[Un-numbered file] 'Diary of Colonel Hamilton's Visit to Nejd 1918' [‎29v] (58/206)

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Fahad ibn Farraj (Dhafir).
Muhammad ibn Dahabas ( ) (ftjman Hadi) ( ^U* 4 ),
Abdullah ibn Falih (‘Ajman Sulaiman) ( ),
Took with us 2,000 dollars and £100 in cash, also letters frarn Shaikhs;
of Kuwait and Muhammareh to Turki and Abdul &ziz bin Saud.
10th October .—Marched to Malah camp^
Uistance from Kuwait—3J hours, 15 miles.
3^ hours from Sirrah.
Distance—hours, 32 miles.
Sunrise —Temp. 63% Bar. 1,400'.
11th October .—Marched to Subaihiyah. Camels going very slow, were about
5 hours on the march. Domingo, trying
to lead my horse from camel’s back, got
pulled over backwards, got a bad shaking.
Found no one at Subaihiyah. Towards evening head of the Shagrah caravan
arrived. Flies very bad. finable 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 brokemdown well called Tamil al Turki; water near
surface but sour. Ab-Shagg reached after 8^ hours’ march from Subaihiyah.
Shagrah and Zilfi 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. Ali al Dhuwaihi,
a Shaikh of the Dhafir, joined us, also &bdul Aziz ibp Rabayi, Bin Sand’s
special man, with ‘Abdullah Shammari and Halal Mutairi, men of Shaikh
lalirch sent to Riadh 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—1(3 liours, 50 minutes, miles.
Distance—29 hours 20, minuter, miles.
14th October. —Marched 8 hours and 20
minutes, camped on Gara’a ( s*j» ).
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 ( uib ^)).
16th October. Met Athar Barazi (jtcj)) of Aslam Shammar with 300
Distance—39 hours, 50 minutes, miles. teilts about 5 Or 6 hours short of the Wells,
At dawn.—Temp, 65°, Bar. 2,130'. of Al-Gara a. Athar fet( h id 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
keeps Arabic time. Our total number of hours marching to-day was not more
than 10! miles. I judge our hamalat, or baggage camels, do no more than 2^ to
21 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 on. Strong north-west wind. •
When we first saw the Shammar tents 2 Shammaris appeared riding* from
them; they turned out to be men who had hitherto been accompanying us but
who had slipped away in the dark to visit their tents and, no doubt give
information about us. For, about 1! hours later, we heard shots in our rear
and, shortly afterwards, Atbar Barazi and a relative galloped up. They 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
Shammar rafip and he told me that Ibn Rashid had got their dam, a famous
mare, and was keeping her at his stud in Hail, - ®
Wheu within about 7 hours of the wells of Al-Gara’a (<*Ain we
descended into a valley, dropping down somewhat steeply for the first i mile
Thenceforward we moved along stony valleys with sandstone bluffs on either!
.rand about 180 to 200 ft. the valleys being about i to £ mile broad. Sparse
teifcwvc.. ukiwi.,.,,