Page 361 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

JOASMEES. 319
this business created a sensation throughout the Gulf highly credit­
able to our Government, and tended greatly to establish a favourable
impression of the cllicacy of the general treaty.
Exhausted by continual and fruitless warfare, and their exclusion
from the pearl fishery in consequence, both Shaikh Sultan bin Suggur
and Shaikh Tahnoon gladly availed themselves of the conciliatory
oilers made by the Imaum of Muskat, and a speedy adjustment of all
differences took place under his mediation in October 1825, upon the
conditions of the demolition of Derail, the removal of the Sooedan
Tribe,* and the reception of a small body of the Imaum’s troops into
Debaye. Not a word was said on this occasion about Brymee, and this
singular omission, notwithstanding its being in the power of the Imaum
to dictate his own terms, would seem to remove the blame of the non-
fulfilment of the stipulation in the former treaty regarding this place
from Shaikh Sultan to His Highness.
In the course of an interview held with the British authority in the
Gulf of Persia, in November 1825, Shaikh Sultan bin Suggur expressed
great alarm at the increasing power and intrigues of the Wahabees, and
professed himself very anxious to learn whether he might look to the Eng­
lish for assistance in the event of his endeavouring to maintain his inde­
pendence. In reply, he was informed, in general terms, that he was the
best judge of his own interests; but that no connection or authority would
be received by the British Government as an excuse for any proceedings
bearing a predatory character. The Shaikh then adverted to the very
difficult dilemma into which he would be cast in the event of the Waha­
bees attacking the territories of the Imaum, and calling on him for his sup­
port against that prince. To this he was answered, that his forming any
connection prejudicial to His Highness would be considered unfriendly
by us, and it was in every point of view advisable that he should not
adopt that line of conduct. The language held on this occasion was
confirmed by the Governor in Council, with a further intimation, that
however improbable it might be that we should act against the Waha­
bees so long as they confined their conquests to the shore, it was still
not desirable that we should bind ourselves to abstain from interposition,
or hold out so great an encouragement to the invasion of the Imaum’s
territories as our avowed indifference would be likely to afford.
A boat belonging to Amulgavine having been taken by the followers
of the notorious Sooedan bin Zaal (who had settled at Biddah, in the
territories of the Shaikh of Bahrein, on fleeing from Aboothabee), the
Joasmee Chief affected to consider this act as more than balancing the
piracy committed on the Bahrein boat captured by his subjects in 1825,
* A body of Arabs, under Salmin bin Nassir, inhabiting Dernh.