Page 433 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

UTTOOBEES. 389

having promised that he would communicate with the Resident,
previous to placing himself under the protection of any other foreign
power, it was not without much dissatisfaction that an intimation was
received, through the Egyptian authorities, of his having become
'
tributary to them; more particularly as he had received every encou­
ragement from the British authorities to assert his rights, and was well
aware of the light in which Korshid Pacha’s proceedings were viewed
by them. The fact was, that this chief felt hurt and annoyed that
a more decided line had not been adopted, and also that authoritative
influence was not employed to subdue the A1 Ali, and compel their
return to his territories, instead of their being, on the contrary, permitted
to carry on hostilities against him; forgetting, apparently, that he had
himself forced the British Government to withdraw from all interference,
inasmuch as he had solicited to be allowed to attack them, whereas they
had been repeatedly restrained from becoming the aggressors.
The Shaikh excused himself for having entered into any agreement
with Korshid Pacha on the grounds that, having given up all hopes of
support and assistance from the British, and conceiving himself left to
his own unaided resources, and threatened with a war with Aboothabee,—
!
his trade harassed by the aggressions of Esai bin Tarif,—his Bedouin
subjects on the main going over in great numbers, and submitting to
Korshid Pacha, who was then threatening an invasion,—the difficulty of
defending Bahrein from an attack if made from the opposite coast, there
being many places which admitted of a fleet of a hundred boats making
its way across in a few hours, without the possibility of being approach­
ed by either ship or Buggalow, on account of the shallow water and
numerous shoals,—he considered his own interests were best consulted
by his agreeing to pay the Pacha so trifling a sum as 2,000 dollars a
year, to secure the integrity of his own territories, and the undisturbed
possession of his own authority over them, as it had been expressly !
stipulated by him that no Agent of the Pacha should reside in Bahrein.
He admitted that both himself and every other Arab detested the
being at all connected with, or coming under the rule of the Egyptians;
and declared, that if the British Government would give a distinct and
written pledge to protect him and his from all attacks and aggressions,
he would drop all further connection with him, and avow himself
a dependent of Great Britain ; but declined giving the substance of the
above in writing, on the plea that, for the present at least, he had
got rid of a pressing evil by a comparatively trifling sacrifice, and
could not seriously commit himself until he had received the fullest
and most satisfactory assurance from the British Government of its
protection.