squeeze and draw out with their hands,
until they are formed into large thin flakes, which are smeared over
with salt water, and stuck into the inner side of a round tube.
These tubes are made of clay, are about eighteen inches in diameter,
and twenty-two in length; they are sunk one half in the ground, and
furnished with an air-draft below. Wood-charcoal is burnt inside
the tube at the bottom. The cakes are baked on both sides at once;
at the back by the red-hot tube, and in front by the charcoal fire.
I had half-a-dozen of such cakes baked--when eaten warm, they are
very good.

It is easy to distinguish the Persians from the Arabs, of whom there
are many here. The former are larger, and more strongly built;
their skin is whiter, their features coarse and powerful, and their
general appearance rude and wild. Their dress resembles that of the
Mahomedans. Many wear turbans, others a conical cap of black
Astrachan, from a foot to one and a half high.

I was told of so great an act of gratitude of the young man, Mr.
William Hebworth, who accompanied me to Bandr-Abas, that I cannot
omit to mention it. At the age of sixteen he went from Persia to
Bombay, where he met with the kindest reception in the house of a
friend of his father's, by whom he was assisted in every way, and
even obtained an appointment through his interest. One day his
patron, who was married, and the father of four children, had the
misfortune to be thrown from his horse, and died from the effects of
the fall. Mr. Hebworth made the truly noble resolve of marrying the
widow, who was much older than himself, and, instead of property,
possessed only her four children, that he might in this way pay the
debt of gratitude which he owed to his deceased benefactor.

In Bandr-Abas we hired a pilot to take us through the Straits of
Kishma. About noon we sailed.

The passage through these straits is without danger for steamers,
but is avoided by sailing vessels, as the space between the island
Kishma and the mainland is in parts very narrow, and the ships might
be driven on to the shore by contrary winds.

The inland forms an extended plain, and is partially covered with
thin underwood. Great numbers of people come from the neighbouring
mainland to fetch wood from here.

The captain had spoken very highly of the remarkable beauty of this
voyage, the luxuriance of the island, the spots where the sea was so
narrow that the tops of the palms growing