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318 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.

Political Agent, agreed to grant them a truce until tlie pleasure
of his Government should be known, and a treaty was concluded
at Bunder Abbas, dated the fith of Februar}', 1806, by which
they agreed to give np the 'Trimmer,' the ' Shannon' having
been previously restored completely stripped, and to " respect
the flag and property of the Hon. East India Company and
their subjects," and " to assist and protect" any English vessels
touching on their coast. Captain Seton represented to his
Government that "the whole bulk of the Joasmis were desirous
of returning to their former mercantile pursuits/' but he had
suffered himself to be cajoled by these wolves in sheeps' clothing.
Pirac}^ was bred in the bone among these restless, truculent
Arabs, and the fleets of large and heavil^^-armed dhows moored
in the harbours of Shargah and Ras-ul-Khyraah, were not
destined for the peaceful pursuits of pearl-fishing on the Bahrein
coast, but for deeds of rapine and blood.
For a brief period the Joasmis continued true to the pro-
visions of the treaty of 1806, so far as regarded the British
ships cruising in the Gulf; but it is probable that this tempo-
rary abstention from acts of piracy on the British flag, was
induced only by a fear of the consequences, as we find that
during the year 1807, owing to the exigencies of European
politics, there was a powerful squadron of ships of war in the
Persian Gulf. Urged on by the intrigues of General Sebastiani,
special envoy of Napoleon, then in the very height of his power,
the Turkish Government, in December, 1806, declared war against
Russia, with which Power we made common cause, though
indeed the Czar Alexander had forestalled the Porte by
invading what are now known as the Danubian Principalities.
Sir John Duckworth was despatched by Lord Collingwood in
February, 1807, to coerce the Sultan, and that admiral actually
forced the Dardanelles, and arrived within eight hours of
Constantinople, when, being hampered by the action of the
British Minister, precious time was lost, the defences of the city
were strengthened, and Duckworth was forced to retire without
accomplishing anything. In order to assist in bringing Turkey
to her senses through her Asiatic possessions, a squadron was
despatched to the Persian Gulf from Bomba}^ consisting of
H.M.S. ' Fox,' Captain Hon. A. Cochrane, and eight of the
Company's cruisers. The ' Fox' took the Persian Ambassador
up the Gulf, and proceeded to Al-Koweit, or Grane,* whence she
soon afterwards returned to Madras, the Turkish Governor
disclaiming the acts of his Government. The squadron of
* Al Koweit—for the English name Grane is a corruption, and is utterly
unknown to the Arabs of the Grulf, says Captain Constable in his " Persian Gulf
"
Pilot —is, perhaps, the best port in the Gulf, and contains a population of
some twenty-five thousand souls of the Uttobee tribe, while it numbers
one hundred and thirty tradhig vessels, between thirty and three hundred
tons.