"تقرير عن إدارة المقيمية السياسية في الخليج العربي والوكالة السياسية في مسقط لسنة ١٨٧٨-١٨٧٩." [ظ‎‎١‎٦‎١] (١٤٦/١٢٩)

118 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE PEliSIAN GULF POLITICAL
interior, dwelling with the tribes and collecting information regarding tlie
country and people, the results of his observations being embodied in
his travels in Arabia published in 1838, accompanied by a map. The
map was the first trustworthy delineation of a country hitherto unknown
to Europeans, and imperfect as it is, is still the most valuable we possess
and it has served as the groundwork of all subsequent ones. Lieutenant
Wellsted claims to have laid down his positions accurately from astro
nomical observations, but I may remark that they are not all to be quite
depended on, the important town and valley of Semail, for instance
being placed some twenty miles too far west. Wellsted was accom-
panied during the greater part of his journey by Lieutenant Whitelock
I. N., who also traversed a considerable tract alone, at one time visiting
Rostak and at another crossing from Shinas to Shargah. These routes
are shown in Wellsted^s map, which Whitelock assisted to produce.
Whitelock's account of his journeys was presented, I believe, to the
Bombay Geographical Society, but it has not appeared in their transac
tions and has hitherto unfortunately been allowed to remain in obscurity.
Several other officers of the Indian Navy made trips into the interior
about this time, and one, a Mr. Cole, journeyed from El Ashkareh to
Muskat by way of the Green Mountains, but none of these can be said to
have added to our geographical information. In 1838 a French Botanist,
named Aucher Eloy, a man of the most indefatigable energy and per
severance, visited Muskat and traversed a considerable extent of the
country on foot in search of plants and other natural history specimens,
of which he made a large collection. He visited the Green Mountains
by way of Nakhl, a route untraversed by Wellsted or Whitelock, and
returned by Zikki and the Wady Semail. He died shortly afterwards
in Persia on the way home, but his journals were published by Jaubert
in 1843 with a map, in which Aucher Eloy^s route through •'Oman was
shown. In 1845 Colonel Hamerton, the Political Agent at Muskat, made
a journey from Shargah to El Bereymi, and thence to Sohar, of which a
short notice appears in the Bombay Government Selections, Volume
XXIV, and he is said to have made other trips, but no record of them is
known to me. Ten years later, in 1855, El Bereymi was again visited
from Shargah by Lieutenant Chester, I. N., who returned the same
way. Subsequently, when Acting Political Agent at Muskat, Lieutenant
Chester proceeded to the Green Mountains for the benefit of his health,
which had broken down, but, his illness increasing while on the road, he
was compelled to return before reaching them.
In 1862 Mr. W. G. Palgrave visited ^Om^n and has described his
experiences in his well-known travels in Central and Eastern Arabia.
Mr. Palgrave touched at Sohar and was shipwrecked near Burka, from
whence he travelled by land to Muskat. The information given by him,
however, does not appear to be of much value. Many of the localities
mentioned are not recognizable and are unknown to the Arabs so far as
my enquiries extend, while other names have unmistakeably been copied
from Wellsted, who again had copied from Vincenzo in whose book they had
been misprinted. In 1860 Lieutenant Stiffe, I. N., surveyed the harbour
of Muskat and executed a plan of the environs which has been published
as Admiralty Chart No. 2869, and leaves nothing to be desired so far as
it goes. Lieutenant Stiffe also visited the town of Bosher, 20 miles from