Remaining in these mountains until he considered his strength sufficiently restored, he returned to Gombroon. During his residence in Persia, which was nearly of four years’ continuance, he collected so large a quantity of new and curious information, that notwithstanding that most of the spots he describes had been visited by former travellers, his whole track seems to run over an untrodden soil; so true is it that it is the mind of the traveller, far more than the material scene, which furnishes the elements of interest and novelty. The history of this part of his travels, therefore, the results of which are contained in his “Amœnitates,” seemed to deserve being given at some length. To that curious volume I refer the reader for his ample and interesting history of the generation, growth, culture, and uses of the date-palm; his description of that remarkable balsamic juice called _muminahi_ by the Persians, and mumia, or munmy, by Kæmpfer, which exudes from a rock in the district of Daraab, and was annually collected with extraordinary pomp and ceremony for the sole use of the Persian king; and the curious account which he has given of the _asafœtida_ plant, said to be produced only in Persia; the _filaria medinensis_, or worm which breeds between the interstices of the muscles in various parts of the human body; and the real oriental dragon’s blood, which is obtained from a coniferous palm. About the latter end of June, 1688, he sailed on board the Dutch fleet from Gombroon, which having orders to touch at Muscat and several other ports of Arabia, he enjoyed an opportunity of observing something of the climate and productions of that country, from whose spicy shore, to borrow the language of Milton, Sabæan odours are diffused by the north-east winds, when,— Pleased with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiles! Proceeding eastward through the Indian Ocean, they successively visited the north-western coasts of the Deccan, the kingdoms of Malabar, the island of Ceylon, the Gulf of Bengal, and Sumatra; all which countries he viewed with the same curious eye, the same spirit of industry and thirst of knowledge.