"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٠‎٠‎٥] (١٧٨٢/١١٦٠)

1005
During- the sojourn o£ the factory at Kuwait the "Wahhabis were at Wahhabi
war with the place, which they were anxious to reduce to submission, o^Kuwait
and they frequently showed themselves in the neighbourhood, causing
incessant alarms. The town was at this time poorly defended by a mud
wall, which, in the rainy season, frequently crumbled down in large breaches
to the great alarm of the inhabitants ; but the courage of the people was
sustained by their confidence in Shaikh 'Abdullah-bin-Subah, described
as a venerable old man of commanding appearance, whom they regarded
more as a father than as a governor. In general a Wahhabi attack did
not amount to more than a temporary seizure of the wells by a party of
ten or twenty Bedouins, whom the matchlockmen of the town ordinarily
succeeded in dislodging after a bloodless skirmish at very long ranges ;
but belated wanderers near the town were treated by the Wahhabis with
great inhumanity, the women being carried off and the men instantly
put to death. It is recorded, on the authority of Dr. Seetzen, that
Mr. Keinaud on one occasion actually saw two "W ahhabis murder an
unfortunate Kuwaiti upon the seashore and wash their hands in his blood.
During the stay of the East India Company's servants at Kuwait only
one serious attack in force, which was easily repulsed, was made by the
Wahhabis. The real attitude of the British Factory towards these
conflicts is uncertain : in theory it was one of neutrality.*
* The statements made by Sir H. J. Brydges in his Wahauhy (pages 12 to 16)
and by Mr. Reinaud in his con?ersationB with Dr. Seetzen (see Von Zach's Monatliche
Corren-pondenz, July to December 1805, pages 234 to 235) are irreconcileable.
Sir Harford represents the grand attack as having been made by about 500 Wahhabis,
who were driven off by a single shot from an old gnn that had been brought ashore
by the Shaikh from one of his vessels ; and he is careful to explain that the Factory
had no share in the proceedings, and that good relations were, on the contrary, stu
diously mainlined with Ibn Sa'ud. Mr. Eeinaud, on the other hand, places the
strength of the enemy at 2,000 camels, each carrying two men, the front rider armed
with a gun and the other with a lance to protect his companion while reloading ; he
alleges that, under Mr. Manesty's orders, two guns were landed from the British
cruiser, that the sepoy guard of the Factory took part in repelling the attack, and
that the Wahhabis lost heavily in their flight along the beach by the fire of the cruiser
herself; and he adds that the resentment of the Wahhabis at this interference
expressed in depredations upon the Company's desert mail, was the cause of his own
mission to Dara'iyah. Sir Harford may be the more reliable authority ; but, on the
other hand, it seems unlikely that Mr, Reinand's circumstantial story should be
altogether a fiction.