GOVERNMENT OF ARABIA. 155 



Highlanders at Prestonpans, both as to the mode of 

 warfare and the deadly weapon, the broadsword, 

 used on these occasions with such desperate execu- 

 tion. " All," says he, " who beheld this extraordi- 

 nary attack concur in declaring that more deter- 

 mined courage and self-devoting resolution never 

 was displayed by any men than by the Arabs. On 

 that day, not only were they totally unchecked in 

 their advance by the heavy and well-sustained fire, 

 which mowed them down in multitudes every in- 

 stant ; but, despising the lines of bayonets opposed 

 to them, they threw themselves upon the troops, 

 seizing their weapons with both hands to break their 

 ranks, and sacrificed themselves to cut do^vT their 

 enemies, even with the bayonet sticking in their 

 bodies. All the Indian and European troops that 

 fell were cut down with the broadsword, the match- 

 lock being scarcely used during the whole affair. 

 Before the firing had entirely ceased, women were 

 to be seen walking among the dead and dying, totally 

 regardless of the danger that surrounded them : 

 their object was, according to custom, to drag off 

 their friends who had been killed or wounded ; and 

 it appeared that some of them were actually en- 

 gaged in the attack. Notwithstanding the loss of 

 husbands and children, they bore no outward signs 

 of grief; nor did they utter one lamentation, or 

 shed openly one tear of regret or apprehension, at 

 the very moment when their fortress was blown up, 

 and they believed themselves to be included in the 

 work of destruction."* Part of the prisoners were 

 delivered over to the Imam of Muscat, and part car- 

 ried to Daristan, on the island of Kishma, to which 

 the troops left at Ras el Khyma had been trans- 

 ferred, on account of bad health and the scarcity 

 of provisions. 



On the opposite coast of the Gulf, from the mouths 



♦ Fraser'e Journey to Khorasan. Appendix A. 



