should continue; particularly as he had formed a false estimate of the strength we had brought with us to Grain, which consisted of one of the smaller class of the Company's cruizers stationed in the harbour, and a jemedar's guard of sepoys; and we, from prudence, had as little inclination to enter into active alliance against him with our Grain friends, as he had to force us into it.

At this time the doctrines of the Wahauby had made many proselytes amongst the maritime Arabs on the shores of the Persian Gulph, and their neighbours to the southward of that Gulph, who committed frequent depredations on the smaller and unprotected craft navigating those seas; but their piracies had not yet arrived to such a degree of importance as to force the British Government in India to chastise insults offered to the national flag, or to redress injuries inflicted on their subjects.

In 1798, I arrived at Bagdad, having been appointed by his Majesty, and the Secret Committee of the East India Company, to reside with Suleiman Pacha, in quality of political Agent, but more particularly for the purpose of prevailing on that almost independent chief to assist the Porte with money, in disappointing and frustrating the views on the East, whatever they might be, with which Buonaparte, and the Expedition fitted out from Toulon, had sailed. (5)

During my absence in England from 1795 to 98,

the Porte had sent repeatedly the most pressing orders to Suleiman Pacha, to undertake an expedition, on a sufficient scale to justify reasonable hopes of entirely subverting the Wahauby power; an evident proof how much the uneasiness of the Ottoman Government, respecting these sectaries had increased, and how greatly their power and reputation were augmented.

It was early in the month of September, 1798, when I reached Bagdad; and in consequence of the pressing orders he had received, I found Suleiman had collected a numerous and respectable force, which, under the command of his Kiah, Ally Pacha, was then encamped without the walls of the city, on the western bank of the Tigris, and was destined to proceed against the Wahauby.

The countries entrusted at that time to the Government of Suleiman Paçha, were greater in extent, and richer in produce, than some kingdoms in Europe; and I am astonished to find Burckhardt, or his editor, so much mistaken, as to say, in speaking of the Pachalik of Bagdad, under Suleiman Pacha, "The pacha of this place, (viz. Bagdad) however, has so few pecuniary resources, and his authority is so imperfectly acknowledged within the limits of his own province, that, until the year 1797, hostilities could "not be undertaken." Now having resided at Bassora from 1784 to 1794, and at Bagdad, from 1797 to 1806, having had much to do with all the

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principal officers of Government concerned in the collection of the paçha's revenue, I can take on myself safely to state, that for some years previously to the year 1797, that revenue annually amounted, from fiscal collections, to a million of our money, exclusive of presents, and the advantages the pacha drew from a large stock of camels, and flocks of sheep, the keep and care of which cost him nothing. The principal annual remittance made by the pacha to the Porte, consisted of presents in India goods and pearls, to the Sultan, the ladies of the Seraglio, and the great ministers of State; which the Jew who had the management of all that business, assured me, never amounted, in any one year, to £100,000; and that the rest of the revenue collected by the pacha, was balanced at the Porte, by an account of charges of Government; and by the same person I was assured, that the pacha contrived to place a surplus in his treasury, every year, from £100,000 to £150,000, and that when I arrived at Bagdad, nearly £300,000 had been taken out of the treasury for the assembling and providing the forces destined to march against Saoud. And with another fact I am well acquainted, (for the whole sum was sent, after being officially stated to me, and the greatest part of it through my hands) which is, that from the time when Eusoof Paçha, the Grand-Vizir, left Constantinople in 1799, for Egypt, Suleiman, at different periods, assisted him with nearly half a million of money, all taken out

of the treasury vault in the palace. In short, so far from Suleiman Paçha's pecuniary resources being considered as "few," the Porte regarded him as holding one of the wealthiest governments of the Empire, and spoke of his accumulated wealth as a windfall, some day or other, on which its eye was fixed.

A day or two before Ally Paçha,(6) the Kiah, marched for Dereyah, I paid him a visit in his camp, which, from the liberal and handsome manner in which every thing was appointed, and from the various troops, collected from distant parts of the Government, made a gallant show. The army possessed a formidable train of artillery, if its real value depended on the number of pieces displayed but, notwithstanding all these mighty preparations, the pacha was thoroughly acquainted with the character of his minister and son-in-law, Ally, and probably even then entertained some doubts of his success. The failure of the expedition was, however, confidently predicted by persons of judgment, before it lost sight of the cupolas of Bagdad, and this prediction was grounded on the ignorance which the Kiah displayed of military affairs, and on the absurd and haughty manner in which he accustomed himself to treat the friendly Arabs who had joined him, and on whom he had principally to depend when he entered on the most difficult part of his enterprize. Burckhardt has given the following account of

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this expedition, which, as far as I know, is not materially incorrect, nor, if it be divested of much of the false colouring, which the Turks, to save their credit, gave it on their return to Bagdad, does it differ in essential points from the account Ally delivered to his master, and related himself to me. "The army consisted of 4000 or 5000 Turkish troops, and twice that number of allied Arabs of the "tribes Thofyr, Beni, Shummere, and Montefeek. "Their march (after reaching the neighbourhood " of Bassora) lay parallel with the Persian Gulf, through a desert country where wells were found "at every station. It was directed, in the first "instance, towards El Hassa or Lassa, the richest " and most productive part of the Wahauby do"minions.

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"Instead of advancing from that place at once "towards Dereyah, (only five or six days' journey distant) they laid siege to the fortified citadel of "El Hassa, which they expected to take without difficulty. The resistance was prolonged above "a month; and the arrival of a considerable Wahauby force, under Saoud, the son of Abdul Aziz, (who remained at Dereyah) excited strong " doubts of the Kiah's success; so strong indeed as "to induce the Turks to retreat. Saoud had an

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ticipated this measure, and starting before them, encamped with his troops at one of the wells "called Thadj, at the distance of three days from El Hassa. The other well of that watering place,