Feb. 9, 1857.] RAWLINSON ON SOUTHERN PERSIA. 281 



the Persian Gulf. This Gulf in olden times was called the Ery- 

 thraean Sea. I shall not fatigue you by going into the details of the 

 ancient history of the country ; but I may just mention that this 

 name of Erythraean Sea recalls many associations of great interest. 

 The Eed Sea of Egypt and the Persian Gulf were both called the 

 Erythraean Sea, or Eed Sea, not in allusion to the colour of the water, 

 as has been sometimes supposed, but rather as *' the sea of the Red 

 Men ;" for those Erythreeans, or " Eed Men," who inhabited equally 

 the shores of Abyssinia and of the Persian Gulf, were a great Hammite 

 race — the same which founded the kingdom of Nimrod in Babylonia, 

 and to which belonged the Ethiopians of both Africa and Asia. 

 These people, wherever they were found, were called " Eed Men," 

 having thus the name of Erythrceans in the Persian and Arabian 

 Gulfs, of Phoenicians on the shores of the Mediterranean, of Idu- 

 means in the valley of the Euphrates, and of Homerites in the south 

 of the Peninsula ; for all these names have the same signification 

 of " Eed ; " and thus the tradition is explained, that Phoenicia was 

 colonised by the Erythraeans : they are, in fact, the same people. 

 We have indeed many proofs of this identity, which I shall be able 

 perhaps to notice as I proceed to explain the actual geography of 

 this famous sea. Probably the first point which will interest you, is 

 a notice of the scenes of the recent ex})edition from Bombay. I have 

 here a small plan— an amplification of a chart of Bushir and the sur- 

 rounding country — for which I am indebted to Colonel Sykes. This 

 chart shows you the country where the troops landed, and through 

 which they marched from Hallila Bay to Bushir. The most inter- 

 esting and curious matter connected with the march is this, that 

 the very point where the British troops first came into collision 

 with the Persians — a place which will ever be remembered as the 

 scene of a great victory of our troops, and where so many gallant 

 officers fell — that spot happens to be the most important in point of 

 antiquarian and historical interest of any place in the whole Persian 

 Gulf. At this very spot indeed existed in antiquity, the great capital 

 of the race which ruled in the Erythraean Sea. The remains of a city 

 are still to be seen there ; and from its ruins I produce here an 

 actual fragment, a brick from the Temple of Tirhakeh, the great 

 king of Ethiopia, who was contemporary with Sennacherib. There 

 are many specimens of the same class in the British Museum ; and 

 this particular brick was sent to Col. Sykes. I have written a few 

 notes upon this place, Eishir, which probably you will allow me to 

 read : — 



" In remote antiquity it must have been a place of much import- 

 ance, for numbers of bricks, impressed with cuneiform legends, have 



2 a2 



