_ 143 _ Persian Gulf., It is very closed to the coast of Persia, which is only three leagues away and it is ten leagues from the coast of Arabia. It is very little more than three leagues in circumference. It is very sterile and has salt and sulphur in most parts, but no natural vegetation. The city itself has magnificent buildings, it handles an enormous amount of trade because it is the port of call for goods coming from both east and west and those coming from Persia, Armenia and territory to the north. Although the island itself has no resources, because of the freight it handles, it has all the goods in the world. As for such a common thing as water, it gets some from three wells and some cisterns, but the rest has to come from the mainland of Persia, some of it in ships and the rest in barges, together with all the vegetables and fruits both unripe and late season which it consumes and has in plenty. They come from Moghistan and the nearly islands of Kishm, Larak and others, the city has such an abundance of all these things that those who live in it say that the world is a ring and Ormuz a precious stone set in it. The Kingdom of Ormuz of which this city is its capital and from which the kingdom took its name, is on the two coasts of Arabia and Persia, which contain those places Afonso de Albuquerque passed through. A number of its
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