa, the leader of the former, added the
title of Bahrein to his name. During the whole of the engagement,
Reis Xarafo, or Asharoff, the Persian admiral, looked on from his
vessel as an unconcerned spectator ; but when afterwards the body
of King Mocrim, who was shot through the thigh, and did not die
till six days afterwards, was taken over to Lahsa to be interred,
this cold-blooded and cowardly spectator went over to the town,
and cut off his head, which he sent to Ormuz. What seems
equally disgraceful is, that Correa, the Portuguese commander, in
memory of the share which he had in this event, was authorized
to bear a king's head in his coat of arms, which is still, says the
historian of his own country, borne by his descendants.^
Beyond Laghere to the north-west is the town and port of El
Kateef. A plan of this place, by Captain Simmons, has been seen
by Horsburgh, and he judges from it that it is a safe harbour. In
his Directory, he gives the latitude of the town as 20° 56' north,
but in his chart it is placed in lat. 30° 36' north,—a difference
which must have arisen from an error of the press. The
directions for entering this port are probably from Captain Sim
mons too. It is remarkable, however, that though Horsburgh
says, on the authority of the principal pilots, that the coast from
* Portuguese Discovery and Conquest of India, p. 2, b. 3, c. 1. sect. 6, from the Portu
guese Asia of De Faria of Sousa, inserted in Kerr's General History of Voyages and Travels,—
Edinburgh, 1812. 8vo. vol. 6, p. 188.
3 N S