Page 150 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

VIII.] GULF OF ’AKABAH. 131

curring, the possibility of our rendering her
the slightest assistance. It was with difficulty
we could carry a close-reefed topsail on the
cap ; one of our quarter boats was stove in ;
the gale increased rapidly ; and a heavy bil­

low more than once struck the bagala with
such force, that, though secured astern with a
long tow-rope, she flew before it abreast of
our gangway. Then it was that she appeared
in most imminent danger; for, had the rope
caught the rudder, or by inattention to steer­
ing she had broached-to, the next wave would
have filled and sunk her; and more than

once, on these occasions, the cry was raised
that she had gone. The feelings of Serur,
our pilot, must have undergone a severe trial,
for his five sons were in the boat; but the
stout-hearted old man permitted no other
sign of a parent’s anxiety to escape him, than
by occasionally uttering a short prayer for
their safety. Yet his was not that apathy
and indifference to immediate and pressing
danger which characterises his countrymen
and Oriental fatalists in general. With the
keenest and fullest sense of their perilous
situation, he watched as carefully over the

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