Page 528 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

484 WRNIYAS.

cousin Syud Humood bin Azan, and their subjects, broke off the confer-
cnce, and declined entering into the proposed league,
The envoy
then returned to Debaye, and from thence to Aboothabee.
A deputation now (March 1843) went from Debaye to Aboothabec,
a. d. 1843. !° invitC and escort back lhe Beniyas Chief!
in the hope that a personal interview between
the chiefs might lead to a mutual understanding and settlement of
disputes, and promote and confirm their reconciliation. A meeting
took place in the fort, where Shaikh Khaleefa was received with all
honours, and it was agreed, after the usual manner, that all differences
should thenceforth be forgotten, and a lasting peace established be­
tween them.
These proceedings, as might have been anticipated, gave umbrage to
the Joasmee Chieftains, who but ill concealed their disapprobation.
Shaikh Muktoom declared them, however, necessary to his best
interests, and offered his services as mediator for peace between them
and his new ally, knowing full well at the same time that it would
not, and in fact little intending that it should, prove effectual. Debaye
being situated between the territories of the two great rival chieftains,
good policy demanded that Shaikh Muktoom should use every
endeavour to maintain the best possible terms with either, and yet a
perfect neutrality in their endless quarrels. Ilis advantage and inde­
pendence, indeed, depend upon their being inimical ; for the balance of
power would be with him who, reducing Debaye to subjection,
secured, whether by force or conciliation, the resources of its inhabit­
ants to forward his own ends. Thus the choice of peace or war may
in a manner be said to rest with Muktoom, the execution of whose
threat to join his opponent is dreaded by either.
In the course of the struggle for supremacy between the rival Chief­
tains of Bahrein, Sultan bin Sulameh came to Aboothabee as the envoy
of Esai bin Tarif, to solicit, with most tempting offers, the assistance of
the Beniyas Chief. Khaleefa, however, replied that he could not grant
it without the permission of the British Government.
Shortly after the visit of Khaleefa to Debaye, his brother, Sultan bin
Shakboot, left Aboothabee with one hundred and fifty camel-riders, on
a Chupao (plundering excursion). They attacked the Beni Kuttub
(allies of the Joasmees), killed three men, and carried away seventy
camels, and much property. They then plundered two Kafilas, one
of which was bound from Brymee to Shargah, and robbed and Julie
three men of the Naeem Tribe. After an absence of seven days, they
returned to Aboothabee with the loss of two men killed, and two

wounded.