Page 346 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

304 JOASMEES.

Joasmees, in conjunction with the Government of Muskat. The com­
bined forces proceeded to Kislim, where they blockaded a Joasmee 9
licet, which were reduced to such distress as to solicit a peace. Cap­
tain Solon agreed to grant them a truce until the pleasure of Govern­
ment should be known ; explaining, as his reason for not prosecuting
hostilities with vigour, the impossibility of doing it without offending
L
either the Persians or the Wahabccs. *
22. The Joasmees, according to their engagements, restored the :
Trimmer, the Shannon having been previously given up, after having ■
been completely stripped.
23. In the month of October an Agent arrived at Muskat from
Moolla Hussein, deputed by the Joasmees to negotiate a peace for ■
them. The instructions of the Bombay Government having been
applied for, Captain Seton was informed, that in the event of its becom­ I
ing a party to the peace, it should not be of a limited nature, but extend I
generally to the whole Gulf, and every other place and situation, and he
was to require full indemnification for the losses we had sustained.
24. Captain Seton, finding it impracticable to obey the orders of
the Government to obtain the required indemnification, without having
recourse to hostilities, which would have involved us in a general
warfare with the whole Gulf, judged it advisable to enter into
the agreement with the Joasmees dated the 6th of February 1806, the
whole bulk of whom he represented as desirous of returning to their
former mercantile pursuits. This agreement* does not appear to have
been negotiated with the consent, or even with the knowledge, of the
Wahabee Shaikh,
25. The Joasmees continued true to their engagements in every point
that regarded the British; but they co-operated
a. d. 1807.
in the following year with Syud Beder, the
Imaum, in an attack on Syud Ghcs, who had refused to become a party
to the* peace, which he could not in honour do until he had revenged
the blood of Syud Sultan.
26. Precluded by the Treaty of 1806 from carrrying on their cruises
in the Gulf, and urged by the Wahabees, the
a. d. 1808. Joasmees extended them to India. In the month
of April 1808 they made their first appearance as pirates in the Indian
Seas, on the coast to the northward of Bombay. The Wahabee Shaikh
had long contemplated the extension of piratical cruises to India
The Joasmees had by a late order of the Wahabee been rendered
independent of their lawful Shaikh, Sultan, who had at this per od
nothing left but Ras-ool-Khyma. Ramse, Shargah, and other
places sent out their boats without h.s permission. Gadcef,

* A copy of which will be found at page 75 of this Select,on.