Page 413 - INDIANNAVYV1

HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 381
As soon as news of the disastrous expedition against the Beni-
boo-Ali reached the Bombay Government, they took immediate
steps to retrieve the tarnished histre of the British arms, and
restore our influence in the Persian Gulf, but at the same time
they recalled Captain Thompson,* and expressed their dis-
approval of his proceedings.
A strong British force,t under I\[ajor-General Lionel Smith,
C.B.—the same officer who commanded the troops in the
Expedition against Rasul-Khymah in 1809, and Mai wan in
1812—was embarked at Bombay on board fifteen transports
and ten baghalahs, having a tonnage in the aggreate of 10,402
tons, and the following cruisers of the Company's Marine acted
—
in co-operation: 'Teignmouth.^ Captain Hardy, senior naval
officer; 'Prince of Wales,' Commander Stout; 'Psyche,'
Lieutenant Dominicetti; and 'Vestal,' Lieutenant Robinson.
The Expedition sailed from Bombay on the 11th of January,
1821, and arrived off Sohar on the 27tli, when the disembarkation
* Captain Thomas Perrouet Thompson, who died in 18C9, in the eiH;lity-sixth
year of his age, was a noted man, and is better known as General Thompson, the
prolific author of pamphlets and articles on Political Economy and Free Trade,
and a Member of Parliament. Though a Dissenter, he went to Cambi'idge, wliere
he became Seventh Wrangler ; but in his twentieth year he quitted college and
entered the Navy, serving as midshipman on board the ' Iris,' llagsliiiiof Admiral
Gambler. The Navy not being to his likiug, he entered the Army as second-
lieutenant in the Ritle Coi-ps. lie served in that wild and unsuccessful expedition
undertaken by Sii" Homo Popham and General Beresford against Buenos Ayres,
and was taken prisoner there when the force capitulated. At the age of twenty-
five he was appointed Governor of Sierra Leone, but owing to his zeal for negro
emancipation, which formed through life a prominent feature in his pohtical
creed, he got into collision with the residents, and was recalled at the end of two
years. He took part in the campaign in the south of France in 18I1-, but missed
Waterloo owing to his regiment, the 17th Dragoons, having been sent to Bombay.
His knowledge of Arabic procured liim the post of interpreter to Sir W. G. K'-ir
in 1819, and, as we have already mentioned, it was owing to his pertinacity that
he managed to persuade both parties to insert Article 9 in the Treaty of the
8th of January, 1820, by which the slave trade was declared piracy, the first time
such a declaration was ever made in a formal treaty between two Powers. In
1821 General Thompson returned to England, and soon after retired from military
He now became a Radical refornu'r, and conduced by his writings in the
life.
" Westminster Review " to the abolition of the Corn I^aws, and his " Corn-Law
Catechism," published in 1827, ten years before the existence of tiie Anti-Corn
Law League, was a memorable production in its day. In 18:35 he was returned
for Hull in the Radical interest, but he finally retired from Parliament in 1859,
ten years before his death.
t Europeans.—H.M.'s nSth Regiment, the Bombay European Regiment.
First troop of the Brigade of Bombay Horse Artillery, 5th Company of the
2nd Battalion Bombay Foot Artillery.
Natives.— Ist Battalion 7th Regiinent (afterwards 13th) Native Infantry;
1st Battalion 2nd Regiment (afterwards :}rd) Native Infantry; llauk companies
of the 2nd Battalion 2nd Regiment (afterwards It h) Native Infantry; 1st Bat-
talion 3rd Regiment (afterwards 5th) Native Infantry; 1st Battalion Mb Regi-
ment (afterwards 7th) Native Infantry; 2nd Battalhm 9th Regiment (after-
wards 18th) Native Infantry ; 3rd Company Pioneer Battalion. Total, one
hundred and seventeen ollicers, one thousand two hundred and sixty-three
European soldiers, one tliousand six hundred and eighty-six Sepoys, and one
thousand six huiulred aiul eleven camp followers. Grand total, four thousami
six hundred and seventy-seven.