Pomegranates, oranges, pistachio-nuts,
and various other fruits grow in profusion. The source of its fertility is
of course the river, and you can walk for miles among lanes and cultivated
ground, partially sheltered from the sun." And Lieutenant Kempthorne, in
his notes on that coast, says of the same tract: "It is termed by the
natives the Paradise of Persia. It is certainly most beautifully fertile,
and abounds in orange-groves, and orchards containing apples, pears,
peaches, and apricots; with vineyards producing a delicious grape, from
which was at one time made a wine called amber-rosolli" - a name not easy
to explain. 'Ambar-i-Rasul, "The Prophet's Bouquet!" would be too bold a
name even for Persia, though names more sacred are so profaned at Naples
and on the Moselle. Sir H. Rawlinson suggests 'Ambar-'asali, "Honey
Bouquet," as possible.
When Nearchus beached his fleet on the shore of Harmozeia at the mouth
of the Anamis (the River of Minao), Arrian tells us he found the country
a kindly one, and very fruitful in every way except that there were no
olives. The weary mariners landed and enjoyed this pleasant rest from
their toils. (Indica, 33; J. R. G. S. V. 274.)
[Illustration: MARCO POLO'S ITINERARIES
No. II.
Kerman to Hormuz (Bk I. Ch. 19)]
The name Formosa is probably only Rusticiano's misunderstanding of
Harmuza, aided, perhaps, by Polo's picture of the beauty of the plain.
We have the same change in the old Mafomet for Mahomet, and the converse
one in the Spanish hermosa for formosa. Teixeira's Chronicle says that
the city of Hormuz was founded by Xa Mahamed Dranku, i.e. Shah Mahomed
Dirhem-Ko, in "a plain of the same name."
The statement in Ramusio that Hormuz stood upon an island, is, I doubt
not, an interpolation by himself or some earlier transcriber.
When the ships of Nearchus launched again from the mouth of the Anamis,
their first day's run carried them past a certain desert and bushy island
to another which was large and inhabited. The desert isle was called
Organa; the large one by which they anchored Oaracta. (Indica, 37.)
Neither name is quite lost; the latter greater island is Kishm or
Brakht; the former Jerun,[2] perhaps in old Persian Gerun or
Geran, now again desert though no longer bushy, after having been for
three centuries the site of a city which became a poetic type of wealth
and splendour. An Eastern saying ran, "Were the world a ring, Hormuz would
be the jewel in it."
["The Yuean shi mentions several seaports of the Indian Ocean as carrying
on trade with China; Hormuz is not spoken of there. I may, however, quote
from the Yuean History a curious statement which perhaps refers to this
port. In ch. cxxiii., biography of Arsz-lan, it is recorded that his
grandson Hurdutai, by order of Kubilai Khan, accompanied Bu-lo no-yen on
his mission to the country of Ha-rh-ma-sz.
