[Un-numbered file] 'Diary of Colonel Hamilton's Visit to Nejd 1918' [‎16v] (32/206)

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Pahad ibn Farraj (Dhafir).
Muhammad ibn Dahabas ( ) (ftjman Hadi) ( ),
Abdullah ibn Falih (‘Ajman Sulaiman) ( )■
Took with us 2,000 dollars and £100 in cash, also letters from Shaikhs
of Kuwait and Muhammareh to Turki and &bdul &ziz bin Saud.
Distance from Kuwait—3£ hours, 15 miles.
10th October .—Marched to Malah camp,
3^ hours from Sirrah,
11th October. —Marched to Subaihiyah. Camels going very slow, were about
Distance— 8 j hours, 32 miles. 5 hours on the march. Domingo, trying
Sunrise —Temp. 63°, Bar. 1,400'% ■ XlOrSO from CfllUGl S bB«ck|
' pulled oyer backwards, got a bad shaking.
Found no one at Subaihiyah. Towards evening head of the Shagrah caravan
arrived. Flies very bad. Unable to buy sheep here.
12th October, Subaihiyah .—At Subaihiyah still, waiting for assembly of the
Shagrah caravan. Hear that the mail arrived in Kuwait by S.S. “ Palitana ”
yesterday.
13th October .—Passed broken-down well called Tamil al Turki; water near
surface but sour. Ab-Shagg reached after 8 ^ hours’ march from Subaihiyah.
Shagrah and Zjlfi caravan came up behind. Ali got acute dysentery. Duhaiman
Shammari joined us—mail arrived by sowar In the East India Company army and later Indian Army, an ordinary native cavalryman or mounted cavalryman. from Kuwait. &li al Dhuwaihi,
a Shaikh of the Dhafir, joined us, also Abdul Aziz ibn Rabayi, Bin Sand’s
special man, with ‘Abdullah Shammari and Halal Mutairi, men of Shaikh
Salim, sent to Eiadh for some private business. ‘Ali al Dhuwaihi ate dinner
with us. The name of the Amir of the Shagrah caravan is ‘Abdullah ibn
Sadhan. He asked us to dinner but we declined.
Distance—16 Lours, 50 minutes, miles.
Distance—29 hours 20, minutes, miles.
14th October. —Marched 8 hours and 20
minutes, camped on Gara’a ( <^5 ).
15th October. —Started 1-30 a.m., marched
till 10 a.m., rested till 1-30 p.m., marched
till 5-30 p.m,
Saw many gazelle and hares on the way. Another successful jarbua hunt
in camp. '
Splendid grazing hereabouts. Nothing yet to stop a motor-car. We left
the Shagrah caravan last night on the way to Riadh ( ).
16th October. Met Athar Barazi (>5)) of Aslam Shammar with 300
Distance—39 hours, 50 minutes, miles. tdlts about 5 Or 6 JlOUrS short of the Wells
At Temp, 65°, Bar. 2 , 130 '. of Al-Gara a. Athar fete hid a sheep
. , which we cooked and ate. We were late
in starting owing to the delay in cooking the sheep, etc., and started about
9 o clock of the night (Arabic) equivalent to 2-45 a.m. English time, approxi-
mately. My watch having stopped I have now to go by the Mullah’s which
tops Arabic tune. Our total number of hours marching to-day was not more
man lOg miles. I judge our hamalat, or baggage Camels, do no more than 2 A to
2 j miles an hour. They go faster in the early morning, no doubt, but in 2 the
afternoon the pace becomes a crawl. To-day we seemed to be going more west
than usual our general direction being about 240°. Much colder in the earlv
morning but grew pretty hot as day wore op. Strong north-west wind. ' >' ■
vY hen we first saw the Shammar- tents 2 Shammaris appeared riding from
them; they turned out to be men who had hitherto been accompanying us bS
who had slipped away in the dark to visit their tents and, no doubt give
mformation aboui us. For, about hours later, we heard shots iu our rear
and, shortly afterwards, Athar Barazi and a relative galloped up. Thev were
a nice pair and were riding beautiful ponies, a grey and a chestnut about 14-2
hands. I made a remark about these animals afterwards to Duhaiman our
Siiammar rafiq, and he told me that Ibn Bashid had got their dam, a famous
mare, and was keeping her at his stud in Hail iamous
When within about 7 hours of the wells of Al-Gara’a ( we
escended into a valley, dropping down somewhat steeply for the first i milp
hand^bout^lSiTto^OO d f V n 1 - eyS Y ith ,T ndstone bluffs either
pane aoout 18U to 200 ft, the valleys being about i to f mile broad. Sparse
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