'File 73/7 II (D 22) Status of Koweit [Kuwait] - Baghdad railway, Anglo Turkish negotiations' [‎140v] (286/540)

nor we meet him coming down thence, two of the Bedouins would return as he must
be waiting at Hafar according to my orders given in Kuwait.
iFebruary. —Marched at 10-15 along the eastern slope of A1 Batin
which must be some 4 to 5 miles wide from bank to bank and perhaps 100 to 150
feet below the surrounding plateau. We passed Kasr-Bella , a mound only re
maining of what must have been only a small building with signs of a well and
tank alongside, the latter apparently well-built with 11 juss mortar, the channels,
etc., being still plainly visible. 1 he story of the place is that Belial was a slave
of the old-time rulers of Basra who was placed in command of a post here to
safe-guard the caravan route from Basra to Nejd. He dug the well and used to
have a small garden which was irrigated from the tank by the well. 1 he story is
not improbable, judging by the remains visible.
Later, we passed the mounds of Ath-Tharaband, the knoll of A1 Ashar, and
camped in the first of the nullah-like torrent-beds called Athariyat, which run
down from the eastern plateau into the Batin, at 4 -15 p.m. the camels having
marched fairly well.
• i4tJi February —Marched at 8-45 a.m. and camels going fairly passed the
Kharja mounds and soon after climbed out of A1 Batin across a ravine or two
reaching the Rigai wells at 2-15. The wells lie in the bed of another ravine and
are curious in having underground galleries connecting some of them. The water
is excellent, but only obtainable in small quantities at a time and then only after
good rains. We were met by Muhammad bin Aamir waiting for us with his post.
We went on a bit east-north»east to ttie level of the plateau near Ummal Hamir,
a shallow green depression, and camped at 3 p.m. Here we got the news of
Shaikh Mubarak's collecting a force for a big raid and Zaid, his man, begged to
be allowed to go to join him, saying that raiding with the Shaikh was " food from
God " for poor Bedouins. As he was not much use without his hawks, 1 let him
go, using him to send a post into Kuwait. Two men also were told off to leave
to-morrow morning for Hafar to bring up Mathoor whom we heard had been
given refuge by Faisal*ud-Dawish, the head of the Umtair Shaikhs.
r§th February. —Remained halted whilst two men went back for Mathoor.
Took some more bearings and got through some letters. In afternoon Mandil,
the young Shaikh of the Malaiba Umtair, called in on us with a small raiding party
returning from an unsuccessful effort against the Shammar. Passed the news
with him until he left to rejoin his tents south of Mosannah. Some stray
Bedouins met at the wells say that the large parly we saw at Hafar were of the
Anazah, with Saud bin Lami as their guide, and had been looting Awazim and
Kuwait Araibdar. ' We were well out of the place, it appears.
16th February —Still halted, but after dinner Mathoor and the other two
men returned, Mathoor having had an exciting time. He got to Hafar on the
32th morning, and must have passed us in our night-march quite close, as he says
he travelled that night for safety just to the east and clear of A1 Batin. On
arrival near the wells he was fired at by two men, but evaded them and met
some of Faisal-ud-Dawish's followers who wanted to loot him on the spot as he
was a Dhafiri without a " rafiq"; but he appealed to Faisal, with his post-bag
and some soda-water bottles as his credentials and Faisal very magnanimously
gave him shelter. On Faisal's departure Mathoor went down again to the wells
and having no rope or water-skin managed to exist two whole days without a
drop of water to drink and only then broached a bottle of my soda. He had
had to hide from the Anazah party which returned to the wells as we had expect
ed. He had hung about near the wells until my other two men found him and
brought in his post safely, having incidentally proved himself a man of rather
above average Bedouin courage.
77^Decided to go on as soon as the water-skins could be filled^
and so marched at 11-45 about north-north-east to get down into A1 Batin again.
M e had some bad ground to cross called Shigaya and got into the bottom
of the valley at 2 45 p.m. whence we kept more north-east and camped at
4 15 p.m. under a knoll called Thaleh-al-Obaid. Any number of sand -grouse
in the valley and managed to bag a few for the pot.