Page 366 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

324
JO ASM EES.
his statement that the insult to the vessel had been offered without hi,
knowledge, directed the first boat that had boarded the Smibunj to bo
ipiC:**"i'°""»^ nod

In June 1829,
q i o, • a pCaCG was concIude(I between Shaikh Sullan bin
.;uggur and Shade Tahnoon bin Shakboot, through the mediation of the
Chiel of Lmgah, the principal condition of which was that neither party
should Interfere i in any way with the subjects or dependents of the
other.
The Imaum of Muskat being on the point of proceeding to his
dominions on the African Coast, deemed it prudent to provide for the
tranquillity of his Arabian territories by paying an annual sum to each
of the Joasmee Chiefs ;—2,000 German crowns a year was the amount
fixed for Shaikh Sultan. Notwithstanding this arrangement, the
Shaikh was on the point of sending 400 men to assist the sister of
Syud Ilillal, the Governor of Sowcik, in the war which she was
carrying on against the Imaum (in consequence of the unjust imprison­
ment of her brother) ; but the chief men of his tribe, having assembled
together, represented the disgraceful nature of such a proceeding so
strongly as to induce him to desist for the time. Soon afterwards, he
received a communication from the British authority in the Gulf,
acquainting him that any hostile steps against His Highness’ territories
would be viewed as a declaration of war by his Government.
In May 1830, the minds of the inhabitants of the Arabian Coast were
much agitated, in consequence of the great and
a. d. 1830.
unexpected success of Toorkey bin Saood, the
Wahabee Chief, over the Beni Khalid Tribe, and the gradual advance
of that sect to the southward. To the bulk of the Joasmces, and
particularly to Shaikh Rashid bin Humeed of Ejman, and Mahomed
bin Rashid of Amulgavine, the prospect of the re-ascendancy of the
Wahabee power appears to have given unmixed satisfaction,—the lower
orders anticipating a return to their former piratical habits, and the
1
above two chiefs expecting to emancipate themselves from their depen­
dence upon Shaikh Sultan bin Suggur. This latter personage, how-
ever, viewed the successes of Shaikh Toorkey in a very different hght,
and plainly saw that he could expect nothing but a diminution of influ­ \
ence and revenue in consequence. These sentiments he however care­
fully concealed, and professed himself outwardly as hearty as any one
in the cause of Wahabeeism ; but in a letter addressed to the British I
authority in the Gulf, in July 1830, he expressed lus earnest desire to
British Government in checking their further pro­
co-operate with the
to declare that he was determined to oppose .
gress, and went so far as

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