volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Mukammarah and Fdw. 133
White and I embarked on the s.s. "Arabia" on
Friday night, March 15th, and early on the i6th we
dropped down to Muhammarah, where we saluted the"
shekh and stayed for a few hours ; we anchored just
off the Karun river, and the ship was visited by a
crowd of natives from the neighbourhood of Ahwaz.
They walked along the decks speechless, either with
fear or admiration, and touched or handled everything
they saw. Their costumes though picturesque were
very scanty, and I noted that many of the men went
with their right shoulder uncovered. I was told that
they were representatives of the tribes who lived on
the banks of the Karun, and had undertaken to prevent
their wild neighbours
which had begun to
from obstructing the steamers
run up to Ahwaz, 1 pillaging the Persian
and from
merchants who brought merchandise
for shipment to Basrah. Before the days of
steamers on the Karun it frequently happened that the
way-dues levied by the tribes on merchants were more
than the total value of the camels and their bales
together. We reached Faw at 4 p.m., and as it was
low tide on the " bar " we hove to until Sunday
morning, the 17th. Just after we started again we
passed the H.M.I.M.S. " Lawrence," with Colonel Ross and
his wife and family on board. We left Bushire on the
i8th and arrived at Linjah on the 20th, where we were
delayed for nearly a day. In some very artful way
which I did not understand, a party of natives managed
to get away in the dark with a boat containing 15a
bags of rice, whilst their confederates on board were
quarrelling with the ship's officer about the number he
had tallied. The importer of the rice swore that only
two boatloads had left the ship, but several of the
passengers had seen three drift away, and the officer
' The decree of the Persian Government which threw the Karun
open to steam navigation was promulgated in May, 1888, and took
effect the following October. Messrs. Lynch provided a fortnightly
service of steamers to Ahwaz, with a subsidy from the British
Government.