A View of Ormus in 1627 Author(s): William Foster Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Aug., 1894), pp. 160-162 Published by: geographicalj Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1773806 Accessed: 26-06-2016 05:34 UTC
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This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 05:34:13 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms lGO .& ArIElF OF ORAIUS IN 1627.
the co amencement of his magnum opus, he wrote a work entitled 'La Terre,' a tzeatise on purely physical geography, practically a preface to ' La Terre et les Hotnmes; ' and he still promises a supple- mentary volunse, to be wlitten at his ease, dealing exclusively with the human element in geoz,raphy- a di^,est and generalization of his results. He has lichly earned the right to speculate with the wealth he has created.
A VIEW OF ORMUS IN 1627.
By WILLIAM FOSTER.
POSSIBLY some of the readers of the Geoge-aphical Journal will recollect an ancient sketch-uap of Bombay harbour, which was found a few trears ago in one of the lo^,.s of the East India Company's vessels, and was brought to notice by Sir George Birdwood in the reprint (1891) of his report on the early records of the India Office. This drawing attlacted considerable attention at the time of its publication, and has since been reproduced on more than one occasion. We are no^s enabled, by the permission of the allthorities, to give a facsimile of a second sketch fiom the same journal, representirlg the once famous town and castle of Ormus, as they appeared in the year 1627. Otmus is to-day little more than a name a heap of slowla crumbling ruins, among which stand the mat huts of perhaps a couple of hundred fishermen. The old Portuguese fort, only a degree less ruinous than the town itself, looks over a bay whose waters are seldown disturled by a European keel; and the handful of Persian soldiers who forln it.s garrison have little to do but keep guard over a few prisoners sent over from Bandar Abbasi for safe custody. But, as every one knows, this was not always so; on the contrary, there was a time when the island nvas one of the most important trading eentres of the Eastern seas, and its Ilatne was a synonym to Western ears for all that was wealthy and magnifieent.* Its situation at the entranee of the Persian Glllf made it a eonvenient halfwat--house in the line of traffie from the Indies to Europe via Aleppo; while on its own aeeount it earried on a brisk trade with India, espeeially in horses, obtained from the neighbouring mainland. The early travellers vie nvith one another in estolling its riehes and the immensity of its traffie. " Ormus is a vacst emporiun of the world," xvrote Athanasius Nikitin in the fifteentll century; " 5 ou find there people and goods of every deseription;" and more tharl a century later John Newbery found there " merehants of all nations " and " very great trade." Prosperity, however, brought with it its Nemesis in the shape of attacks from would-be possessors of an island so rieh and so admirably situated. It at once attlaeted the llotiee of the great Albuquerque when
* Cp. ' Paradise Lost,' ii. 2.
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X ' r<' :'hffg gb4 < / ttw P '2- +4'-S@}Tv X / - > tJt47reed b r 4 c [627. This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 05:34:13 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms A VIEW OF ORMUS IN 1627. 161 he entered upon his task of building up an empire for Portugal in the TEastern Seas. In 1507 he reduced the island, and commenced to erect a fortress. A mutiny of his captains forced him to abandon his project for a time; but eight years later he resumed his task, and did not leave the island until he had seen the fortress completed and equipped. The Portuguese domination was by no means tamely acquiesced in; and Arabs, Turks, and Persians tried in turn to oust the European intruders. At last, in 16'22, the forces of Shah Abbas, with the assistance of some English ships frotn Surat, captured the fort after a desperate resistance. The garrison was deported to Goa, and the other inhabitants, it would #eelzl to Bandar Abbasi, to which port the Persians wished to diere3rt the trade of the island; the town, already much damaged during the siege of the castle, was plundered of everything movable, even the stones of tlle houses being in rnany cases carried off for building mate- rial; and the island was left, as it has evel since remained, desolate and practically uninhabited. Nearly five years had passed since the estinction of the town, when the author of our sketch-David Davies, master's mate of the East India Company's ship Da.scovery found himself in Olmus roads with an idle hour on his hands, and utili7.ed this leisure in putting on paper in his rough way the view which lay before him. After the marauding es- pedition down the Malabar coast, which produced the map of Bombay harbour already referred to, the Discovery returned to Surat, and thence, on Decembel 1S, 1626, sailed, in company with five other ships, some of which were apparently Dutch, with a cargo of goods for the factors at Gombroon. Their destination was reached on the 18th of the following month, and the holds were in due course emptied of their contents. There seems to have been little in the way of merchandise for the ships to take back to Surat, e2rcept what native traders might care to venture. It was necessary, therefore, to procure a qtlantity of ballast; and so on the 30th three of the vessels the Discovery amongst them were sent across to C&rmus to fetch stones for this purpose from the ruins of the old town. This occupied them for five days, and it was during the period thns spent that Davies made his sketch, stretching it, as will be seen, across two pages of his journal. Their task ended, the three ships returned to their consorts, and at laidnight on iEsebruary 18 the fleet sailed for Surat, which was reached without incident on the 10th of the -following montb. To fillly appreciate the picture of Ormus thus presented to view, it should be studied side by side with the illustrations to a paper by Captain A. W. StifEe, I.N., which appeared in the Geographacal Magazane for Apri], 1874. This valuable article gives not only a sumleary of the history of the island, particularly of the siege of 1622, but also an interesting account of its condition at the time of the writer's visit in 1873. The illustrations include a sketch of the fort and landint,-place, N0. Il.-AUGUST, 1894.] M This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 05:34:13 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 162 THE LANDSLIP AT GOHNA, IN BRITISH GARWHAL. a careful plan of the north end of the island, a general map of Ormus and the neighbouring coasts, and a vely quaint bird's-eye view of the town from Astley's ' Collection of Voyages.' With the aid of these, the principal points in Davies's drawing are easily identilied. Starting from the left, we at once recogllize the castle, standing at the extremity of the neck of land on which the town is situated. Next is the bridge leading os-er the moat which defended the fortress on its landward side. A little further on is a tall column, marked by Davies as the " church," really a brick minalet, seventy feet high, and coated with glazed tiles, which was still standing, thouOh in a totterillg condition, at the time of Captain S-tiSe's visit; the mosque to which it originally belonged is said to have been destroyed by the Portuguese as being too near the castle. Round this minaret cluster the retnains of the town. In the background are seen the precipitous peaks of a range of salt hills; and on the summit of the hi(rhest of these is a chapel (" monastery," Davies calls it), with a zigzat, road leadingSup to it. At a lower level is apparently indicated a "salt vein," a feature of the island specially mentioned by Captain StiffeS who deseribes the valleys as thickly encrusted with salt washed domrn fiom the hills. On the shore to the right are shown several water- cisterns, now for the most part choked with earth, and utilized for raising small crops of vegetables, otc. In front of thf3se a number of dots indicate the presellce of a sandbank, and the soundings in the roads before the town are carefully given. The writing above and below the sketch consists partly of nautical directions for safe anchoragee and partly of the continuation of the writer's journal. Such are the main features of this intelesting old drawing. Of David Davies hilnself little or nothing is known. Only his log-book survives, written in the queerest spelling, an(l illustrated by a few rough sketches, of which the present, and the one previously published, are the most important. And one may note, in conclusion, that these two drawings form a link between two island cities of the same sea whose destinies have been curiously reversed- Ormus, which was once a great commercial centre, and to-day is nothing: and Bombay, then an obscure Portuguese settlement, and now a city whose wealth and mag- nificence are famous throughout the wotld. THE LANDSLIP AT GOHNA, IN BRITISH GARWHAL.* THE Bireh-ganga, a small stream follomring a westerly coulse for some 20 miles, joins the Alaknanda the main branch of the GanDes -at a * The reports on which this article i8 based have been communicated tc) the SocietJr by General R. Strachey, bs permission of' the Secrctary of State for India. This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 05:34:13 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms