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.
