Page 134 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

92

MEMORANDA

ON THE

RESOURCES, LOCALITIES, AND RELATIONS OF
TIIE
TRIBES INHABITING THE ARABIAN SHORES OF
THE PERSIAN GULF.

The total non-interference in the internal disputes and affairs of the
piratical Arabian Chieftains, wisely enjoined as the first principle of
the Government policy, added to the absence of any intercourse, corn-
mercial or otherwise, with their ports, by individuals and vessels of any
nation, have precluded the attainment of any specific and accurate
knowledge of inland localities, and extent of population and territory.
To fix the limits, therefore, of the lands actually belonging to, or
claimed by, each tribe respectively, would, with our present information,
be impossible ; nor, indeed, do these often form the grounds of any
great altercations or hostilities among themselves, owing to the barren­
ness and infertility of the soil; which being, moreover, very imperfectly
cultivated, in consequence, probably, of the absence of the means or
labour of irrigation, does not yield sufficient for the support* of its
inhabitants in even their common article of food,—dates,—the fruit of a
tree which may be said to be generally indigenous to Arabia alone, and
renders its possession, accordingly, of no worth.
Upon the success of the pearl fishery, and the profits of the carrying
trade which it brings into operation, must, under these disadvantages,
depend the means of obtaining the positive necessaries of life, and those
trifling, luxuries desirable to an Arab.f It is needless to observe how

* The Arabian ports, particularly Abootliabce, are consequently dependent upon other
places for supplies of provisions, and are soon reduced to great distress by anything like an
effective blockade.
f Captain McLeod, in reporting upon the Joasmee Tribe in 1823, stated as follows .
“ The Joasmees procure all their materials for building, as well as their warlike stores, from
Muskat, Bahrein, and the Persian ports in the lower part of the Gulf, In the construction
of their vessels they use no other wood than Indian teak, and, in respect to arms, those prin
cipally of Persian manufacture. They possess no articles of export, since their pearls are
rally purchased by merchants on the spot, and the produce of their country is not even1 s“
cient for their maintenance. Their only employment is fishing, diving for pearls, and imp r
\\