[86] Other forms—Hormazia, Armizia regio. The name was transferred from the mainland to the island now called +Ormus+, when the inhabitants fled thither to escape from the Moghals. It is called by Arrian +Organa+ (chap. xxxvii.) The Arabians called it Djerun, a name which it continued to bear up to the 12th century. Pliny mentions an island called Oguris, of which perhaps Djerun is a corruption. He ascribes to it the honour of having been the birthplace of Erythrés. The description, however, which he gives of it is more applicable to the island called by Arrian (chap. xxxvii.) Oârakta (now Kishm) than to Ormus. Arrian’s description of Harmozia is still applicable to the region adjacent to the Mînâb. “It is termed,” says Kempthorne, “the Paradise of Persia. It is certainly most beautifully fertile, and abounds in orange groves, orchards containing apples, pears, peaches, and apricots, with vineyards producing a delicious grape, from which was made at one time a wine called Amber rosolia, generally considered the white wine of Kishma; but no wine is made here now.” The old name of Kishma—Oârakta—is preserved in one of its modern names, Vrokt or Brokt. [87] Diodôros (XVII. 106) gives quite a different account of the visit of Nearkhos to Alexander. [88] The preceding satrap was Sibyrtios, the friend of Megasthenês. He had been transferred to govern the Gadrosians and the Arakhotians. [89] As stated in Note 64, Organa is now _Ormuz_, and Oarakta, _Kishm_. Ormuz, once so renowned for its wealth and commerce, that it was said of it by its Portuguese occupants, that if the world were a golden ring, Ormuz would be the diamond signet, is now in utter decay. “I have seen,” says Palgrave (II. 319), “the abasement of Tyre, the decline of Surat, the degradation of Goa: but in none of those fallen seaports is aught resembling the utter desolation of Ormuz.” A recent traveller in Persia (Binning) thus describes the coast: “It presents no view but sterile, barren, and desolate chains of rocks and hills: and the general aspect of the Gulf is dismal and forbidding. Moore’s charming allusions to Oman’s sea, with its ‘banks of pearl and palmy isles’ are unfortunately quite visionary; for uglier and more unpicturesque scenery 1 never beheld.”—_Two Years’ Travel in Persia_, I. pp. 136, 137.