Page 358 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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JOASMEES.
and, in respect to arms, those principally of Persian manufacture
They possess no articles of export, since their pearls arc generally
purchased by merchants on the spot, and the produce of their country
is not even sufficient for their maintenance. Their only employment is
Its lung, diving for pearls, and importing dales, grain, and other nccessa-
nes of life, which they purchase with the price of their pearls. Their
dates are chiefly brought from Bahrein and Bussora; grain and cloth from
Muskat and the Persian ports. They are very poor, and perhaps can
never find much employment in commerce, unless in carrying for others j
although it is said they at one time pursued a very extensive trade.”
About the end of 1823, an inhabitant of Shargali, named Hassoom,
armed a boat, and sent her to cruise in the neighbourhood of Cape Jask.
She however returned without making any prizes, and was imme­
diately seized by Shaikh Sultan bin Suggur, who, after instituting an in­
quiry into the affair, liberated the owner, on the plea of want of evidence.
The first undoubted instance of piracy committed by the Joasmees,
subsequent to the conclusion of the treaty, ap­
a. d. 1824.
pears to have taken place in the beginning of
1824, when two boats from Shargah fell in with and captured a Bug-
galow belonging to the Mehra Tribe, near Socotra, on which occasion
they are said to have put every one on board to the sword, and then
sailed for Zanzibar. That Sultan bin Suggur was fully acquainted with
the purpose of the boats in question is evident, from his making a com­
munication soon after their departure to the senior officer of the marine,
intimating their having sailed on a piratical expedition, and regretting
his want of means to pursue them, In June 1824, these two boats
returned to the Gulf, one of them having the audacity to touch at
Muskat on her way up, and only escaped being detained by produc­
ing a passport from the Captain of H. M.’s ship Minerva. Finding,
however, that orders had been issued for their seizure whenever
they made their appearance in the Persian Gulf, they did not ven­
ture to return to Shargah, but one of the vessels in question was
subsequently found abandoned at Charrak, and having been taken
possession of by a cruiser, was to have been sent over to Shaikh Sultan
bin Suggur, to be identified, but owing to its dilapidated state , was
obliged to be broken up. The other boat took refuge at Muttra, where
it remained unmolested for several months ; and under the particular
circumstances of the case no further steps were taken by the Government

^The Wahabees having about this lime obtained considerable success
the Turks, Shaikh Sultan bin Suggur, in concert with Shaikh
over
(who had lately acknowledged his supremacy).
Rashid bin Humeed This measure he did not attempt
opened a negotiation with that sect