318 HISTORY OF THE WAHABEES. 



ordered to attack the place. The Arabs defended 

 their walls with great spirit, being animated by 

 the presence and exhortations of the heroic widow. 

 The assailants were easily repulsed ; and next day 

 they commenced their retreat, closely pressed by 

 the Bedouins, who harassed them so severely that 

 they were obliged to abandon their baggage, tents, 

 arms, and provisions. Upwards of 700 men were 

 slaughtered in the flight ; many more died of hun- 

 ger and thirst ; and the whole must have been an- 

 nihilated but for the intrepidity of the celebrated 

 Thomas Keith, who with a handful of horsemen re- 

 took a piece of artillery, which he pointed so well 

 that he gave the fugitives time to cross the defile 

 before the enemy could advance. After a variety 

 of hardships and hairbreadth scapes, Toussoun ar- 

 rived at Ta'if with the wreck of his army ; and 

 for eighteen months all hostile operations in the 

 field were suspended. 



As Ali had seen every expedition into the in- 

 terior fail, except that against Medina, a naval ar- 

 mament, accompanied by 1500 soldiers and nu- 

 merous transports with provisions, under the com- 

 mand of Hossein Aga and Zaim Oglu, was fitted 

 out at Jidda, and directed to make an attack on 

 Gonfode, which for five years had been in the pos- 

 session of the Sheik Tami, chief of the Azir Arabs 

 and successor of Abu Nockta. The town, which 

 was without a natural supply of water and defended 

 only by a small garrison, was taken in March 1814; 

 not, however, without a brave defence and a great 

 expense of blood. The walls and bastions, being 

 composed of earth or unbaked bricks, yielded to the 

 cannon-balls, which sunk into them without de- 



