THE INDIAN ARMY.

191

business for the Russians to bring to the banks of the Indus a force equal to the gigantic one we could concentrate there for the contest, (say ninety thousand picked troops, out of an army which even the Duke of Wellington has declared to be one of the finest he ever saw). We have little to fear externally, from any attempt at an invasion of the empire of India; retreat on either side would be certain destruction, nothing being realizable between the two alternatives of necessity a war with Russia on the frontiers of British India must be a war of mutual extermination!

192

LEAVE BUSHIRE.

CHAPTER VII.

Leave Bushire-Bahrain-Pearl-Banks of Bahrain-Abdul Wahab -The Cassimees-Rahmah bin Jaubir-Rahmah's Tragical End -His Family-Uttobee Tribes-Arab Pearl-Fishers-Bahrain Pearls-Superstition-Fresh Water from the Salt Sea-Bahrain

Horses.

WE were detained at Bushire for nearly five weeks, before any opportunity offered for quitting the gulf; when by the kindness of Captain Wyndham of the Indian navy, we were most handsomely accommodated with a passage on board the " Amherst," a fine eighteen gun sloop of war. Towards the middle of September we embarked for sea, and on the following morning at day-light, there being a light breeze from off the land, weighed, and stood across the Gulf to Bahrain, with dispatches from Colonel Wilson, the political resident, for the sheikh of that place. The island is situated on the Arabian

side of the Persian Sea*, and has had so many masters, that it is rather odd our own government have never taken possession of it.

Bahrain fell with Ormus (anciently Harmozia) under the dominion of the Portuguese upwards of three hundred years ago. Those conquerors lost it to Shah Abbas, who was aided in his undertaking by a British squadron. A prince of Oman next possessed this island, and in his turn was ejected. Shah Tamasp restored it to Persia, but his death put an end to all his designs, and afforded an ambitious and enterprising Arabian a fair opportunity of gaining possession of the island, where his successors still maintain their authority.

* Arrian says, "Bahrain is a day and a night's sail from the mouth of the Euphrates, and is called Tylos." He adds, "it is very large and spacious, and not mountainous, but produces plenty of several sorts of fruits, pleasant and agreeable to the taste." (Rooke's Arrian, 8vo. London, 1814; Vol. ii. B. vii. c. 20, pp. 166, 167.)

K

194

PEARL-BANKS OF BAHRAIN.

Bahrain, so famous for its groves of palm and pearl-fisheries, even at the time when pearls were found on the banks of Ormus, Kishm, Karak, and many other islands in "Oman's dark-blue sea," has now become of great consequence, as those banks are exhausted, whilst the banks of Bahrain have suffered no sensible diminution. The fishing season commences in April or May, and terminates in October. The bank extends along the Arabian coast for about one hundred and fifty miles, and it is well known that wherever there is a shoal, the pearl oyster is sure to be found.

Until within the last few years, much interruption has been experienced by the divers, in consequence of the incursions of the "Cassimees," or "Joassimees," who are the maritime portion of a powerful sect of heretics that wrested Mecca from the sway of the "vicar of the prophet of God*."

* One of the titles of Sooltaun Mahmoud, as heir to the Kaliphate, and the successor of Mahommed.

Their founder was Abdul Wahab (the slave of the Most High), the son of Soolimaun, who was born in the Arabian province of Nejdjud. He conceived that the doctrines of the Korân had lost much of their purity by time and the interpretations of the ignorant; he accordingly asserted himself a divinely commissioned reformer of existing abuses. Driven from the city of Bassorah, and its neighbouring dependency of Zobair, where he had located himself, he returned to the desert, and, not satisfied with spiritual weapons alone, used those of the secular arm for the propagation of his new opinions. His son Mahommed followed his footsteps; his grandson Abdulazeez did the same, and most effectually contributed to that purpose. His conquests alarmed even the Ottoman Porte, and although several powerful armies were despatched against him, he could not be subdued. The pilgrimage to Mecca was interrupted; that holy city as well as Medina fell into his hands, and the attempts of Selim the Third, and of Mustapha