‘A Pilgrimage to Nejd, the cradle of the Arab race. A visit to the court of the Arab Emir, and "Our Persian Campaign."' [‎229] (260/326)

CH. VI.]
A Beluch guard.
229
was no danger now of any lack of courtesy. We
were besieged at once with hospitable offers of enter
tainment for man and beast, but as usual preferred
our camp outside the town. This w T e placed on
a strip of sand dunes fronting the sea, and dividing
it from the level plain which runs inland ten miles
to the foot of the hills. This strip was scattered
over with thorn bushes, in one of which a pair of
cormorants were sitting. Our visitors remonstrated
with us on choosing such a spot, assuring us that
it was full of poisonous snakes, but this no doubt
was nonsense. Among the rest came a wild
looking man with a gun, who told us he was a
Beluch, and sent by the governor of Dilam as a
guard, to protect us during the night. He had
been in Turkish service, and was now in the
Persian. This was our first meeting with any
thing Indian. We liked the man. In the evening,
when it was dark and. all were gone, Wilfrid gave
himself the luxury of bathing in salt water.
We had now done what few if any Europeans
had done before,—come all the way by land from
the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. : our journey
had been over two thousand miles.
April 24.—There was now a great debate
whether we should so on still bv land for the other
O i/
hundred miles which remained to us before we
could reach Bushire, or whether, selling our camels
here at Dilam, we should hire a sefineh, or native
boat, to convey us with our things by sea. Wilfrid