Page 292 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

XVI.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 253

similar manner the whole coast of the Persian

Gulf. To confine ourselves, however, to this
portion, it was wisely foreseen that, with

pirates, as with other thieves, the most
effectual way to disperse them was to lay
open their haunts. So long as these remained

unknown to us, a feeling of imaginary or real
security would induce them to follow their

former practices; but the circumstance of
English ships “ writing down” their coast, to

use their own descriptive expression, was
alone enough to give them an idea that we
should possess a perfect knowledge of it.

The result has hitherto justified the antici­
pation, for the survey was no sooner com­

pleted, and a strict system of surveillance
established, than their appliances and re­
sources became, as a measure of necessity,

turned from piratical to commercial pursuits.
Petty quarrels between the boats of rival

tribes still occur occasionally ; but nearly the
whole of their vessels now trade in the Persian
Gulf, peaceably from port to port, and from

thence to India or the Red Sea. It may in­
deed be questioned whether, from the very

early period when commerce first dawned, and