Page 537 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

BENIYAS. 493

fine, to perceive that they had been ensnared by one whom they never
suspected of deceit. The position they were in was a painful one :
they were driven to the greatest straits, and so much pressed for payment
of the money demanded, that they had no resource but to dispose of their
boats and all the goods they possessed.
We now revert to the proceedings of Shaikh Syud bin Tab-noon and
His Excellency Syud Soweynec.
They entered into a strict alliance, and set on foot preparations for
acting offensively against the Wahabee Lieutenant in Oman, Such at
least was the ostensible reason for which they united, and such, too, was
the real and sole desire of the Beniyas Chief, who was anxiously long­
ing for an opportunity to drive the Nujdees at the point of the sword
once more from their position of Brymee. His Excellency, however,
had many plans in contemplation : he wished to oppose the ambitious
designs of the Joasmees against Khore Fukaun, and his other posses­
sions on the Batinah Coast; he was anxious to persuade, or, failing
persuasion to compel, the Sohar Chief to coalesce with himself, and the
Beniyas. All these matters have been so fully discussed in the Sketch
of the Muskat Tribe that to repeat them here is unnecessary.
The first mention we find of the despatch of troops by the Beniyas
Chief in the direction of the Wahabee position is
a. d. 1850.
in the month of March 1850, when “ four
hundred men of the Beniyas and Monasir Tribes joined His Excellency
Syud Soweynee at Shinas, having been sent by Shaikh Syud bin
Tahnoon, under the command of his cousin, Mahomed bin Syf, and
Fazil bin Mahomed.
As to Shaikh Syud himself, he proceeded with a large force to the
immediate vicinity of Brymee, and commenced destroying the water­
courses that irrigated the date trees around. Meanwhile, the combined
forces of the Joasmee, Debaye, Ejman, and Amulgavine Chiefs arrived
on the spot, and, luckily for Shaikh Syud, perhaps, the ends and aims
of the allies were opposed the one to the other,—no two of their number '
had wishes alike: the Joasmee had in his mind ambitious expectations
of aggrandisement on the Batinah Coast; Shaikh Muktoom possessed
but one desire, that of expelling Shaikh Syud bin Tahnoon from the
Brymee territories ; the minor Chiefs of Ejman and Amulgavine, whose
contingents were small compared with the rest, appear to have had no
fixed purpose or object whatever;—in short, after some discussion, and
not a little hesitation, the Joasmee counsels prevailed, and a move was
made in the direction of Sohar, when commenced the operations against
the fort of Shinas and others that have been so fully recounted in the
Muskat history.
The exact course pursued by the Beniyas after the departure of the

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