Page 234 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

192 MUSKAT.

Majesty’s Ministers, who subsequently replied that it was determined
to take no further steps in the affair.
i
A tribute which His Highness the Imaum laid claim to from Bussora
I
having been withheld for several years, and
a. n. 1S25. no
attention paid to repeated remonstrances His
Highness informed the Resident in the Persian Gulf that it was his
intention to blockade the river, in order to enforce the payment of the
arrears due. The Resident having offered his mediation to endeavour
to adjust this dispute, it was accepted, and a communication was made
to the Political Agent at Bagdad, in March 1825, requesting him to
exert his influence with the Pasha to settle the affair quietly. The
Bombay Government, however, directed that our interference should
be confined solely to producing a disposition to an amicable adjust-
ment, and that in the event of the blockade being established, British
ships were to be subjected to its operation equally with others. Captain
Taylor, having intimated the failure of his attempt to induce the Pasha
of Bagdad to make concessions, the Imaum was informed that he was
at liberty to carry on whatever measures he thought proper. His
Highness, however, in consequence of the threats of Mahomed Ali
Pasha, abandoned the idea of an expedition for that time.
In May 1S25, the British Resident having received orders to take
measures to remove the jealous feelings which had been excited in the
mind of the Imaum, owing to our interference in behalf of the Beni Boo
Ali Tribe, proceeded in person to Muskat, ostensibly with the view of
endeavouring to bring the discussion between His Highness and Shaikh
Sultan bin Suggur, touching the towers of Brymee, to a favourable termi­
nation. The presence at Muskat of Mahomed bin Ali, the Chief of the
Beni Boo Ali Tribe, afforded Colonel Stannus an opportunity of introduc­
ing the real object of his visit, and in the various conversations he held
with His Plighness touching the present and future condition of the
Beni Boo Ali Tribe, succeeded, apparently, in satisfying His Highness
that our interference in their behalf was prompted solely by the humane
motive of relieving them from the distresses of the situation which our
proceedings against them had been mainly instrumental in producing.
In the latter end of 1825 His Highness visited the Gulf of Persia, with
his fleet, and having proffered his mediation to arrange the differences
between the Chiefs of Ras-ool-Khyma and Aboothabee (Shaikh Sultan
bin Suggur and Shaikh Tahnoon bin Shakboot), his offer was accepted,
and an amicable arrangement was finally made, in which, however, no
mention whatever was made of the towers of Brymee, which had been
so long a subject of dispute ; an omission which leads to the conclusion
that (notwithstanding the report of Goolab, the British Agent at Muscat,
to the contrary) the delay in carrying into effect the part of the former