The landing of the Persian women presented a most laughable spectacle:  if they had been beauties of the highest order, or princesses from the sultan’s harem, there could not have been more care taken to conceal them from the possibility of being seen by men.

I was indebted to my sex for the few glimpses which I caught of them in the cabin; but among the whole eighteen women I did not see a single good-looking one.  Their husbands placed themselves in two rows from the cabin to the ship’s ladder, holding large cloths stretched before them, and forming in this way a kind of opaque moveable wall on both sides.  Presently the women came out of the cabin; they were so covered with large wrappers that they had to be led as if they were blind.  They stood close together between the walls, and waited until the whole were assembled, when the entire party, namely, the moveable wall and the beauties concealed behind it, proceeded step by step.  The scrambling over the narrow ship’s ladders was truly pitiable; first one stumbled, and then another.  The landing occupied more than an hour.

13th May.  The captain brought me word that a German missionary was accidentally at Bassora, who had a dwelling with several rooms, and could probably give me shelter.  I went to him immediately, and he was so obliging as to provide me with a room in which, at the same time, I found a fireplace.  I took leave of the good captain with sincere regret.  I shall never forget his friendliness and attentions.  He was a truly good-hearted man, and yet the unfortunate crew, mostly Hindoos and negroes, were treated worse on board his ship than I had observed elsewhere.  This was the fault of the two mates, who accompanied nearly every word with pushes and blows of the fist.  In Muscat three of the poor fellows ran away.

The Christian Europeans excel the pagan Hindoos and Musselmen in learning and science; might they not also at least equal the latter in kindness and humanity?

A small English war-steamer was expected at Bassora in the course of a few days, which carried letters and dispatches between this place and Baghdad, and whose captain was so good as to take European travellers (of whom there are not many that lose themselves here) with him.

I availed myself of the few days of my stay to look about the town, and see what still remains of its ancient celebrity.

Bassora, or Bassra, was founded in the reign of the Caliph Omar, in the year 656.  Sometimes under Turkish, sometimes under Persian dominion, it was at last permanently placed under the latter power.  There are no vestiges of antiquity remaining; neither ruins of handsome mosques nor caravansaries.  The fortified walls are much dilapidated, the houses of the town small and unattractive, the streets crooked, narrow, and dirty.  The bazaar, which consists of covered galleries with wretched stalls, cannot show a single good stock of goods, although Bassora is the principal emporium and trading port for the Indian wares imported into Turkey.  There are several coffee-stalls and a second-rate caravansary in the bazaar.  A large open space, not very remarkable for cleanliness, serves in the day as a corn-market; and in the evening several hundred guests are to be seen seated before a large coffee-stall, drinking coffee and smoking nargillies.