Page 497 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

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WAIIA BEES.

tenets among the pirate chieftains, which had led to their chastisement
by the British Government; deprecating his present attempts to bring
them again under Wahabee authority and influence, as calculated
to recall to their minds the deeds of other times, when they were
similarly stimulated by his predecessors, and to arouse the savage
propensities of those who were now quietly settling down into peaceable
natives, and thereby to draw down upon them the just vengeance of the
British Government.
Abdoolla bin Sooneyan, in reply, declared his intention to co-operate
with the British Government to check piracy; that he had promulgated the
same to the people of Oman, whom he called his subjects, and to others I
of other countries, enjoining them to abstain from inflicting injuries upon
others, and, with regard to the sea, to act in the very manner pointed
out,—professions which, rated at their true value, were probably worth i
nothing; but, whether sincere or faithless, were a matter of little
moment, his authority being by no means confirmed, and his views,
therefore, liable to any change, as his fame and influence increased or
diminished.
The Brymee Shaikhs claimed, in their public answers to the ruler
of Nujd, a species of connection with the British Government, which,
although not absolutely subsisting, was possibly adduced in the hope
that, if Abdoolla bin Sooneyan were Ignorant of the truth, he might be
deterred from interfering in their concerns from fear of the supposed
alliance. There were those among them, however, who courted the
good will and friendship of the new Wahabee ruler, and desired to
tender their submission to him ; and the contents of their letters, secretly
despatched, were supposed to be of a very opposite tenor to that above
alluded to.
The heavy exactions levied upon the inhabitants of Kateef and other
places under his authority, by Ameer Abdoolla bin Sooneyan, rendered
him for a time unpopular. Some of the Bedouin Tribes still refused to
make their allegiance, and a faint effort on the part of his rival, the
deposed usurper Khalid, at Gusseem, to recover his lost position, insti­
gated and encouraged, it was reported, by emissaries from the Turkish
Government, threatened at one instant to jeopardise his newly acquired
authority.
This danger was no sooner averted than, in March 1S43, news of
Ameer FysuFs arrival at Gusseem were receiv­
a. d. 1843.
ed ; and although he still continued to keep up a
correspondence with the Oman Chiefs, Abdoolla bin Sooneyan’s attention
was evidently too much taken up in his own affairs to admit of his
entertaining any designs immediately opposed to the policy of the
British Government on the Arabian Coast. J