A
Few Years Later It Was Transferred To The Island Which Became So Famous,
Under Circumstances Which Are Concisely Related By Abulfeda:
- "Hormuz is
the port of Kerman, a city rich in palms, and very hot.
One who has
visited it in our day tells me that the ancient Hormuz was devastated by
the incursions of the Tartars, and that its people transferred their abode
to an island in the sea called Zarun, near the continent, and lying west
of the old city. At Hormuz itself no inhabitants remain, but some of the
lowest order." (In Buesching, IV. 261-262.) Friar Odoric, about 1321,
found Hormuz "on an island some 5 miles distant from the main." Ibn
Batuta, some eight or nine years later, discriminates between Hormuz or
Moghistan on the mainland, and New Hormuz on the Island of Jeraun, but
describes only the latter, already a great and rich city.
The site of the Island Hormuz has often been visited and described; but I
could find no published trace of any traveller having verified the site of
the more ancient city, though the existence of its ruins was known to John
de Barros, who says that a little fort called Cuxstac (Kuhestek of P.
della Valle, II. p. 300) stood on the site. An application to Colonel
Pelly, the very able British Resident at Bushire, brought me from his own
personal knowledge the information that I sought, and the following
particulars are compiled from the letters with which he has favoured me:
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