Page 489 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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WAHABEES.
500 foot, with 12 guns and 4 mortars ; but such was the terror inspired
by the Pacha’s name, that nothing like determined resistance appears
to have been offered, although Fysul stood generally high with the
Bedouins of Nujd.
This effectual subversion of the authority of Fysul, and approach of
the Egyptians, created great alarm in the mind of the Uttoobee Chief,
who had apparently just grounds for supposing that their ulterior
objects were not, as at first conjectured, directed towards any part of the
Turkish territories, but to the conquest of Bahrein, in which their aid
and co-operation had been secured, it was reported, by the Imaum, in
a secret agreement, whereby it was stipulated that he should be mam-
lained in possession of the island, and of the districts of Lahsa and
Kateef, and in return pay an annual tribute of 300,000 crowns.
Korshid Pacha now arrived with a reinforcement of regular troops,
and commenced his march upon Riaz, Lahsa,
a. d. 1S38.
and Kateef. He used every means to conciliate
the Arab Tribes, and despatched emissaries to Bahrein for the purpose
of procuring grain, provisions, and necessaries for his force, against its
arrival. An attempt at treachery, on the other hand, amongst the
Amayir Tribe at Lahsa, having been discovered, it was severely dealt
with by Ameer bin Oofeysan, Ameer Fysul’s General, who put to death
three of their chief people.
Ameer Fysul was shortly after compelled to fly to Dillum, which was
immediately besieged by three bodies of troops, under the respective
commandants of Ameer Khalid, Korshid Pacha, and the Shaikh of the
Moojariba Arabs, and, being very hardly pressed, to deliver himself up.
Lahsa and Kaleef thereon surrendered, and the Wahabee General,
Omer bin Oofeysan, took refuge in Bahrein.
Fysul was sent a prisoner to Egypt in December 1838, and his SUC-
cessor Khalid, the Egyptian tool, called upon the Uttoobees to resume
the payment of the annual tribute which had formerly been exacted by
Toorkey. The Egyptian General now threw off his disguise as the
auxiliary of Khalid, openly declared Nujd a possession of his master,
and avowed his intention to improve and extend his conquests.
On the defeat and surrender of Ameer Fysul, Korshid Pacha, with
the whole of the regulars and artillery, which, including the irregular
Alughribee and horsemen, amounted to about 3,000, fixed his head
quarters at Sulimeah (distant from two hundred to two hundred and
fifty miles from the coast), garrisoned Lahsa with 300 irregulars as also
Kateef, Sohat, and Ajeer, and only awaited the arrival of reinforce­
ments to carry into effect his meditated attack upon Bahrein. With
this view, he expected the co-operation of four armed vessels from the
- Red Sea, with a supply of arms and ammunition. Emissaries
were