Page 179 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

Aluncd who lived in it, on the site of an older building which was
once the headquarters of the Hawala Arabs who ruled Bahrain in
the 18th century. From the plateau on which the town stands,
Loch looked southwards across a bleak expanse of stony desert,
broken by rocky outcrops, enclosed by a limestone escarpment,
to Jcbcl Dukhan, the Mountain of Smoke, rising steeply from
the plain. Camels grazed off the sparse vegetation among the
boulders, the only other living creatures were gazelle, desert hares
and iguanas. On the summit of the mountain was a tower, the
highest point in Bahrain, of which only the foundations now
remain. A watch used to be kept on this tower for the approach
of any enemy ships.
To the cast, some miles below Rafaa, Loch could see the island
of Sitra, heavily wooded with date plains, with fish traps, made
of reed fences, sticking out into the sea like arrow heads defending
the coast.
When Loch and Bruce arrived on the top of the hill at Rafaa
they found the two Shaikhs sitting on a long stone bench built
against the wall at the side of the gate of the fortress. Their
descendants still sit there in the evenings and discuss the doings of
the day, though the younger men in Bahrain now find more
entertainment in going to cinemas, watching television, or listen­
ing to Western music on their wireless sets. The Shaikhs were
attended by about 200 guards, wearing white hcadcloths and long
white robes, tied round the middle with a shawl. Each man
carried a sword and a musket, and had a soft leather cartouche full
of ammunition. The guards were formed up in two lines on
each side of the Shaikhs. As the Englishmen dismounted, Shaikh
Sul man came forward to greet them with the usual Arab saluta­
tions, and invited them to join the two brothers on the seat.
After ‘some unmeaning compliments were passed’, a hubble-
bubble and coffee were called for, ‘the latter I partook’.
Shaikh Sulman then rose and asked Loch and Bruce to follow
him, giving orders that only his brother, Shaikh Abdulla, should
accompany them. ‘Off he strutted, leading Bruce and me round
one angle of the fortress, then down the north-eastern side of the
rising ground until we came to the mouth of a cavern cut from,
what appeared to me, to be the solid rock or sandstone. Into this
we were conducted. To what this place was to lead, neither
Bruce nor I could in any way divine, but we were embarked on
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