Page 198 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

Loch refers to them as ‘Illiots’ (a word which 1 cannot trace).
They had come down the Karoon river in a large vessel, and set
up a camp on the shore with tents and awnings made of cloth of
many colours. They travelled from town to town on the differ­
ent rivers and canals, making baskets, mats and coarse earthenware
and mending kettles, pots and pans. The same gipsies arc still to
be seen in many parts of the Middle East, as far apart as the
Persian Gulf and the middle of the Sudan where they arc known
for their skill as tinkers. In the 19th century in England, gipsies
were often referred to as ‘Arabs’.
On March 4th, Loch received orders from Captain Collier to
return to Bushirc where he arrived six days later to find the
Liverpool at anchor in the harbour with General Sir Grant Kicr
and his staff on board. The rest of the expedition had sailed direct
to India. After a short stay in Bushirc, Loch was ordered to return
to Basra as there was still no news about the Turkish Governor’s
expedition up the river. Once again the Eden made her way
across the bar, and up the river to Basra, but this time she
anchored near the Residency and Loch stayed on shore with
Taylor.
One morning, when Loch and Colebrook were taking their
usual exercise on the flat roof of the factory, they saw a handsome,
well-dressed Turk being carried by a servant into the building.
Later they met him, with Taylor, on whom he had come to call,
and Loch heard his story.
For some time, he had been paralysed, having lost the power
of his legs, and so had to be carried by a servant. He was born
in Smyrna, and went to sea as a youth, in course of time he
acquired a ship. He traded between the Levant ports and be­
came prosperous: he married, and had a family, and bought
property in Smyrna. He then sailed to the Barbary coast where
he was equally successful. During the siege of Gibraltar by
Spain, which lasted from 1779 till 1783, he heard of‘the miserable
state in which Gibraltar was placed, for want of supplies and
provisions’. From Algiers, he used his ship with great skill and
daring to carry supplies into the harbour of the beleaguered fort­
ress. After the siege, as a reward for his services, the Governor
of Gibraltar, General Sir George Elliot, afterwards Lord Heath-
field, obtained for him a life pension from the British Government.
He was invited to visit England, ‘and enjoyed all the delights
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