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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 327
was taken possession of; but the heavy fire of musketry which
was opened from the shore, obliged the captors to abandon her,
In this preliminary affair, Lieutenant
after setting heron fire.
Allen, commanding the ' Prince of Wales,' gained great praise.
This officer ran alongside the ' \Iinerva' as she lay under
protection of the guns of the fort, but unfortunately grounding,
his ship became exposed to a heavy and destructive fire.
Lieutenant Allen managed to bring some guns to bear on the
enemy, and returned their fire so efi'ectually as to drive them
out of the fort. In this affair the ' Prince of Wales' had two
men killed, and many, including Mr. J. lirown, boatswain,
wounded. The squadron now anchored abreast of the town,
and preparations were made for the attack, and for landing the
troops when some impression had been made upon the
works,
"The warm defence made from the shore, and the well-
directed fire kept up to prevent the ' Minerva' being got off.
began to show us," says an eye-witness, "that we had to deal
with an eneni}'' on whom we had not set sufficient value ; added
to whi('h, it being now discovered that the frigates could not
get within three miles of the town, owing to the shallowness of
the water, and having lost our only bomb vessel, the prospect
was far from cheering."
The only means for cannonading or bombarding with any
effect, were thus confined to the smaller cruisers, supportt-d by
the gunboats, and such an attack was accordingly uiade on
the 12th, but, notwithstanding a heavy fire of shot and shell
maintained, says Captain Wainwright, " with considerable
effect for three hours," the inhabitants, from the numerous
batteries and entrenchments thrown up in front of the town,
kept up a cool and well-directed fire, which did considerable
mischief. The narrow, low peninsula on which Kas-ul-Khymali
stands, is about three-fourths of a mile in length, and the
breadth of the isthmus does not exceed one-fourth of a mile;
across the latter was a high wall flanked by four towers, and
along the sea front were the batteries and entrenchments before
alluded to, evidently thrown up under the direction of some
Euro])ean. The harbour is formed by this peninsula and the
mainland opposite, and is about half a mile broad ; but nearly
the whole of the piratical ileet was hauled up along the inner
side of the town. The number of armed men in the ])lace was
about five thousand, but it was known that a much greater force
could be drawn to their assistance, in the course of two or three
days, from the adjacent ports. Towards the outer end of the
harbour, the houses were so extremely close that landing appeared
impracticable; also the wall across the isthmus opposed great
obstacles to landing at the south end of the town, while the
strong garrison and the numerous noujad population, rendered