Page 395 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

JOASMEES. 351
Shaikh Muktoom bin Butyc ; he seduced a party of the A1 Huza
from their allegiance to the Amulgavinc Chief ;—in short, we may
safely say that he put his hand to the treaty with every intention to
infringe it.
To give a description of all the intrigues he stooped to engage
in were both idle and useless. I shall therefore confine myself to the
mention of one so inconceivably glaring that his character for deceit
will stand naked before us.
To describe the case I refer to, I cannot do better, I think, than
furnish an extract from a letter, detailing the afFair, that was addressed
to the Resident at the time it occurred by Moolla Hussein, the British
Agent at Shargah. It is thus that he writes :—
“ I have understood that Shaikh Sultan bin Suggur, when visiting
Syud bin Tahnoon at Aboothabee, from a deficiency of sense, entered
into engagements for the due execution of their designs,—that Syud bin
Tahnoon should get ready a force of horsemen and camel riders to
plunder the territories of the Bedouin Tribes, such as the Ghuflah and
the Khuaiter, and those connected with them, viz. the A1 Ali of the
Tribe of Abdoolla bin Rashid, and others ; and with a view solely to in­
flict loss and injury upon Abdoolla bin Rashid, Chief of Amulgavine.
On the 2nd December, accordingly, did a force set out, and at daylight
of the 15lh attacked a position of the Ghuflah, containing about thirty
men, resting in fancied security, who were taken by surprise. I un­
derstand that the Beniyas killed of the above all but five, who escaped
by flight, carried away all the property from the dwellings, and captured
five hundred camels, and a number of sheep. It is reported that of the
Beniyas one man was killed, the son of Rashid bin Fazil. Most people
possessed of the slightest reason and sense lament and condemn these
proceedings on the part of the Beniyas, who were, however, prompted
and instigated by Shaikh Sultan bin Suggur himself to the slaughter
of his dependents and subjects, because those Bedouins, such as the
Ghuflah, the Khuaiter, the Naeem, &c. were all of them formerly
connected with the Joasmees—particularly the Ghuflah. This senseless
conduct of Shaikh Sultan will ruin and depopulate those districts.
The Bedouins, on this event, were thrown into the utmost consternation,
and the elders of Shargah despatched a messenger with the intelligence
to Shaikh Sultan bin Suggur, who affected to disapprove of the proceed­
ings of the Beniyas against the Ghuflah, and yet it was he himself drew
them on them. On the arrival of the messenger on the 7th of December,
Shaikh Sultan came to Shargah, and immediately despatched a boat to
Aboothabee, to intimate to Shaikh Syud that the act of his people
against the Ghuflah had caused no change in his sentiments or feelings,