Page 64 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

22 pi rati: ports. — Bahrein.

which in the charts is represented to form, with the main, the
of the Derabin river. entrance
It has a square fort, with four towers, and there is
a town independent
of the fort. Our boats carried in regular soundings, and it api)
that a frigate could anchor within shot of the town; but as it lies in
hook of land, the anchorage is wholly exposed to north-west winds

Cheeroo.
A village subject to the Shaikh of Nakheeloo ; about four miles SE
of that town. Between these places the shore is abrupt, and therefore
! ships should not stand under fifteen fathoms, when they will be within
three quarters of a mile from the land.
I have had too little experience of the coast to the northward to give
any particular remarks : the directions by McCluer, for avoiding the
Verdistan Shoal, appear to be good ; but in that gentleman’s chart of
the head of the Persian Gulf the shoal-water is carried further from
Bushire than the truth.

ISLAND OF BAHREIN.

The Island of Bahrein lies opposite to the port of Ogair, is thirty-
three miles in extreme breadth, and seventy in extreme length, covering
about eight hundred square miles. The Chiefs of the Beni Itbah, a
foreign tribe of Arabs from Grane (or Koweit), have governed its aborigi­
nal inhabitants for more than thirty-five years with absolute power. Not
so, however, their Uttoobee brethren, who yield to superior authority
with difficulty. The revenue collected by them amounts to the yearly
sum of 100,000 Tomans, of which 20,000 Tomans is the original
revenue, and 80,000 Tomans consist of arbitrary impositions of the
governors. The pearl fishery produces to them 100,000 Tomans, of 12
Piastres Roomee each, which is divided among the members of the
tribe in proportions, according to their rank and consequence.
Their fishing-boats amount to 1,400 sail, of which 700 are of larger
burthen, 300 intermediate, and 400 of a small size. The larger are
manned by one master, fourteen divers, and fourteen assistants, in all
twenty-nine men; the intermediate with one master, nine divers, and
nine assistants, in all nineteen men ; the least with one master, seven
divers, and seven assistants, in all fifteen men. The portions of the
fishery are four to the master, and two to the divers; the assistants
receive for the season a settled pay of from five to six Tomans. The
fishermen borrow for their support, from noted bankers, amounts bot o
money and grain, on which these gain a profit of thirty per cent., or