BUS 



151 



BUT 



luhire. appearance of a burying. ground. Its only public 

 ' v~"" ' biiilJitii<* are the mosques, which are extremely moan, 

 and of which there are four of the Shiitts, and three 

 of the Sunnitcs. It has also two hutnmums, and two 

 caravanseras. The house of the English resident 

 stands about two miles from the town, and is the 

 only place deserving the name of a building. 



liuhire possesses a very commodious harbour, by 

 which vessels can approach close to the city. Fleets 

 of boats from the neighbouring coast bring coarse 

 linen for turbans, earthen pots, mats, &c. which 

 they exchange for dates. From Bombay, Masuli- 

 patam, and Bengal, it draws Gu/erat kincobs, chintz, 

 long cloths, muslins, &c. for which the return is ge- 

 nerally made in specie ; but many of its broad cloths 

 are imported from France by way of Russia ; and 

 notwithstanding the expence of land carriage, it buys 

 them cheaper than they can be procured from the 

 East India Company. The favourite colours are 

 scarlet and yellow. Its principal exports are car- 

 pets, pearls, and cotton ; and its inhabitants fabri- 

 cate from the cotton bushes in the vicinity of the 

 town, a kind of cloth nearly equal to the China nan- 

 keen. It carries on also a considerable trade with 

 Shiraz, by means of caravans. 



Bushire owes its origin to the Arabs, who, at an 

 early period, had formed settlements along the east- 

 ern coast of the Persian Gulf; and, till within these 

 few years, it continued to be an independent state, 

 governed by its own Sheik. The power of Sheik 

 Nasr, the most celebrated of its princes, extended 

 over the low country, called Dashtistan ; besides 

 which, he possessed the isle of Bahrein, and a con- 

 siderable territory in Kermesis. This prince, though 

 perpetually engaged in war, carried on a very ex- 

 tensive commerce with India and Muscat, which 

 brought him considerable wealth. By this he was 

 enabled to maintain a large standing force, which of- 

 ten withstood the whole power or the Persian mo- 

 narchs : and, on an emergency, he could collect a nu- 

 merous army of Arabs from the surrounding tribes ; 

 who, upon a well-known signal, willingly flocked to 

 the standard of the hospitable chief. ' The Sheik 

 of Bushire," says Mr Morier, " is still remembered, 

 in his general conduct, with reverence. Whenever his 

 little domain was threatened by the government of 

 Persia, or by a neighbouring chief, Sheik Nasr flew 

 to arms. According to the traditional accounts of 

 the country, his summons to his followers in these 

 emergencies was equally characteristic and effectual. 

 He mounted two large braziers of Piltau on a camel, 

 and sent it to parade round the country. The rough 

 pace of the animal put the ladles in motion, so that 

 they struck the sides of the vessels at marked inter- 

 vals, and produced a most sonorous clang. As it 

 traversed the Dashtistan, it collected the mob of 

 every district ; every one had tasted the Arab hospi- 

 tality of the Sheik, and every one remembered the 

 appeal, and crowded round the ancient standard of 

 their chief, till his camel returned to him surrounded 

 by a force sufficient to rrpel the threatened encroach- 

 ments." His descendants, however, were unable to 

 maintain the government which he had strengthened 

 and so long upheld. His grandson, Abdullah Re- 

 soul, a young man of indolent and dissolute habits, 

 inherited none of those qualities, which commanded 



the affection) and services of his people, but n. 

 filled the office to which he had bceu born, and held 

 his precarious authority only at the will of Persia. 

 Being unwilling or unable to comply with the de- 

 mand of the governor of Farsistan for a sum of 

 money, he was deposed in 1808, when Mahomed 

 Nebee Khan, formerly a poor merchant, and after- 

 wards Persian ambassador at Calcutta, procured the 

 succession to the government of Bushire, for 40,000 

 tomauns, equal nearly to as many pounds sterling. 



The town of Bushire contains about 400 houses, 

 with nearly an equal number of date-tree huts ; and 

 its population is estimated at 10,000. N. Lat. 28* 

 59', E. Long. 50 43'. See Morier's Journey through 

 Persia, Armenia, and Atia Minor, to Conttantinople, 

 in the Years 1808 and 1809, p. 56 ; Warine's Titftt 

 toSheeraz, p. 2, &c. in Philips' t Collection ofVoya^f* t 

 &c. vol. vi. i and Niebuhr's Travel*, vol. ii. p. 117. 



JUSTARD BAY, on the coast of New Hoi- 

 land, was discovered by Captain Cook in 1770, and 

 received its name from a species of bustard which he 

 found there, which was as large as a turkey, and the 

 best bird he had eaten since his departure from Eng 

 land. The country about this place is of a dry and 

 sandy soil, and is much worse than at Botany Bay. 

 The hills, however, are covered with trees, which 

 grow separately without underwood ; and on the 

 sides of the bay grows the true mangrove, such as it 

 found in the West Indies. " In the branches of 

 these mangroves," says Captain Cook, ** there were 

 many nests of a remarkable kind of ant, that was as 

 green as grass ; when the branches were disturbed, 

 they came out in great numbers, and punished the 

 offender by a much sharper bite than ever we had 

 felt from the same kind of animal before. Upon these 

 mangroves, also, we saw small green caterpillars in 

 great numbers ; their bodies were thick set with 

 hairs, and they were ranged upon the leaves, side by 

 side, like a file of soldiers, to the number of twenty 

 or thirty together. When we touched them, we 

 found that the hair on their bodies had the quality 

 of a nettle, and gave us a much more acute, though 

 less durable pain." The shoals and sand-banks a- 

 bound with pelicans, and the sea with fish and oys- 

 ters of various kinds, both hammer and pearl. Cap- 

 tain Cook supposed, that the inhabitants had neither 

 clothes nor habitations ; but that they spent the 

 night among the other commoners of nature in the 

 open air. W. Long. 208 18', S. Lat. 24 4'. (p) 



BUTCHER, a word of uncertain derivation, sig- 

 nifies a person who slaughters cattle for the table, or 

 for sale. In London there are two sorts of butchers : 

 carcass-butchers, who kill meat in large Quantities, 

 and sell it out to others, called retail-outchers, who 

 are dispersed in all out-parts, villages, and towns, near 

 the city. 



The company of butchers, although ancient, form- 

 ed no corporation until the third year of James I., 

 when they were incorporated by the name of masters, 

 wardens, and commonalty of the art and mystery of 

 butchers. Their arras are azure, two axes saltier- 

 wise argeut, between three boars' heads couped, at- 

 tired or, a boar's head gules, between two gwbcs 

 vert. 



Several useful laws have been made, at different 



