THE FORT. 



43 



towers studded with perpendicular loopholes ; 

 three tiers of fire opposite the entrance to the 

 northern harhour ; a place d'armes : a high don- 

 jon with a giant flag-staff, conspicuous for 5 or 6 

 miles from the south, and sundry garnishings 

 of little domes and luxuriant trees, some even 

 growing out of the wall cracks. 



Hearing that strangers are admitted to the 

 Eort — Mrs Eebmann has often visited it — I 

 proceeded to the head- quarters of the Jemadar. 

 Arrived at the land gate leading to the inner 

 Barzeh or vestibule, my attention was directed 

 to the Portuguese inscription before alluded to. 

 It is half defaced by the Arabs, but this is of the 

 less consequence as copies have been published 

 by Captains Owen and Guillain.^ At the angles 

 of the western and southern bastions are also 

 scutcheons in stone bearing the names Baluarte 

 Sao Eelippe and Baluarte Alberto. That to the 

 north was called Baluarte Sao Matthias (from Mat- 

 thias de Albuquerque), but here, as on the south 

 side, the inscriptions have disappeared, probably 

 by the fire of the enemy. A sentinel at the gate 



^ Owen (i. 404, 405) sketches and transcribes it very in- 

 correctly. Gruillain (vol. i., Appendix, p. 622) has done his 

 work better. In vol. i., p. 442, however, he gives the name of 

 the governor as ' Sexas e Cabra ' — the latter by no means com- 

 plimentary. 



