Page 223 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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MUSK AT. 131

Muskat, but the want of a guarantee, who could .secure the due
performance of its stipulations.
72. An expedition against the pirates having been determined on, as
well for the suppression of piracy as for the relief of Muskat, it proceeded
to tlie Gulf. The armament, after destroying the boats at Ras-ool-
Khyma, Lingah, and Luft, repaired to Muskat. The Imaum, who in the
first instance considered the attack of the pirates with so small a force a
desperate attempt, afforded the fullest assurances of the satisfaction he
had derived from its success, and expressed considerable gratitude for
the benefit derived to his own cause, particularly by the capture and
surrender of Luft to him; and proposed to accompany the expedition
with a large force to attack Shinas and Khore Fukaun.
73. They reached Shinas on the 31st of December. A summons to
surrender being unattended to, it was imme­
a. d. 1809-10.
diately bombarded. The fort, however, being
too distantly situated to be reduced by those means, the troops were
landed, those of His Highness taking up their ground on the left of
the British. A battery having been raised and completed on the
evening of the 2nd of January, a breach was made on the morning of
the 3rd. It having been determined to storm the place, in which a body
of four hundred of the Imaum’s troops was to co-operate, these,,
considering the movements made by our different detachments in
taking up their stations as moving to the attack, or misunderstanding
their orders, got before the British, and entered the breach first, but
the moment we got up they readily yielded to us the remaining labour
and honour of the day.
74. After a most determined, sanguinary, and heroic defence on the
part of the Wahabee officer, the fort surrendered, and was given up to
the Imaum’s troops, but the fort was so much demolished that His
Highness did not think it prudent to keep possession of it.
75. The Imaum having expressed some hesitation on the policy of
attacking Khore Fukaun, from an apprehension of experiencing a simi­
lar obstinate resistance as was made at Shinas, which would render it
untenable, the object was abandoned, as it had no British interest con­
nected with it, there being no pirate vessels belonging to that port;
nor was it deemed necessary to attack Rhor Hassan, as the Uttoobees
of that place had never molested the British trade ; the armament ac­
cordingly returned to Bombay.
76. In the month of April in the following year, information was
received of the Wahabee troops being in the
A. D. 1811.
vicinity of Muskat, attacking and plundering the
possessions of the Imaum. They had maintained an obstinate conflict
with His Highness’ troops at Saood Moval, about forty miles from