Page 459 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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UTTOOBEES.
inclined to trust himself anew to Persian protection, knowing, as he did,
that they neither could nor intended to support him. He therefore, in
August 1846, politely declined the invitation he had received, and begged
leave to inform His Highness that a combination of circumstances pre­
cluded his availing himself of the aid and hospitality he so graciously
proAcred.
In the month of September 1846, shortly after making the above
refusal, he re-visited the neighbourhood of Kateef, and took up his
quarters in the immediate vicinity of Demauin. His sudden re-ap-
pearance caused the blockade of the port of Kateef, that had of late been
somewhat relaxed, to be strictly enforced again, and led to two
engagements between the land forces of Shaikh Mahomed bin Khaleefa
and the Kateef Governor, wherein, however, the ex-chief took no
personal part, and which terminated pretty evenly for both the
belligerents, the Bahrein Shaikh proving victorious on the one occasion,
and Abdoolla bin Saeed on the other. Either party now applied to the
Resident for permission to call in certain allies to join his cause, and in
either case did the Resident refuse to comply. First came the Go­
vernor of Kateef, petitioning him in October 1846 to permit the Mari­
time Chiefs of Oman to aid him with their naval force against Mahomed
bin Khaleefa. His request could not of course be granted : the British
Government considered them all to be independent chiefs, and with one
and all had they entered into treaties, whereby each one of their
number bound himself to keep the peace, and not to disturb the
tranquillity of the seas. Now it was plain that, if one party coalesced
with the Governor of Kateef, and another with the Shaikh of Bahrein,—
and this would infallibly happen,—they would wage war the one
upon the other, and create maritime disorder. On such grounds did
the Resident decline to permit any one of the Shaikhs to proceed to
the assistance of Abdoolla bin Saeed, and for the same reasons, too,
when Shaikh Mahomed bin Khaleefa shortly after sought the help
of the Shaikh of Debaye (November 1846), was a refusal of necessity
given.
In the early part of the ensuing year (1847), at a time when Abdoolla
bin Ahmed was quartered at Tirhoot, without
A. D. 184/.
any followers, and war was still raging between
Kateef and Bahrein, a quarrel took place betwixt Shaikh Mahomed bin
Khaleefa and the Amayir Chief, which ended in the eventual secession
of the latter from his master’s authority. Some of his principal men went
over toNujd to make their peace with the Wahabee ruler; others opened
a correspondence with the Governor of Kateef, in order to effect a
reconciliation with himthe whole, in fact, of the Amayir Tribe