Eden when you reach the top of the Persian Gulf, unless the
sun be that Flaming Sword which turns every way to keep the way of the
Tree of Life. Of cherubim we could see no signs. We lay motionless
awaiting orders by wireless. Of the country before us we knew next to
nothing. We did not grasp that the great river at whose mouth we lay was
called the Shatt-el-Arab and not the Tigris; and I do not think that a
single one of us possessed a copy of the "Arabian Nights." Few of us
knew anything about the gun-running troubles in the Persian Gulf of
recent years, and of the exploits of the Royal Indian Marine.

The approach to the Shatt-el-Arab is remarkably featureless. After the
stark fissured coast hills of Persia and the strip of red Arabian coast
that marks Kuweit, the mouth of the river appeared as a yellow line on
the horizon intersected by the distant sails of fishing boats. At the
bar where the sand has silted, a few steamers were lying. A steam yacht
flying the White Ensign, with a pennant that trailed almost down to her
decks, showing the length of service she had seen, passed us and dropped
her anchor a mile to the south. The silence was only broken by the
clacking of the fans in the saloon. One gazed listlessly west wards at
the quivering haze that veiled Kuweit. There was a rumour that the
ship's launch was going there with a party of nurses and a sharp voice
sounded: "Nobody allowed on shore without a helmet." But it was too hot
to move. At length a fishing boat emerged from the haze and slowly
approached, rowed by four Arabs. It drew alongside, a spot of vivid
colour against the dark sea. In it were half a dozen big fish. The Arabs
began to harangue the occupants of the lower deck. We watched them
curiously, perhaps wondering if they had poisoned the fish. The Tommies
stared at them in silence. They were the first inhabitants of the
country that we had seen.

The business of transhipping at the bar is a burden to all concerned. A
steamer of shallower draught came alongside, and the derricks started to
grind and clatter, and the big crates swung up from one hold and
plunged down into the other for hour after hour. A squall arose and the
ships had to part company and we lay for two days tossing and rolling in
a dun-coloured atmosphere. Then once more we joined up, and the
unloading continued of the four hundred tons of equipment, which had
already been dumped on shore at Alexandria. It is a costly business
bring