In Bandr-Abas we hired a pilot to take us through the Straits of Kishma.  About noon we sailed.

The passage through these straits is without danger for steamers, but is avoided by sailing vessels, as the space between the island Kishma and the mainland is in parts very narrow, and the ships might be driven on to the shore by contrary winds.

The inland forms an extended plain, and is partially covered with thin underwood.  Great numbers of people come from the neighbouring mainland to fetch wood from here.

The captain had spoken very highly of the remarkable beauty of this voyage, the luxuriance of the island, the spots where the sea was so narrow that the tops of the palms growing on the island and mainland touched each other, etc.  Since the last voyage of the good captain, a very unfrequent phenomenon would seem to have taken place—­the lofty slender palms were transformed into miserable underwood, and, at the narrowest point, the mainland was at least half a mile from the island.  Strange to say, Mr. Ross afterwards gave the same description of the place; he believed the captain in preference to his own eyes.

At one of the most considerable contractions stands the handsome fort Luft.  Fifteen years since the principal stronghold of the Persian pirates was in this neighbourhood.  A severe battle was fought between them and the English, near Luft, in which upwards of 800 were killed, many taken prisoners, and the whole gang broken up.  Since that event, perfect security has been restored.

5th May.  We left the straits, and three days later came to anchor off Buschir.

There are considerable quantities of sea-weeds and molluscae in the Persian Gulf; the latter had many fibres, were of a milk-white colour, and resembled a forest agaric in form; others had a glistening rose colour with small yellow spots.  Conger eels of two or three feet in length were not uncommon.

8th May.  The town of Buschir is situated on a plain six miles from the mountains, whose highest peak, called by the Persians Hormutsch, by the English Halala, is 5,000 feet high.

The town contains 15,000 inhabitants, and has the best harbour in Persia; but its appearance is very dirty and ugly.

The houses stand quite close together, so that it is easy to pass from one to the other over the terraces, and it requires no great exertion to run over the roofs, as the terraces are enclosed only by walls one or two feet high.  Upon some houses, square chambers (called wind-catchers), fifteen or twenty feet high, are erected, which can be opened above and at the sides, and serve to intercept the wind and lead it into the apartments.

The women here cover up their faces to such a degree that I cannot imagine how they find their way about.  Even the smallest girls imitate this foolish custom.  There is also no lack of nose-rings, bracelets, sandals, etc.; but they do not wear nearly so many as the Hindoos.  The men are all armed; even in the house they carry daggers or knives, and besides these, pistols in the streets.