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Basora.

BASORA is a city of the Arabians, which of olde time was governed by those Arabians called Zizarii, but now it is governed by the great Turke where he keepeth an army to his great charges.

The Arabians called Zizarii have the possession of a great countrey, and cannot be overcome of the Turke, because that the sea hath divided their countrey into an Iland by channels with the ebbing and flowing of the sea, and for that cause the Turke cannot bring an army against them, neither by sea nor by land, and another reason is, the inhabitants of that Iland are very strong and warlike men. A dayes journey before you come to Basora, you shall have a little castle or fort, which is set on that point of the land where the rivers of Euphrates and Tygris meet together, and the castle is called Corna : at this point, the two rivers make a monstrous great river, that runneth into the sea, which is called the gulfe of Persia, which is towards the South: Basora is distant from the sea fifteene miles, and it is a city of great trade of spices and drugges which come from Ormus. Also there is great store of corne, Rice, and Dates, which the countrey doth yeeld. I shipped my selfe in Basora to go for Ormus, and so we sailed thorow the Persian sea six hundred miles, which is the distance from Basora to Ormus, and we sailed in small ships made of boards, bound together with small cords or ropes, and in stead of calking they lay betweene every board certaine straw which they have, and so they sowe board and board together, with the straw betweene, wherethorow there commeth much water, and they are very dangerous. Departing from Basora we passed 200 miles with the sea on our right hand, along the gulfe, until at length we arrived at an Iland called Carichii, fro whence we sailed to Ormus in sight of the Persian shore on the left side, and on the right side towards Arabia we discovered infinite Ilands.

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