wandered over, rather than inhabited, by Arab tribes.

In such a country, therefore, it could not appear surprizing if our travellers gave up the design of traversing Arabia by land from east to west, and gladly availed themselves of the opportunity of reaching the western coast, where the towns are numerous, by taking passage in a vessel about to sail from Bassora, intending to coast round the peninsula and up the Red Sea, until they came opposite to the cele brated city of Mecca, which is not above a day's journey from the shore, and then landing to reach the city of Medina, from whence they could easily determine their future route.

Previous, however, to their quitting the Persian Gulph, they engaged a small polacca to carry them from Bassora to Bahrein Island, being anxious to visit the station of the Pearl Fishery, which is carried on to a great extent, and is a source of great profit to those concerned in it. This island lies about ninety miles westward of Bushire, and fifteen from the coast of Arabia, and is covered with villages and date trees. In fourteen hours they ran down the gulph, the wind being favourable.

The banks, on which the pearl oyster is found, extend about eighty miles; and they were so fortunate as to pass through the fleet of boats, just as they had taken their position, and thus had a full opportunity of observing their man

ner of fishing. The shells, from two to ten inches in diameter, are considered valuable as well as the pearls, the inside furnishing the substance called mother of pearl. Those which adhere to the shell are flat and irregular, but the round pearls are always found in the thick part of the oyster. Two kinds are obtained here the yellow, which are esteemed in Hin. dostan, and the white which are sent to Constantinople, and from thence find their way to the rest of Europe. Indeed, they are preferred to those caught in the straits of Manaar, on the coast of Coromandel, on account of their permanence of colour.

It had been Captain Blisset's original intention to join a caravan, which about this time of the year, annually quits the eastern part of Arabia, to which Bahrein, the already mentioned island is neighbouring, and, traversing the desert in a due westerly direction, to reach Medina, on the west of Arabia, but the accounts he here received of the difficulties of the way made him renounce it.

Our travellers therefore, having satisfied their curiosity at Bassora, and having hired a small vessel, set sail for the shores of the Red Sea, giving directions to the Captain, as soon as he should clear the Persian Gulph, to keep as near the southern shore of the peninsula of Arabia as possible, in order that they might occasion. ally land, and be thereby enabled to form an

idea of the country along which they were sailing.

The first of these places which they stopped at was Muscat, which is by far the most consi. derable of those cities which lie on the eastern shore. It is, in fact, resorted to by vessels from every port in Persia and Arabia, and is usually a halting place for those merchant ships also which sail between Persia and India. On nearing the harbour, they made signal for a pilot, who immediately came aboard, and steered them safely in for a small sum. Nor is this the only sign of civilization which struck our travellers. They found, on landing, so strict a police, that they might have left their trunks all night unguarded in the streets, without danger of having them pilfered. The town was walled round, and strongly fortified: and, though it is not permitted to any but Arabs to reside within it, strangers being obliged to occupy mat houses without the gates, Captain Blisset had no difficulty in obtaining a dispensation from this rule, as soon as his country was known; for, independent of the advan tages they derived from trading with the English, they had been guilty of some acts of piracy, and the British Government had sent some troops and ships of war, which, by a severe cannonade, had reduced them to submission, and made them desirous of shewing every civi lity to a power they dreaded,

The district, of which Muscat is the capital, is that subdivision of Arabia the Happy, which is called Omane, and extends from the entrance of the Persian Gulph, three hundred miles to the southward. Its interior presents nothing but great wastes of sand; but the coast is diversified by ranges of mountains and valleys well watered, so that it yields plentifully, barley, dates, grapes and other productions of a fertile Asiatic soil. The natives are the best navigators of Arabia, and use vessels called trankies, which are very broad in proportion to their length; but the most singular circumstance in their construction is, that the planks, instead of being fastened together by nails, are merely tied and sewed with cords.

It was in Muscat that Captain Blisset and William became fully aware what dangers and difficulties they had escaped, by not joining the caravan which annually sets out across the desert. They here met with an enterprizing traveller, an Englishman, who had put on the Mahometan dress, and, having learned the lan guage of the country, had passed without suspicion as a native; and from him they learned an account of the journey, which he had made, across from Mecca to Muscat. It would be uninteresting to the reader to follow him in the detail of a route in which, for the greater part of the way, nothing was to be seen but an immense tract of sand. When he set out from

Mecca, the caravan consisted of 900 camels, 500 pilgrims and merchants, and an escort of sixty soldiers, to protect them from the Bedouin Arabs, who inhabit the desert, and attack whatever travelling companies they meet. Now and then they lighted upon one of those hordes, and always, on such occasions, they shewed their strength, in order to prevent an attack. Oftentimes, also, they failed of meeting the expected supplies of water, at the usual resting places of the caravan; and had then to struggle, not only with the difficulties of the way, but also with parching thirst; but the greatest trial they had to encounter was that caused by the wind of the desert, called the Simoom, or Simiel-the effect of which is not only instant suffocation to every living creature on which it blows, but also immediate putrefaction of the carcasses of the dead. The Arabians discern the approach of this blast by an unusual redness of the air, and a smell of sulphur: and the only chance of escape they have, is to throw themselves down with their faces to the ground, till the whirlwind has passed by.Once we passed, said the traveller, by a heap of bones, the traces of a caravan, which had been suddenly struck with this blighting wind, or had been buried under the cloud of sand, which accompanies it.

The dress of the wandering Arabs varies in different parts of the country; the men wear

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