Page 416 - INDIANNAVYV1
P. 416

384           HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.

         to coinmeinorato their .signal services at Ras-ul-Khymali and in
         the action of the 2nd  ol' JMarch, 1821.
           General Smith,  in his Divisional Orders issued the day after
         the capture of the enemy's works, mentioned the naval detach-
         ment employed at the front  in the following complimentary
               —
         terms  :  " Lieutenant Robinson, of the Hon. Company's Marine,
         and the volunteer seamen from the fleet at Sohar, rendered the
         division great service, and underwent the most trying labour
         and fatigue in dragging heavy  guns.  Major-General Smith
         requests Lieutenant Robinson will accept and communicate his
         best thanks, and he will express  to Government how much he
         is indebted to that officer for his useful exertions."
           Among those desperately wounded and taken prisoners was
         the chief, Mahomed bin Ali, who, with one hundred and fifty
         males, the remnant of the tribe, was  sent to Bombay.  Here
         they were detained for two years, but,  in 1823, the Court of
         Directors sent out instructions to Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone,
         then Governor of Bombay, to use his influence with the Imaum
         of Muscat to procure the restoration of the remnant  of the
         Beni-boo-Ali tribe to their native place.  After some corres-
         pondence, owing  to a reluctance on the part of his Highnesg
         to have back such restless neighbours, even though they were
         powerless, the Imaum consented, and the survivors returned
         to their desolated homes.  Li the following year, the  chief
          having represented  to the British Political Resident the dis-
         tressed condition to which his people were reduced, owing to
          the  destruction of their date-groves and water-courses,  the
          Bombay Government presented the tribe with a sum of 2,500
          German dollars  to enable them to recover somewhat of their
          former prosperity.  It speaks well for the generosity of these
          Arabs that when Lieutenant Wellsted, I.N., the eminent tra-
          operation, the regiment returned  to Bombay, where  it landed on the 23rd of
          April.  On the 22nd of November, 1814, it embarked for service in Gruzerat, and
          oil the 11th of June, 1815, marched from Baroda and formed part of Colonel
          East's column in the operations against the Kattywar rebels, which ended with
          the capture of Beyt and Dwarka.  The 65th arrived at Bombay on the 20th of
          May, 1816, and after serving against the Mahrattas, under Major Warren, in
          February, 1818, proceeded to Cutch, when after some active service  it returned
          to Bombay on the 15th of April.  Then followed the second expedition against
          Ras-ul-Khymah, and on the 8th of March, 1820, the regiment once more took up
          its quarters at Colabah in Bombay.  After only a brief repose of two months, a
          detachment of the regiment proceeded, in May, 1820, once more to Cutch, where
          it was employed under Colonel the Hon. L. Stanhope in the brilliant assault of
          Dwarka.  The detachment arrived at Bombay on the last day of the year, and on
          the 6th of January following  sailed with the expedition organised under com-
          mand  of its old  colonel, now Major-General  L. Smith, C.B., to chastise the
          Beni-boo-Ali.  This was its  last service in India, and on the 19th of August,
          1822, after an absence of nearly twenty-two years from England, for the regi-
          ment had proceeded to Bombay from the Cape of Gfood Hope, the gallant 65th
          sailed from Bombay for the last time.  General Sir Lionel Smith was appointed
          Governor and Commander-in-Chief at Mauritius, and died there about 1840,
          when he was succeeded by the late Sir William Gomm.
   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421