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372 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.

which they had retreated after setting fire to Ul Ushkara and
fourteen of their boats. Captain Thompson having formed an
entrenched camp, a demand was forthwith sent for the surrender
of their fortifications and town, together with the persons who
had murdered the messenger at Ul Ushkara. The summons
was despatched in the name of the Imaum, but conveyed an
intimation from the Political Agent, that the British had entered
upon a course of hostility in order to punish the tribe for
having committed acts of piracy by sea, and that, though they
acted in concert, this cause was quite distinct from the reasons
which had induced his Highness to proceed against them. In
answer to this summons, the Beni-boo-Ali agreed to comply
with the proposed conditions, except the one stipulating for
the surrender of their arms. Unhappily, when everything that
could be reasonably expected from a brave and warlike tribe of
Bedouins, had been conceded. Captain Thompson refused to
waive the imposition of a demand, compliance with which was
synonymous with disgrace.
Accordingly, the combined force, exclusive of a guard left
to defend the entrenched camp, consisting of the four light
guns with a detachment of artillerymen, three hundred and
eighty Sepoys, and two thousand of the Imaum's troops, moved,
on the following morning, towards the enemy's town, which
was situated with its rear resting on a deep date grove, round
which it was necessary to defile in order to reach the assailable
front, which faced the sandy plain, and was protected by
ditches. On arriving within sight of the town, the light
company of the 1st Battalion 2nd N.I., which had headed the
column, opened fire and began to fall back, according to orders,
and, soon after, the enemy, said to number nine hundred men,
appeared in motion on some elevated ground, with the apparent
design of turning the right flank. Captain Thompson imme-
diately directed the troops to form column of sections to the
right, in order to present a new front to the enemy, and then to
charge bayonets. Some hesitation appears to have been
displayed by the Sepoys in obeying this last order, and, as the
only remaining course, they were directed to fire ; but the enemy,
nothing daunted, continued to press forward, broadsword in
hand, and fell upon their wavering ranks with yells, when
instantly a terrible scene of confusion and slaughter ensued.
In vain the officers, with the devotion rarely absent among
English gentlemen, strove by word and example to rally the
panic-stricken Sepoys, who broke, and, throwing themselves on
the Imaum's troops in the rear, infected them with the same
spirit of fear. There was a general flight of the broken
remnants of the force, closely pursued by the enemy, and they
only found shelter within the entrenched camp at Beni-boo-
Hussein. In this affair, two hundred and seventy men were