ARABIAN PIRATES. 
35 
town of Gillem, more agreeable in its appearance than Siraf, though 
not so large. It is situated opposite to Inderabia, a small, flat island, 
which is both barren and uninhabited. 
In the night, at about ten o’clock, we were obliged to let go our stream 
anchor, owing to a sudden alteration in our soundings; for from thirty- 
two fathoms the leadsman struck fifteen, and soon after, nine. We 
found that we were upon a bank, that is not laid down in any of our 
charts.* 
February 27. We were in sight of Busheab in the morning, on the 
eastermost point of which we saw a neat-looking village, surrounded 
by date trees; but, excepting one or two other clusters of the same 
tree, all the rest of the country appeared waste. At break of day, 
several large boats were seen at a distance a-head, and a short time 
after, the man at the mast-head lost sight of them. About ten o’clock 
they were seen again, making all sail towards the land. This manoeuvre 
made us suspect them to be the piratical fleet, of which we had re¬ 
ceived information on the 15th instant. They were twelve in number, 
three or four dows, and the rest trankies. The dow is a large vessel, 
from two to three hundred tons burden, with one mast raking forward, 
on which is hoisted one large sail: the tranky is of a smaller descrip¬ 
tion, from fifty to one hundred tons, and is rigged nearly in the same 
manner as the former. It was evident, that having got to a convenient 
distance from the land, they lowered their sails and waited for our 
approach, in order to reconnoitre our force; and having found us too 
* At day-light on the 26th February, whilst at anchor, we took the following bearings:— 
Carrack Hill, N. 44° E. 
Extremes of the island of Inderabia, from N. 45° W. to N. 22° W. 
Extremes of Kenn, from S. 70° E* to S. 88° W. 
At six o’clock we weighed, and ran out S.W. one mile, with the following soundings:— 
|8. 7i* 8. |8. 7* i7- Oi—f. then steered S.W by W. | of a mile, with soundings ^12. 
14. il5. 19. 21., and at length no bottom with 25 fathoms of line. The bank does not 
appear to be dangerous to ships of any burden. 
Our observations made the east end of Inderabia in latitude 26° 36' 18" N., and longitude 
53° 38' 45" E.; and the distance between the west end of Kenn and the east end of Inderabia 
N. 57° W. 12 miles. 
