The Pirates Own Book, by Charles Ellms
THE BARBAROUS CONDUCT
AND ROMANTIC DEATH OF THE JOASSAMEE CHIEF,
RAHMAH-BEN-JABIR.
The town of Bushire, on the Persian Gulf is seated in a low
peninsula of sand, extending out of the general line of the
coast, so as to form a bay on both sides. One of these bays was
in 1816, occupied by the fleet of a certain Arab, named
Rahmah-ben-Jabir, who has been for more than twenty years the
terror of the gulf, and who was the most successful and the most
generally tolerated pirate, perhaps, that ever infested any sea.
This man by birth was a native of Grain, on the opposite coast,
and nephew of the governor of that place. His fellow citizens had
all the honesty, however, to declare him an outlaw, from
abhorrence of his profession; but he found that aid and
protection at Bushire, which his own townsmen denied him. With
five or six vessels, most of which were very large, and manned
with crews of from two to three hundred each, he sallied forth,
and captured whatever he thought himself strong enough to carry
off as a prize. His followers, to the number of two thousand,
were maintained by the plunder of his prizes; and as the most of
these were his own bought African slaves, and the remainder
equally subject to his authority, he was sometimes as prodigal of
their lives in a fit of anger as he was of his enemies, whom he
was not content to slay in battle only, but basely murdered in
cold blood, after they had submitted. An instance is related of
his having put a great number of his own crew, who used mutinous
expressions, into a tank on board, in which they usually kept
their water, and this being shut close at the top, the poor
wretches were all suffocated, and afterwards thrown overboard.
This butcher chief, like the celebrated Djezzar of Acre,
affecting great simplicity of dress, manners, and living; and
whenever he went out, could not be distinguished by a stranger
from the crowd of his attendants. He carried this simplicity to a
degree of filthiness, which was disgusting, as his usual dress
was a shirt, which was never taken off to be washed, from the
time it was first put on till worn out; no drawers or coverings
for the legs of any kind, and a large black goat's hair cloak,
wrapped over all with a greasy and dirty handkerchief, called the
keffeea, thrown loosely over his head. Infamous as was this man's
life and character, he was not only cherished and courted by the
people of Bushire, who dreaded him, but was courteously received
and respectfully entertained whenever he visited the British
Factory. On one occasion (says Mr. Buckingham), at which I was
present, he was sent for to give some medical gentlemen of the
navy and company's cruisers an opportunity of inspecting his arm,
which had been severely wounded. The wound was at first made by
grape-shot and splinters, and the arm was one mass of blood about
the part for several days, while the man himself was with
difficulty known to be alive. He gradually recovered, however,
without surgical aid, and the bone of the arm between the
shoulder and elbow being completely shivered to pieces, the
fragments progressively worked out, and the singular appearance
was left of the fore arm and elbow connected to the shoulder by
flesh and skin, and tendons, without the least vestige of bone.
This man when invited to the factory for the purpose of making an
exhibition of his arm, was himself admitted to sit at the table
and take some tea, as it was breakfast time, and some of his
followers took chairs around him. They were all as disgustingly
filthy in appearance as could well be imagined; and some of them
did not scruple to hunt for vermin on their skins, of which there
was an abundance, and throw them on the floor. Rahmah-ben-Jabir's
figure presented a meagre trunk, with four lank members, all of
them cut and hacked, and pierced with wounds of sabres, spears
and bullets, in every part, to the number, perhaps of more than
twenty different wounds. He had, besides, a face naturally
ferocious and ugly, and now rendered still more so by several
scars there, and by the loss of one eye. When asked by one of the
English gentlemen present, with a tone of encouragement and
familiarity, whether he could not still dispatch an enemy with
his boneless arm, he drew a crooked dagger, or yambeah, from the
girdle round his shirt, and placing his left hand, which was
sound, to support the elbow of the right, which was the one that
was wounded, he grasped the dagger firmly with his clenched fist,
and drew it back ward and forward, twirling it at the same time,
and saying that he desired nothing better than to have the
cutting of as many throats as he could effectually open with his
lame hand. Instead of being shocked at the uttering of such a
brutal wish, and such a savage triumph at still possessing the
power to murder unoffending victims, I knew not how to describe
my feelings of shame and sorrow when a loud roar of laughter
burst from the whole assembly, when I ventured to express my
dissent from the general feeling of admiration for such a
man.
Rahmah-ben-Jabir, a Joassamee Chief.
This barbarous pirate in the year 1827, at last experienced a fate characteristic of the whole course of his life. His violent aggressions having united the Arabs of Bahrene and Ratiffe against him they blockaded his port of Daman from which Rahmah-ben-Jabir, having left a garrison in the fort under his son, had sailed in a well appointed bungalow, for the purpose of endeavoring to raise a confederacy of his friends in his support. Having failed in this object he returned to Daman, and in spite of the boats blockading the port, succeeded in visiting his garrison, and immediately re-embarked, taking with him his youngest son. On arriving on board his bungalow, he was received by his followers with a salute, which decisive indication of his presence immediately attracted the attention of his opponents, one of whose boats, commanded by the nephew of the Sheikh of Bahrene, proceeded to attack him. A desperate struggle ensued, and the Sheikh finding after some time that he had lost nearly the whole of his crew by the firing of Rahmah's boat, retired for reinforcements. These being obtained, he immediately returned singly to the contest.
The fight was renewed with redoubled fury; when at last, Rahmah, being informed (for he had been long blind) that his men were falling fast around him, mustered the remainder of the crew, and issued orders to close and grapple with his opponent. When this was effected, and after embracing his son, he was led with a lighted torch to the magazine, which instantly exploded, blowing his own boat to atoms and setting fire to the Sheikh's, which immediately afterwards shared the same fate. Sheikh Ahmed and few of his followers escaped to the other boats; but only one of Rahmah's brave crew was saved; and it is supposed that upwards of three hundred men were killed in this heroic contest.
