164 Report on the Island of Socotra. [March, 



confident it does not comprehend more than half their number, for in se- 

 veral places they concealed themselves whenever we approached, and 

 though, as will he seen by the map, my rambles led me to many parts of 

 the island, yet there were necessarily many hills and remote valleys I could 

 not inspect. I am further strengthened in this belief by summing up the 

 number of the tribes, and I therefore fix the amount of the population at 

 4,000. Two intelligent Arabs, who have resided on the island upwards of 

 10 years, and have journeyed to many parts of it, tell me they consider 

 this far below the actual number ; but with Arabs an allowance should al- 

 ways be made for numerical exaggeration. 



Comparing this calculation with the whole surface of the island, which 

 amounts to about a thousand square miles, it gives four individuals to each, 

 which when we reflect on the great proportion of bare rock, which the sur- 

 face of the island exhibits, appears very considerable. 



Although I have made diligent search and constant inquiries, I have 

 been unable (with the exception of those which indicate the stay of the 

 Portuguese) to discover any ancient vestiges or monuments that would 

 prove this island to have been peopled by a race further advanced in civi- 

 lization than the present, although I think there is reason to believe the 

 population must have been more numerous, and that the island was conse- 

 quently better cultivated. It is impossible to ascertain at what period 

 their numbers were thinned ; but that they have not been exempted from 

 contagious fever, or some other desolating scourge, appears evident from 

 the existence of such a multitude of graves in every part of the island, many 

 of which appear to have been constructed at the same period ; but that this 

 period was somewhat remote, is equally evident, not only by the total disap- 

 pearance of all traces of such improvement, on the face of the country, but 

 by the present condition of the inhabitants. It must not be referred to the 

 period immediately preceding the visit of the Wahabis, ashas been suggested 

 in some late discussions connected with the island ; for those fierce sectaries 

 confined their outrages, and the extent of their devastation, toTamaridaand 

 its vicinity, and they did not attempt to pursue the inhabitants who fled 

 from the town to the mountains at the first intimation of their approach. 



[The length of the foregoing Report prevents our giving insertion to the equally 

 interesting remarks of Capt. S. B. Haines on the same Island. This Officer 

 was charged with the examination of the coasts and the circumstances of the 

 various harbours, which though more interesting to nautical men, and drawn up 

 in a most complete form, would not perhaps interest the general reader so much 

 as the view of the interior of the island. There are but 22 boats on the island, 

 capable of carrying about 80 gallons of water in fine weather. They are sewn 

 together with thongs of hide, or a kind of coir rope made from the young leaf of the 

 date tree. Tamarida Bay on the north of the island is the principal port during 

 the S. W. monsoon, but Ras Kourina lat. 12° 38' 35": long. 53° 55'50", affords 

 a better shelter, and is also serviceable in the opposite monsoon. 



In the N. E. monsoon Gollonseer Bay is the best anchorage : — the town con- 

 tains about 130 inhabitants, and 16 fishing boats. There are unfortunately no 

 ports where vessels could ride in safety from all winds, and opposite sides of the 

 island must be resorted to with the change of season. 



We subjoin a vocabulary of the Socotrian language drawn up by Captain Haines 

 from a Town Arab — it is confessedly imperfect, and contains a large admixture of 

 Arabic. — Ed.] 



