Page 407 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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UTTOOBEES. 363

By his talents and his treasures he soon acquired a considerable portion
of the fishery, and by his prudent liberality to the neighbouring Arab
Chieftains, and to those of his former associates, he drew over the rest
of his own tribe to the new colony, and at length completely separated
himself from the other two, and established his independence at Zobara.
6. The sons of Subah and Yalahimah discovered too late the j
true motives that influenced Khaleefa’s conduct, but were unable to
resent it.
7. The more powerful clan of the two, the A1 Subah, soon felt the
absence of their commercial brethren, in a deficiency of their finances;
and, following the example of their renegade brethren, first refused the
A1 Yalahimah their share of the revenue, and ultimately expelled them
from the port and town of Koweit.
8. The Yalahimah Tribe sought and obtained the protection of their
kinsmen at Zobara, to each of whom, according to his rank, was
assigned an adequate income. In a few years they renewed their
claims to rights founded on their original compact, which they were
}
not, however, in a condition to enforce.
I
9. Urged by necessity, and a sense of wrong, the Yalahimah quitted
Zobara, and took up their residence at Ravcish, a barren spot at a
short distance eastward of Zobara, and turned their whole attention to [!
the increase, equipment, and preservation of their fleet, contemplating
the object of revenging themselves on their proud and perfidious i!
neighbours. They commenced an extensive system of maritime depre­ i
dation, and, by capturing their property, created in the minds of the
;
Beni Khaleefa fears for their existence, and such a thirst for the
punishment and destruction of the Yalahimah Chief, that, adding to
! '
their own force all the mercenaries their pecuniary resources could
V
obtain, they environed the marauders on every side. The treasures
which the Yalahimah had amassed, which they were determined to
defend to the last, and the feelings of animosity that existed between
them, led to a desperate contest: the Yalahimah Chief having been killed
at an early period of the action, the overwhelming superiority of their
enemies obtained a complete victory, and a few infants and females
were alone saved from the massacre that ensued.
10. Subsequently to this event, the influence and power of the Beni
Khaleefa rapidly increased. They acquired
A. D. 1775*76.
an accession of wealth and respectability, on
the attack of Bussoraby the Persians, at which period one of the Shaikhs
of Grane retired to Zobara, with many of the principal people, and ac­
companied by some of the Bussora merchants also. A great part of
the pearl and Indian trade in consequence centered at Zobara, and at
Grane, during the time the Persians occupied Bussora; and those places