Page 417 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

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SOUTHERN ARABIA. [CH.
I

■ ^ inches; at the muzzle, 4 feet 4 inches.
a 1 hey are cast in brass, and almost covered
a with Turkish inscriptions. On the beach to
i
i I am surprised that the Arabs have not pro­
the westward there are some equally large.

cured artificers from Egypt or India to cut
3 them up, as they are now of no use, and the
metal of which they are constructed is valu­
1 able. I mentioned this to Sultan Mahassan,

but he replied with more feeling than could
•f :
have been anticipated, that he was unwilling
to deprive Aden of the only remaining sym­
bol of its former greatness and strength. He
was much pleased when I told him that the
fame of those guns had reached England.

Mohammed Ali, in whose breast no scruple
of this kind ever entered, got a round sum
by cutting up a gun of similar size, which
had been left behind by the Turks at Jid-
dah, about the same period these were left
here. That which would have proved the
most efficient battery, and the most de­
structive to shipping approaching the har­

bour, was the one erected on the projecting
point Sirah. From thirty to forty guns of