Page 529 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

BENIYAS. 485

A hollow treaty of peace on land was entered into in July 1843 by
the Joasrncc and Beniyas Chiefs, but immediate or temporary advan­
tage, of however trifling a nature, being the only rule of action among
Arabs, it was not destined to have a longer existence than its predeces-
sors. Khaleefa bin Shakboot, accompanied by a respectable force of
horse and camel-men, principally of the tribes of Monasirand Moozareah,
proceeded (August-Scptcmber 1843) on a foray, and plundered the Beni
ICultub, Gliuflah, and Naccm Bedouins, tribes in alliance with the Joas-
mee Chief, the greater portion of whom were themselves absent on a
Chupao on the Batinah Coast, of a great number of camels and sheep,
and much properly. On their return, they also carried ofF a number of
camels belonging to the same tribes, which had been sent for security
to Zeit, in the immediate neighbourhood of Ras-ool-Khyma, and under
the protection of its chief.
Muktoom bin Butyc of Debaye was supposed to have instigated this
open rupture of the treaty of peace by land, which had so lately been
formed. The remonstrances of Sultan bin Suggur, and his son Suggur,
prevailed only so far as to draw forth promises of restoration of the
plunder on the part of the Beniyas, which were of course never meant
to be fulfilled.

CONCLUSION, TO THE YEAR 1853,

BY LIEUTENANT H. F. DISBROWE.

Captain Kemball informs us, at the close of his Sketch of the Beniyas
Tribe, that a hollow treaty of peace on land was
a. d. 1843.
concluded between the Joasmee and Aboothabee
Chiefs, in the month of July 1843 ; that the latter, at the supposed
instigation of the Chief of Debaye, hastened to break the peace, by
proceeding on a foray in August and September 1843, and plundering
the Beni Kuttub, Ghuflah, and Naeem Bedouin Tribes, in alliance with
the Joasmees, the greater portion of whom were themselves away on
the Batinah Coast; and finally, he tells us that promises to restore
the plunder were made by Khaleefa bin Shakboot, which it was sup^
posed he never meant to fulfil.
Such was the posture of affairs at Aboothabee towards the close of
the year 1843, and in such a condition did they
a. d. 1844.
remain until the summer of the ensuing year,
when we gather, from reports furnished by the British Agent at Shargah*