At the back of the town lies a long 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 there.  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 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 Fah. 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 sun-stroke.  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 travel.

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 colours; 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 Bandr-Abas, off which we anchored.

May 4th.  The town is situated on 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.