or Laristan in Persia, and from the islands of Kishom, Kissmis, or Kishmish, Larek, and others.  About the year 1273, Malek Kaez possessed all the land from the isle of Jerun to that of Bahrayn, bordering on the kingdom of Gordunshah of the province of Mogostan[98].  This king by subtile devices prevailed upon Malek to give him the island of Jerun, being a place of no value whatever; after which he fortified himself there, and transplanting the inhabitants of the ancient city of Ormuz on the coast, where the king used to reside to that island, the king of Persia, fearing he would refuse the accustomed tribute, prepared to invade him:  But the king of Gordunshah diverted him from his purpose, by engaging to be responsible for the tribute, and by doing homage by his ambassadors once in every five years.  By these means the city and kingdom of Ormuz was established, which continued to be ruled over by the heirs of the first possessor and others, mostly by violence[99].

[Footnote 98:  The expression in the text is obscure.  It appears that Malek Kaez, ruled over the sea coast of the kingdom or province rather of Mogostan, of which Gordunshah was king or governor.—­E.]

[Footnote 99:  The account in the text is unintelligible and contradictory:  But we fortunately have one more intelligible from the editor of Astley’s Collection, I. 65. c. which being too long for a note, has been placed in the text between inverted commas.—­E.]

“This account of the origin of the kingdom of Ormuz or Harmuz is related differently in a history of that state written by one of its kings, and given to us by Teixeira at the end of his history of Persia, as follows.—­In the year of Hejirah 700, and of Christ 1302, when the Turkomans, or Turks from Turkestan, overran Persia as far as the Persian Gulf, Mir Bahaddin Ayaz Seyfin, the fifteenth king of Ormuz, resolved, to leave the continent where his dominions then were, and to retire to some of the adjacent islands.  He first passed over with his people to the large island of Brokt or Kishmish[100], called Quixome by the Portuguese, and afterwards removed to a desert isle two leagues distant eastward, which he begged from Neyn king of Keys, and built a new city, calling it Harmuz after the name of his former capital on the coast, the ruins of which are still visible to the east of Gamrun or Gambroon.  By the Arabs and Persians, this island is called Jerun, from a fisherman who lived there at the time when Ayaz first took possession.  In the course of two hundred years, this new city and kingdom advanced so much in wealth and power, that it extended its dominion over a great part of the coasts of Arabia and Persia, all the way to Basrah or Basora.  It became the chief mart of trade in all these parts, which had formerly been established at Keys; but after the reduction of Ormuz, by the Portuguese, its trade and consequence declined much,