Page 74 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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32 KAHRACK.

in a short course of time created a rival attraction to the commercial
body, highly prejudicial to that city.
Of this event Justamond gives the following account:__“Baron
Knyphausen managed the Dutch factory at Bussora with extraordinary
success. The English found themselves in imminent danger of losing
the superiority they had acquired at this place, as well as in most of
the seaports in India. They excited the Turkish Government to
suppress a branch of trade that was useful to it, and procured an order
for the confiscation of the merchandize and possessions of their rivals.
“ The Dutch factor, who, under the character of a merchant, concealed
the statesman, instantly took a resolution worthy of a man of genius.
He retired with his dependents, and the broken remains of his fortune,
to Karrack, a small island at the distance of fifteen leagues from the
mouth of the river, where he fortified himself in such a manner that, by
intercepting the Arabian and Indian vessels bound for the city, he
compelled the Government to grant him an indemnification for the
losses he had sustained by its behaviour. The fame of his integrity
and abilities drew to his island the privateers of the neighbouring
ports, the very merchants of Bussora, and the Europeans who traded
thither. This new colony found its prosperity increase every day,
when it was abandoned by its founder. The successor of this able
man did not display the same talents: towards the end of the year
1765 he suffered himself to be dispossessed of his island by the Arabian
Corsair Mirmahana.”
By this event Bussora was freed from a rivalry that was prejudicial
to its interests.
The chart of Karrack, by the late Mr. Dalrymple, said to be taken
from a French manuscript, is good in detail : from carelessness,
however, the north point of the compass is inserted where the west
ought to be. Mistakes of this nature are dangerous to mariners, and
disgraceful to their author ; and here I cannot help remarking that the
most gross errors of bearings abound in the quarto book called the East
India Directory.
The best anchorage on the east side of the island is as follows :
Karrack from NW. by N. to S. by W. £ W., the adjacent island of
Korgo, N. by W. to S. by E.
Hallilla Peak, in Persia, SE. by E., in nine fathoms, sand, off shore
half a mile. Ships should always be guarded against a shift of wind,
so as to be able to clear the south end of Karrack in time ; particular y
as the bottom is loose, and the island hereabout is fringed with a com
reef. The passage between Korgo and Karrack ought not to e
attempted in the night, except in cases of great necessity. .
Fresh water is to be had in abundance from wells at Karrack, u j 1