Page 517 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

473
BENIYAS.
carried away three hundred head of cattle. Encouraged by his
he made several other incursions into the interior, killing and
success,
plundering wherever ho went, These vigorous measures alarmed
the Bedouins, who thenceforward refused to give any further assistance
to the Debaye people.
The explanation afforded by the Bcniyas Shaikhs, for the plunder of
the Muskat vessel before mentioned, having been accepted by the
authorities of that place, (who, since the occurrence, had made the
former a present, with the desire, probably, of conciliating them, as a
counterpoise to the Joasmees,) rendered the interference of the Resident
uncalled for.
Peace was shortly after concluded between the contending parties,
through the mediation of the Shaikh of Lingah, but it was destined not
to be of very long duration. A successful predatory inroad into the
Joasmee territories by the Monasir, a Bedouin Tribe closely connected
with Aboolhabee, and the capture in retaliation of ten Beniyas pearl
boats, carrying about eighty men, and pearls worth 4,000 dollars, on
the banks, by the Boo Felasa of Debayc, led to the renewal of hostilities.
Both parties having been necessarily obliged to withdraw their sub­
jects from the banks, to avoid the effect of reprisals on the one side,
and of further aggressions on the other, apprehensions of future distress
were raised, by their being thus deprived of their share of the produce
of the annual pearl fishery, forming the chief source of subsistence to
the Maritime Arabs of the Gulf, as being almost the only means they
possess of gaining a livelihood. Moved by the earnest solicitations,
therefore, of his dependents, Shaikh Khaleefa sent his father (Shak-
boot) to Shargah, who succeeded in concluding a peace with Sultan
bin Suggur ; one of the conditions being that the Boo Felasa, the
branch of the Beniyas residing in Debaye, should thenceforth be under
the authority of the Joasmees.
While the people of Debaye, about the middle of 1S34, evincing
a piratical spirit, were making depredations upon
a. d. 1834.
the general trade, some of the Sooedan Tribe,
i formerly from Ejman, but now residing at Aboothabee, attacked a
Mootarish Buteel from Muttra, and plundered her of property to the
amount of 1,000 dollars; fortunately no lives were lost. Shaikh
Khaleefa bin Shakboot failed to afford redress, in compliance with the
demands of the Resident, until he was made aware, by the appearance
of vessels of war off his port, of the determination to enforce it.
The predatory spirit which had from time to time evinced itself on
the part of the different Arab Tribes, by the occasional plunder of
individual vessels, for which satisfaction and ample reparation had
always, however, been exacted, now broke out into open and avowed