Page 366 - INDIANNAVYV1

384 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
r(^]>lie(l by a proin))t refusul ; upon which a hoinbar(hn(.'iit was
opened from the sliips and boats, bnt without producing much
effect. On the following morning the whole of the troops were
landed, and a regular encampment formed on the shore, with a
battery, completed on the evening of the 2nd of January, 1810,
and other necessary siege works. A heavy bombardment was
opened from the ships of war and battery, throughout the night
of the 2nd, during which about four thousand sliot and shell
were discharged against the fortress, to which the people had
fled for refuge after burning down the town. Early in the
morning of the 3rd, Colonel Smith wishing, like a brave soldier,
to spare so gallant a foe, again sent a summons to the chief,
who replied that death was preferable to surrender, and so well
was he seconded by his men, that when the towers and other
works were crumbling round them under the terrible fire of the
British squadron and battery, they hurled back upon the assail-
ants the grenades and fire balls before they could burst, and even
thrust their spears up through the fragments of the ruins in
which they themselves remained buried. Twice during the
bombardment had Colonel Smith ceased firing in order to spare
an unavailing effusion of blood, and it was only, when the breach
of the main work was reported practicable, and the troops were
on the point of storming, that the survivors, on being assured
of protection from the fury of the troops of our ally, the Imaum
of Muscat, surrendered to the British commander. The loss in
killed and wounded sustained by the enemy was said to exceed
one thousand. The fort was given up to the Imaum's troops,
but it was so much shattered that His Highness did not think
it prudent to keep possession of it.
Seyyid Said expressed some hesitation as to the policy of
attacking Khor Fukaun, from an apprehension of experiencing
a similar obstinate resistance to that encountered at Shinas,
which would only render the fort untenable ; all intention of
attacking it was, therefore, abandoned, as it had no British
interests connected with it, there being no pirate vessels belonging
to that port. The troops of the Expedition, accordingly, returned
to Bouibay, but the frigates and cruisers repaired from Muscat to
the Gulf, where they remained several months before they finally
dispersed."^ Notwithstanding this severe chastisement, the
* On the return of the Expedition to Bombay, the general expectation of some
reward for these services became so well known to Captain Wainwrigiit and
Colonel Smith, that they felt it their duty to represent it to the Government of
India. There were tliree grounds for such an expectation ; fii-st, nearly the
whole of the vessels destroyed were vessels of war, and ready for sea, which
entitled the captors to the allowance usually called head money ; secondly, the
Expedition were entitled to the property recaptured, and formerly belonging to
tlie Imaum of Muscat, as lawful prize, but from the services that sovereign had
rendered the East India Company, by supplying the Expedition witli wood and
water, and boats for landing tlie troojDs, the commanders thought themselves
justified in giving it up on the part of the Company ; and lastly, the circumstance