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338 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVy.
the conduct of the Joasini chief and of his tribe, and ))indinf^
liimself to compel him to deliver np such goods as could be proved
to have been captured, while the latter again denied having
taken any British property. The Wukeel was authorised to
enter into an engagement with Mr. Bruce, who, accordingly,
deemed it advisable to propose a few preliminary articles of
agreement with the envoy, renouncing all claims and passing
an act of oblivion on the past, on the conditions specified in tlie
engagement. The Joasmi chief having expressed his intention
to depute an agent to Bombay, Mr. Bruce was induced to con-
clude the preliminary agreement in question. But it was no
better than waste paper, for in August, 1814, some vessels,
bearing the British pass and colours, were captured oif Pore-
bunder. Mr, Bruce, on receipt of orders to remonstrate against
this act, despatched a dhow to Ras-ul-Khymah, with letters to
Hussein Bin Rahmah and his Wukeel, who had entered into the
preliminary engagement above specified, and with one also to
Sultan Bin Suggur at Linjah, but, to his astonishment, the
Nakhoda returned in a few days in a most wretched plight, and
stated that he had been robbed by the chief of Linjah, and that
the Ras-ul-Khymah Sheikh had seized his boat. This flagrant
breach of faith was speedily followed by the capture of a bag-
halah belonging to the Imaum of Muscat, whilst at anchor in the
roads of Moghu, whose people were privy to this depredation,
and had, in fact, given information of the baghalah being there.
Besides the seizure of this vessel, which was laden with horses
for the remount of the 17th Dragoons, and with sulphur on
account of British subjects, six others were captured off the
Scinde coast.
The success that attended the subsequent cruises undertaken
by the Joasmis, added so much to their strength that it induced
most of the other ports on the same coast, from Cape Nabeud
to the southward, to follow the same system. The Sheikh of
Charrack, in particular, was encouraged to form a connection
with Ras-ul-Khymah, and Abdoolla Bin Ahmed of Bahrein
openly avowed his determination to adopt piracy, as the surest
mode of acquiring wealth and strength. Thus the Arab tribes
of the Persian Gulf once more embarked on a course of flagrant
and open breach of the law of nations.
In 1815 a vessel belonging to Bombay, sailing under a British
pass and colours, was captured off Muscat, the greater part of her
crew put to death, and a ransom exacted for the release of the
remainder. About this time a Joasmi fleet, consisting of a ship
and twenty-five baghalahs and batils, while cruising at the
entrance to the Gulf, fell in with the Imaum, who was on the
taken prisoner by Ibrahim Pasha in 1819, but had effected his escape, succeeded
in recapturing Riadh, the new capital near Dereeyah, and partially restored the
ascendancy of the Wahabtcs.