The remains of one building, traditionally
a place of worship, were shown to Wellsted; he could find nothing to
connect it with Christianity.
The social state of the people is much as Father Vincenzo described it;
lower it could scarcely be. Mahomedanism is now the universal profession.
The people of the interior are still of distinct race, with curly hair,
Indian complexion, regular features. The coast people are a mongrel body,
of Arab and other descent. Probably in old times the case was similar, and
the civilisation and Greek may have been confined to the littoral
foreigners. (Mueller's Geog. Gr. Minores, I. pp. 280-281; Relations, I.
139-140; Cathay, clxxi., ccxlv. 169; Conti, 20; Maffei, lib. III.;
Buesching, IV. 278; Faria, I. 117-118; Ram. I. f. 181 v. and 292;
Jarric, Thes. Rer. Indic. I. 108-109; P. Vinc. 132, 442; J.R.G.S.
V. 129 seqq.)
NOTE 3. - As far back as the 10th century Socotra was a noted haunt of
pirates. Mas'udi says: "Socotra is one of the stations frequented by the
Indian corsairs called Bawarij, which chase the Arab ships bound for
India and China, just as the Greek galleys chase the Mussulmans in the sea
of Rum along the coasts of Syria and Egypt" (III.
