'Collections of travels through Turky into Persia, and the East Indies. Giving an account of the present state of those countries, as also a full relation of the five years wars, between Aureng-Zebe and his brothers in their father's life time, about the succession. And a voyage made by the Great Mogul (Aureng-Zebe) with his Army from Dehli to Lahor, from Lahor to Bember, and from thence to the Kingdom of Kachemire, by the Mogols, call'd, the Paradise of the Indies. Together with a relation of the Kingdom of Japan and Tunkin, and of their particular manners and trade. To which is added a new description of the Grand Seignior's Seraglio, and also of all the Kingdoms that encompass the Euxine and Caspian Seas, being the travels of Monsieur TavernierBernier, and other great men.' [‎94] (133/1024)

The Persian Travels.
Book II,
CHAP. IX.
A Continuation of the Road from Balfara to Ormus.
1 ' i
T He tenth of April we fet out from Balfara for Bandar-Cong^ for which
paffage we hir’d a TmWe or a Barque for the purpofe* for they which
are laden with Dates are generally lo overcharg’d s that if a Stornuifesj
they are in danger of being overfet. The River Balfara is very (j an l
serous, by reafon of the Sands which alfo lie up and down the Perfian Gulf and
are very prejudicial to Navigation in that place . On both tides the Gulf that fepa-
rates Perfia from Arabia the Happy, live a fort of poor people that follow no other
Trade than tithing fo poor, that when they bring tith to your Vetfel, they require
nothing for it but Rice i and not the beft neither, but^ fuch coarfe fluff as we feed
our Hens and Pigs withal. I gave them a Sack of thirty or fourty pounds, and bid
them make merry with it, but they told me, they muft be careful how they fpent
fuch Rice as that, unlefs it were for their Sick, or at their Weddings j fo that if
the reft of Arabia the Happy be like that, affuredty 5 tis rather a moil unfortunate
Country. n- •
There are feveral Ides in the Perfian Gulf, but the chiefefi of all is the lile
of Baharen^ where they fi(h for Pearls, of which I have fpoken in its propet
place.
Near to the place where Euphrates falls from Balfara into the Sea, there is a little
Kland, where the Barques generally come to an Anchor, in expectation of the wind,
There we flay’d four days, whence to Bandar-Congo, it is fourteen days Sail, and we
got thither the twenty-third of April, This place would be a far better habitation
for the Merchants than Ormus where it is very unwholefom and dangerous to live,
But that which hinders the Trade from Bandar*Congo is, becaufe the Road to In
Isfobad, by reafon of the want of Water, and cnggf narrow ways, which only
Camels can endure * but from Orw?#/1 to the way is tolerable. We flay’d at
Bandar-Congo two days, where there is a Portugal Fadfor, who receives one half of
the Cuftoms by agreement,with the King of Perjia. By the way take notice, that
they who will go by Water from Ormus to Balfara, muft take the Natives for their
Pilots, and be continually founding befides.
The thirtieth ^ we hir’d a VefTel for Bander-Abaffi, and after three or four
hours Sailing, we put into a Village upon the Sea-fide, in the Ifland of
mifhe,
Kectynijhe is an Ifland three Leagues about, and about five or fix from Omus, It
excedes in Fertility all the Iflandsof the Eaft, that produce neither Wheat nor Bar*
ley i but at Kectynifbe is a Magazine of both, without which Ormw would hardly
fubfift, in regard it furnifhes that City with moft of their Provifion for their Horfes,
There is in the Ifland a Spring of good Water, for the prefervation of which, the
Perfians have built a Fort, left the Portugals when they held Ormus, fhould get it
into their Pofleflion.
In 1541. and 1642. the Hollanders falling out with the King ofPerfta about their
Silk Trade, befieg’d this Ifland. For the Ambafladors of the Duke of Holfhin conr
ing into Perfia, the Dutch were jealous that they came to fetch away all the Silk j
and thereupon enhanc’d the Market from forty-two to fifty Tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. . When the
Ambafladors were gone, the Dutch would pay no more than forty-four, which was
two Tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. more than they were us’d to do. The Kingnetl’d that they would not
ftand to their words, forbid that they fhould make fale of their Goods ’till they had
paid their Cuftoms, from which ’till that time they were exempted. Thereupon
the Hollanders befieg’d the Fortrefs of Keckrnijhe, but the Heats were fo intolera
ble, that they were forc’d to quit their defign with great lofs of their Men*
and at length by great Prefents to the chief Courtiers, they obtain’d to pay no more
than forty, fix Tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. . ^ . , 1
harec is an Ifland nearer to Ormus than Kechpni(he y well inhabited, and 10 iior
with Stags and Hinds, that in one day we kill’d five and forty. ,
From Keck?ni(he we Sail’d for Omus, where we arriv’d the firft of May* ^