eighteen feet. The water is soft and sweet. I believe the same phenomenon is known to exist in the Bay of Xagua, at the mouth of the Rio de los Lagertos, off Yucatan, and also in the Gulf of Spezzia. It has been thought that these springs, rising at the bed of the ocean, as well as a heavy fall of rain, are favourable to the formation of the pearl. Be this as it may, the fishermen always calculate on a good season when they have had wet weather indeed, the merchants pay them higher when there has been much rain.

The town of Bahrain is walled and flanked by a few towers, after the Arabian style of building, and seated near to the shore. A small suburb surrounds it, inhabited by the poorer classes, and the bank divers, who, by their fishing exertions, produce an annual amount of one hundred and

fifty thousand pounds sterling. At one period, the island contained upwards of three hundred villages, but at present a few small hamlets only are to be met with, scattered about the most fertile spots, be

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BAHRAIN HORSES.

neath shady date groves, and beside clear rills, and enjoying the advantage of a cool and not an unhealthy atmosphere. A Bahrain horse is proverbial for being as gentle as a pet lamb, but, when roused, is as fierce and as dreadful as the lion of the

desert. The Arabs say, Give us the Nejdjdee for size, the Montifikh for symmetry, but the Bahrain for gentility.”

LEAVE BAHRAIN.

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CHAPTER VIII.

Leave Bahrain-Coast of Arabia-Narrow Escape-Storming of Ras-ul-Khymah-Cape Mussendom-Pirates-Expedition against the Corsairs-Attack of Ras-ul-Khymah-Fall of the Fort-Young Prisoners-Their Statement-Bassadore-Officers in India.

OUR séjour at Bahrain was limited to two short days, when we weighed and crept along the Arabian shore, with just enough of a fair breeze to lull the sails to sleep. We successively passed on our lee-beam Abothabee, the residence of Tanoun, a brave and enlightened Arab, and chief of the Beni-Yas tribe; then Shargah, belonging to a Joassimee, by name Sooltaun-binSuggur; and finally visited Ras-ul-Khymah, which appeared to me the most eligible place along this whole line of coast for the site of a town; and from the earliest times it appears

214

COAST OF ARABIA.

to have been the resort and stronghold of all the corsairs who lurked about the Persian Gulf.

When the expedition of 1809 was fitted out from Bombay to destroy Ras-ul-Khymah, the Sooltaun of Muskat was expected to cooperate with it, but this he declined, alleging the impossibility of any large vessel approaching sufficiently near to bombard the town, owing to the shallowness of the coast, and it being a most dangerous lee-shore in a north-west wind, which blows for twothirds of the year, and towards the winter, heavy gales from the south-east come on without any further warning than a thick fog, which precedes the wind only a few minutes.

That his highness the Imaum was perfectly well acquainted with this dangerous coast, cannot for a moment be questioned, since his ships were always navigating this gulf; and in confirmation of this opinion, I remember hearing the commander of one of

the East India Company's surveying ships, relate the narrow escape he experienced from shipwreck during his survey of this particular line of coast. He had anchored within a very short distance of the shore, in order to obtain observations of Jupiter's satellites-the wind and swell set in towards midnight, which caused the ship to drive so much, that it was as dangerous to make sail as to ride out the gale at anchor. Wishing to try the latter course, they sent down the top-sail yards, in the hope of being able to hold on for the rest of the night, but in a few hours they parted three cables, and on setting sail, the ship cast the wrong way, and lost considerably in wearing. The jib and spanker were blown from their bolt-ropes, and the vessel, under her courses and fore-topmast stay-sail, bowed before her canvass like a reed bending to a gale, and plunged through the foaming surf, which seemed like clouds driving in the heavens. If, after the quarter-master had called “by the mark five," the water had shoaled as the