GOVERNMENT OF ARABIA. 147 



merchandise passing up the Gulf in Arab bottoms. 

 From the province of Oman alone, it has been 

 reckoned at more than 120,000 dollars (26,250/.) 

 amiually; and from all other ports of Arabia, and 

 from Zanguebar, to about 30,000 or 40,000 dollars 

 more. Commerce, however, is the chief fountain 

 of his wealth. Besides the ports on the Gulf, he 

 trades to all parts of the East ; to the coasts of 

 Arabia and Africa ; to Madagascar and the Mauritius. 

 His capital is the great entrepot for warehousing and 

 exchanging the produce of various nations ; and in 

 such a traffic, the sovereign doubtless possesses 

 many advantages over his subjects. His expendi- 

 ture is light compared to his income ; he has no 

 regular military establishment to keep up, nor any 

 expensive machinery of government ; and after all 

 his outlay, it is supposed that he may deposite an- 

 nually a surplus of nearly 100,000 dollars. 



In addition to his hereditary dominions on the 

 Arabian coast, the imam holds in possession the 

 islands of Kishma and Ormuz ; and rents, from the 

 crown of Persia, Gombroon with its dependencies, 

 including a tract of coast of about ninety miles in 

 extent. The inhabitants of Muscat, in point of 

 manners, cleanliness, and liberality to strangers, are 

 reckoned the most civilized of their countrymen; 

 and, though not addicted to war, they are esteemed 

 the best mariners in Arabia. They use small mer- 

 chant-vessels called trankis, the sails of which are 

 not formed of matting, as in Yemen, but of linen. 

 The planks are not nailed, but tied or sewed toge- 

 ther. A little to the north-west of Muscat, and seated 

 at the bottom of a cove nearly resembling its own, 

 lies the town of Muttra. Though a place of less 

 business, it contains a greater number of well-built 

 houses, and affords a cooler and more agreeable 

 residence than the capital. 



The province of Hajar, or El Ha^sa, belonged to 

 the sheiks of the Beni Khaled, one of the most 



