could be
turned into a fair artificial harbour. The native town itself--if it can
be honoured with such a name--consists of a few miserable mud houses,
with streets in which one sinks in filth and mud. The inhabitants are the
most miserable and worst ruffians in Persia, together with some Hindoos.
There is a European community of less than half-a-dozen souls.

The _British India_ and other coasting steamers touch here, and therefore
this has been made the starting-point for caravans to Kerman and Yezd and
Sistan _via_ Bam. But for Isfahan and Teheran the more direct and shorter
route _via_ Bushire is selected. The caravan road from Bandar Abbas to
Kerman and Yezd is extremely bad and unsafe. Several times of late the
track has been blocked, and caravans robbed. During 1900, and since that
date, the risk of travelling on the road seems to have increased, and as
it is useless for Persians to try and obtain protection or compensation
from their own Government the traffic not only has been diverted when
possible to other routes, principally Bushire, but the rates for
transport of goods inland had at one time become almost prohibitive. In
the summer of 1900, it cost 18 tomans (about L3 9_s._) to convey 900 lbs.
weight as far as Yezd, but in the autumn the charges rose to 56 tomans
(about L10 13_s._) or more than three times as much for the same weight
of goods. Eventually the rates were brought down to 22 tomans, but only
for a short time, after which they fluctuated again up to 28 tomans. It
was with the greatest difficulty that loading camels could be obtained at
all, owing to the deficiency of exports, and this partly accounted for
the extortionate prices demanded. An English gentleman whom I met in
Kerman told me that it was only at great expense and trouble that he was
able to procure camels to proceed from Bandar Abbas to Kerman, and even
then he had to leave all his luggage behind to follow when other animals
could be obtained.

According to statistics furnished by the British Vice-Consul, the exports
of 1900 were half those of 1899, the exact figures being L202,232 for
1899; L102,671 for 1900. Opium, which had had the lead by far in previous
years, fell from L48,367 to L4,440. Raw cotton, however, not only held
its own but rose to a value of L18,692 from L6,159 the previous year. In
the years 1888, 1889, 1890, and 1891 the exports of raw cotton were
abnormal, and rose to about L35,000 in 1890, the highest record duri