Page 445 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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UTTOOBEES. 401
Shaikh Jaubir, Governor of Koweit,* and a mutual friend of the con­
tending chiefs, now (August 1843) volunteered his services as mediator.
Aware that to effect a lasting peace between them was perfectly
hopeless, on account of the conflicting views and interests of the col­
leagues on the one side, and the sons and subordinates on the other,
between whom an irreconcilable hatred existed, and unprepared or
unwilling to engage actively in the cause, this chief had hitherto
refrained from any interference whatever.
Perceiving now, however, the elder chief reduced to the last extremity,
and no longer able to resist, he evinced a generous desire to save him
from further degradation, and, if possible, to induce him to return with
him to Kowcit; for this, it appeared, was his object, in the event of his
mediation proving unsuccessful. Under these circumstances, no objec­
tion was offered to his carrying his proposal into effect, as conveyed in
his communication on the subject to the British authority, who merely
recommended his confining his proceedings to mediation alone, and
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not permitting them to assume the appearance of hostilities towards
Mahomed bin Khalecfa, now allied, if not in a manner subject, to the
Wahabee ruler, whose aid and countenance he had succeeded in secur­
ing, by the promise of renewing the payment of an annual tribute,
such as was formerly exacted from the Bahrein Chief by his father,
Toorkey bin Saood.
Shaikh Jaubir accordingly proceeded to Bahrein, accompanied by a
fleet of eight large vessels, and there held a lengthened communication
with the de facto ruler, the result of which was the despatch of a boat
to seek the ex-chief, and invite him to a conference. The latter
however, conscious, probably, that mediation alone, and not active
interference, would be exercised in his favour, had left the neighbour­
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hood (for Bushire), his pride precluding him from accepting or granting
terms to those whom, though undoubtedly hereditarily entitled to a
share of authority over Bahrein, he appears ever to have considered his
subjects. His visit being thus rendered of no avail, and the further
detention of his vessels from their commercial occupation profitless and
prejudicial to the interests of his subjects, Shaikh Jaubir returned
to Koweit, without having in any way achieved his object.
Mahomed, a son of Abdoolla bin Ahmed, with Hajee Bushab, the
latter’s Vizier, coming out of Demaum, which under these circumstances
continued to be closely blockaded, for the purpose of collecting boats on
the adjoining coast, were seized by the Governor of Kateef, who also made
prisoner Ali, another son of the ex-chief, who had come over from Lingah
with a small reinforcement of the Aboosemate tribe, to join his father.
* The Koweit boats carry the Turkish flag, and its inhabitants acknowledge a nominal
dependence to the Turkish Government.

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