Page 197 - Arabian Studies (II)

The First Days of British Aden 189

middle one the sitting room and the third the bedroom. I was
accomodated with a comfortable bedstead and bed.
Played chess with J. till 12, beat him.
2 Up at daybreak. Bathed at a ruined jetty, which runs out a
short distance opposite what appears to have been a
storehouse or magazine, now used as a commissariat. Here we
saw a number of stone-balls, some of great weight and a
quantity of old iron sown in small bags as grape shot. The
balls have probably remained here since the Turks were in
possession of the place.
Close to this is the battery which at the time of the attack
was defended by two enormous brass guns, carrying balls of
102 lbs weight, besides a number of others. One of the brass
guns was secured by an anchor let down outside the
embrasure into the sand on the beach to break the force of
its recoil. Near it is a forge said to have been used for making
balls.
Between this and the camp of the Bombay Eur. Regt were
pitched the tents of the Artillery and Pioneers (mostly
Mahrattas). i o The officers had taken possession of some
neatly constructed Bamboo houses, which they had improved
and rendered extremely comfortable.
At 11 after breakfast in the tent started with Evans and
Hack to visit the island of Seera, a place which might be
made perfectly impregnable by any force, not in the
possession of mortars. It being nearly low water we took off
our shoes and stockings and waded across the channel, some
hundred feet wide, which separated it from the main.
The battery at this fort contains six guns, two or three of
them however much honey-combed, and one upset by the
Mahy's shot which also knocked down a great part of the
battery. Some Turks had managed these guns in the previous
attack and also placed gabions to support the parapet.
The ascent to the summit of this island was extremely
steep and it is surprising that the Bedouins there should have
allowed only twenty men to take them prisoners, being
themselves about one hundred and fifty in number and in a
position, where ten men could defend themselves against a
hundred. The truth is that they were perfectly astounded by
the Volage's incessant firing and the havoc caused by the
balls. The door was just wide enough for one person to pass
and on each side of it was a precipitous rock surmounted by
a wall. A seijeant’s guard was stationed at the round tower
overlooking the battery beneath. The tower itself was almost
totally destroyed.
The whole of Seera, which at the summit comprises an