Page 274 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

232 MUSK AT.

aggregate at ten or eleven lakhs of rupees. The crew, overpowered by
numbers, left the vessel, and proceeded to Musical in three Native boats
that were hired for the purpose from the people of Soor. Every pos­
sible exertion was made by the Resident and other political officers to
recover the plundered property, but so scattered had it become, and
so far inland had it probably travelled, that there remained but little
chance of success. The vessel was destroyed by the Arabs.
The disorders of the Muskat Government, that had been appeased by
the arrival of His Highness Syud Saeed, and the measures he adopted,
were merely suspended for a lime. It was not likely, indeed, that the
line of conduct pursued by His Highness, however well it succeeded in
humbling the pride of the Sohar Chief, and wresting from him the posses­
sions he had so lately acquired, should tend to restore order of a
permanent character.
Towards the close of the year 1852, His Highness Syud Saecd left
Muskat, and returned to Zanzibar, and his African possessions. His
departure was the signal for revolt : fresh disturbances arose ; signs of
disaffection were freely manifested by the tribes in Batinah, and the
whole of His Highness’dominions was in ablaze with dissensions. At
this conjuncture, too, the advancing steps of the Wahabee Chief were
heard thundering once more in the distance. He came in the characler of
arbiter and redresser of wrongs suffered by his children (the Shaikhs) in
Oman. He took up his position at Brymee, and summoned the chiefs
to attend him. The force despatched on this occasion was so unusually
large, and entrusted to the command of so influential a person,—that
person being no less than a son of the great Ameer himself,—that all the
tribes, struck with awe, hastened to meet its commander, and seemed
to vie with each other in acts of submission and homage towards him.
The maritime chiefs, too, repaired with haste to pay their addresses,
and to relate their tales of woe.
Scarcely had Abdoolla bin Fysul arrived, ere he sent forth demands for
the immediate cession of Sohar, and the payment of tribute so large in
amount that it was plain he sought but a pretext, in the refusal that
must of necessity follow, to attack and lay waste the distiicts of
Batinah. The Sohar Chief, it cannot be doubted, added fuel to the
flame, by recounting with fiery eloquence the wrongs he had suffered,
the indignities that were heaped on his ill-fated brother. A blow, it
was manifest, was about, to be aimed at His Highness’ dominions, that
would imperii their safety, and endanger their integrity. The aspect
of affairs was gloomy indeed, and had it not been for the oppoitune
presence of the Besident on the Arabian Coast, and the steps he adopted
to stay the storm, coupled with the noble stand of Shaikh Syud bin
Tahnoon in support of His Highness, matters would have proved most