lways full of
pitch[123]. The Moors and Arabs of the neighbourhood allege that this
hole is the mouth of Hell; and in truth it is a very memorable object
From this native pitch or bitumen the whole people of that country
derive great benefit, as with it they pay or serve their barks, which
they call _Daneck_ and _Saffin_.

[Footnote 122: In imitation of the original translator Hickocke and
Hakluyt, this word must be left untranslated and unexplained.--E.]

[Footnote 123: This account of the hole which discharges pitch or native
bitumen mixed with water is most true; the water and pitch running into
the valley _or island_, where the pitch remains, and the water runs into
the Euphrates, when it occasions the water for a long way to have a
brackish taste with the smell of pitch and brimstone.--Hakl.]

When the river Tigris is well replenished with water, the passage from
Babylon or Bagdat to Basora may be made in eight or nine days, less or
more according to circumstances; we were fourteen or fifteen days,
because the water was low, and when the waters are at the lowest it
requires eighteen days. Having no rocks or shoals in the river, the
voyage may be continued day and night. There are some places by the way
at which you have to pay so many medins for each bale, as toll or
custom. Basora, Bussora, or Busrah, [in lat. 30 deg. 20' N. long. 47 deg. 40'
E.] is a city on the Arabian side of the united rivers Euphrates and
Tigris, which was governed of old by those Arabs called _Zizarij_, but
is now under the dominion of the grand Turk, who keeps an army there at
great charge. The tribe of Arabs called Zizarij still have possession of
a large extent of country, and cannot be overcome by the Turks, as the
sea divides their country into islands by many channels, so that the
Turks are unable to bring an army against them either by land or sea,
and likewise because the inhabitants are brave and warlike. A days sail
before coming to Basora, we pass a small castle or fort called _Corna_,
on the point of land where the Euphrates and Tigris join; whence the
united waters of these two rivers form a very large river that runs into
the gulf of Persia.

Basora is fifty miles from the sea, and it a place of great trade in
spices and drugs, which are brought from Ormuz. It is abundantly
supplied with corn, rice, and dates, from the surrounding country. At
Basora I shipped myself for Ormuz, to which I sailed through the Persian
gulf 600