Page 200 - Arabian Studies (II)

192 Arabian Studies II

our steps to the detachment to the right of the wall which is
about three fourths of a mile from the base of the lulls but
finding that Mr Rose, our entertainer was gone to breakfast
at the mess tent to the left, we proceeded there and found
the officers sitting down to the meal of which we were glad
to partake.
After breakfast E. went out shooting with Mr S., and I
having found a connexion, A. Hunt, retired to his tent to talk
over Devonshire affairs till dinner.24 Opposite to the tents to
the left were planted two of the Coote*s brass nine pounders
which would effectively check the advance of a foe. This
camp is more pleasantly situated than that near the town and
everyone appeared extremely comfortable.
From what I saw of the plain, the sea must have
completely covered it at no distant date, the ground being
scarcely visible from the rich stratum of shells on it.
Shortly after dinner returned, via the pass. In the sea near
this, we saw just appearing above the water, the remains of a
large Dutch vessel lost here a few years since, through the
carelessness of the pilot. It was probably one of her guns that
we saw this morning on the hill.
At the pass we were much edified by an exhibition of the
carpenter of the Kite, who was completely drunk, so much so
that I asked S. who was stationed there on guard to turn him
out altogether which he did. S. has had a life of adventure.
He was first in the Austrian service, then served with D.
Pedro in Portugal25 and is now an ensign in the E.I.Co’s
service.
Shortly after getting to the tent Captain N, J, and D.
dropped in.
4 Breakfasted at Captain H’s. Played chess with Stack till
twelve at the tent.
Out with Hunt and Trower (the former from the Turkish
wall) this morning, passed the battery manned by the
Golandores or native artillery, a fine set of fellows. It is in the
centre of the town and defended by five guns and a mortar.
Ascended a ruined minaret near the top of which we were
nearly blinded by the number of bats we disturbed in their
haunts. I caught one differing in species from any I had
before seen. It had a tail about three inches in length and
destitute of the fine membrane, which unites it to the legs in
other species. It had also, if I may so term them, double ears
united by a membrane across the nose.
Paid a second visit to Hydoor’s mosque. In one of the
outbuildings of which we saw a school of about a dozen boys
writing on wooden boards (which are their copy books) to
the dictation of their master, a priest of the mosque.