SHIRAZ TO BUSHIRE. 5 



India. The date-groves of Mahamra were silent and 

 deserted ; the bustle and stir of a camp were no 

 more ; the only objects moving on that white glis- 

 tening plain beyond were a few half-naked Arabs 

 scratching about in the sand where the camp had 

 stood ; and these, seen through a hazy mirage, were 

 grotesque-looking enough, their heads appearing and 

 disappearing in upper stratas of the heated air, sep- 

 arated by several yards from their bodies, and their 

 arms and legs glancing hither and thither in detached 

 fragments over the surface of the baking soil. As 

 we passed up the river on our way to Baghdad, on 

 board the little river steamer the Comet, a glance up 

 the Hafar Canal showed us the tall masts of an 

 English sloop-of-war, her long 32-pounders peering 

 out ominously at the low mud-walls of the town of 

 Mahamra. The sloop, lying at anchor in the deep 

 water of the canal, was all that remained of the fleet 

 of some five -and -thirty vessels that were lying off 

 here and in the Shut-el-Arab river so short a time 

 previous. The sloop had been ordered to anchor 

 here, and to remain till the news reached that the 

 terms of the treaty had been fully carried out by 

 the Persians ; also a certain portion of the British 

 force before Bushire was to remain under the same 

 orders. One of the terms of the treaty was to the 

 effect that commissioners were to proceed to Herat, 

 and see that the town had been entirely evacuated 

 by the Persian troops. Until their report bearing 



