Page 255 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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time, of which the following is a detailed account. Six men, originally
of Nujd, who had lately been dismissed the service of His Highness
the Imaum, took their passage in a small Kishrn Buggalow, bound with
cargo from Muskat for Bunder Abbas and Kishm. In her, also, were
passengers, a Hindoo,*' with his three wives and one child. Observing,
on embarking, that some valuable property was on board, and that the
crew were without arms, the Nujd men determined to make her their
prize, and accordingly, on reaching the Coast ofT Salameh, they rose up,
murdered the Nakhoda and Hindee passenger, and wounded one
of the crew, which so terrified the remainder that they offered no
resistance, and the Nujdees, remaining masters of the vessel, steer­
ed a course for Bahrein, when a severe storm compelled them to
put in for shelter to Cheroo, on the Persian Coast. The crew, whe­
ther from positive ignorance or designedly, declaring themselves
incapable of navigating the vessel, they here sent one of their
own number on shore to engage a Buggarah, into which, having
transhipped the property, they released the Kishm vessel. The crew
immediately took her to Kelat, and despatched a messenger overland
to communicate the circumstances to Shaikh Khalfanf at Cheroo, who
immediately seized and imprisoned the pirates, and, landing the pro­
perty, gave information to Shaikh Abdool Rahman of Kishm. On the
news reaching the Commodore at the naval station, Bassadore, that
officer despatched one of the vessels of the squadron to Cheroo, with a
letter to the address of the Shaikh of that place, who immediately
handed over the six prisoners, and replied that he was only awaiting
the arrival of boats from Kishm and Bunder Abbas, to the governors
of which places he had written, to deliver over the property. The three
women and child, being natives of Hyderabad (Deccan), expressed their
wish to return to India. It was accordingly arranged that they should
be sent to Bassadore by the boat which conveyed the Kishm property.
They nevertheless, by some accident (or design), found their way to
Kishm, nor was it until early in the year 1S44, and after much strict
inquiry and investigation, and some correspondence as to their fate
with the Governor Shaikh Syf, who is supposed either to have himself
illegally detained them, or exercised some undue influence in their
detention, that intimation of their departure for Bombay was received
at Bushire.

* Kcrbelah Hoosein, a native of Kirman, but who had for many years past resided in India,
t Shaikh Khalfan, Governor of Aseeloo, happened to be at this time at Cheroo, having
temporarily fled his town, with his family and a few attendants, in cousequence, probably, of
the heavy exaction of the Shiraz or Lar authorities. The Buggarah engaged by the pirates
belonged to him.