Page 172 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

Smith appeared on the Persian Gulf scene, this time in command
of the retaliatory force, despatched against the Abu Ali. They
landed at Sur on January 29th, and encamped there. This expedi­
tion, too, narrowly escaped disaster. ‘Strange to say’, as Wcll-
sted comments, the General and his staff made their camp two or
three miles distant from the main body of the army, probably
assuming that, being about fifty miles from the Abu Ali town,
there was no danger.
In the night, the Bedouin made a surprise attack on the camp,
killing one officer and wounding three, killing and wounding
about fifty men, cutting the tent ropes and spearing the soldiers
as they struggled out of their tents. The General and his staff
narrowly escaped annihilation, due it was said to treachery of
some of the attackers. The troops formed up, and the Abu Ali
retreated.
O11 March 1st, the troops appeared before the town of the Abu
Ali, and were immediately attacked by the Arabs who charged
and, in some places, broke through the lines in the face of ‘mur­
derous fire of grape and musketry’. The Arabs threw themselves
on to the troops, seizing their opponents’ weapons with their
hands. Though heavily outnumbered, the Arabs fought with
savage courage, but were eventually beaten off, leaving many
casualties on both sides, and retired to their fort. Their women
then came out to drag their dead and wounded off the battlefield.
After some time, two women with a flag of truce appeared
from the fort with an offer of surrender. The General insisted
that the Abu Ali should hand over all their arms, giving them a
time limit in which to do so, but they continued to fight. The
artillery then came into action, and made breaches in the walls of
the fortress, but still the Arabs did not surrender. Finally, a flag
of truce was displayed on the tower, and the carnage ceased. Of
the 800 Arabs who had entered the fort, about 500 were slain; the
British casualties were about 200.
The fort was demolished, the date gardens were cut down, and
water channels were destroyed. Some of this devastation was
said to have been carried out by orders of the Sultan, although the
Moslem religion forbids the destruction of date trees. The British
then marched back to the coast, taking with them about 150
prisoners, including the Shaikh of the tribe and his brother.
The whole of this disastrous affair met with ‘the most unquali-
148