Page 94 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

V.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 00

Uziz was beaten back at Bediali, their best
efforts were necessary to prevent their total

annihilation; but, continuing to temporise
until they had erected a very strong fort,

they, in return, became the aggressors, and,
after carrying fire and sword into every part

of the neighbouring district, became so for-

midable, that they were soon left in undis­
puted possession of their own and several of
the neighbouring districts.

At a later period, several attempts were

made by the Imam to dislodge or destroy
them, but all his exertions proving ineffectual,

in 1821 he made a requisition for assistance
to Captain Thompson, who, after the fall of

Ras-el-Khaimah, in the preceding year, had
been left with a small force of eight hundred

men, principally sepoys, at the Island of
.
Kishm * Under an impression that some
portion of the tribe had been engaged in ex­
tensive acts of piracy, that officer immediately

dispatched a messenger with a letter of re­
monstrance to them, but he was massacred

almost as soon as he landed. Captain Thomp-

* See Captain Thompson’s Report, dated 18th November, 1820.
—Asiatic Journal, vol, xi. p. 593.