They contain
large quantities of salt, and numbers of caravans come annually from
Persia and Arabia to procure it. In the evening we reached the
small Persian town of Bandr-Abas, off which we anchored.
May 4th. The town is situated on low hills of sand and rocks, which
are separated from higher mountains by a small plain. Here also the
whole country is barren and wild; solitary groups of palms are found
only in the plains.
I looked wistfully towards the land, - I would gladly have visited
Persia. The captain, however, advised me not to do so in the dress
I wore; because, as he informed me, the Persians were not so good-
natured as the Hindoos, and the appearance of a European woman in
this remote district was too uncommon an event; I might probably be
greeted with a shower of stones.
Fortunately there was a young man on board who was half English and
half Persian (his father, an Englishman, had married an Armenian
from Teheran), and spoke both languages equally well. I asked him
to take me on shore, which he very readily did. He conducted me to
the bazaar, and through several streets. The people indeed flocked
from all sides and gazed at me, but did not offer me the slightest
annoyance.
