'Visit to Lingah, Kishm and Bunder Abbas by Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis Pelly, printed article of an account read before the Royal Geographical Society of London 27 Jun 1864' [‎3r] (5/14)

VISIT TO LING-AH, KISHM, AND BUNDER ABBASS.
i left Bushire in December, 1863, and landed at Lingah, whence
I came on to Bassidore, visiting the salt-caves and naphtha-springs
on the island of Kishm, and so, passing down the Clarence Straits,
touched at Khumeer to see the formations of sulphur and red ochre,
and thence crossing to Bunder Abbass, awaited there the return
of the mail steamer to Bushire, visiting in the meantime the island
of llormuz.
Lingah contains a fort, and is surrounded by an unwalled town
of stone, flanked on either side along the shore line by a series of
clusters of houses, overhung with date-trees. The roadstead is
open, and though sheltered from the north-west, is dangerous for
shipping during the prevailing south-east and south-west winds;
but a solid masonry breakwater affords protection to small craft.
Lingah may be some 25 miles distant from Bassidore in a north
westerly direction, and is the chief-town of a district lying imme
diately between the sea and the barren and precipitous mountains
which lead up through Lar, and so on to the Shiraz road. The
district touches the Sheikhdom of Moghoo on the north-west, and
extends south-east almost to Bunder Mollum and the region
farmed under Bunder Abbass by the Sultan of Maskat. About
4 miles south-east of Lingah lie the ruins of the Portuguese fort
Kong. Portions of what seems to have been the factory An East India Company trading post. and a
half-moon casemated battery are still standing close to the water-
line, as are also the ruins of a breakwater, from which probably the
idea of that of Lingah was taken. The produce of the district
consists of dates and some barley and wheat, sufficient for home
consumption. The Sheikh of Lingah is an Arab, and claims to be
a descendant of a family that emigrated to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. at the
period when the Arabs were at the height of their power at Baghdad.
He is, I believe, related to the Rasulkhymah Chief on the opposite
coast. No import or export duty is due in Lingah, and it is pro
bably to this fact, and to that of geographical position having
preserved the port from governmental interference, that its hitherto
prosperity is due. At present the township, with its adjacent
suburbs, may contain from 8000 to 10,000 inhabitants, of whom
the bulk are evidently Africans. The wealthier class are Per-
B