Page 549 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

BOO FELASA. 505

the Debayc Chief had entered into terms of friendship and amity with
Shaikh Mahomed bin Khalccfa; and, in consequence thereof, “ had
written to Ameer Fysul, strongly dissuading him from his scheme of
forming a settlement at Khorc al Adecd,” which led the Wahabee to
express his surprise and astonishment at finding the very chief who
proposed the plan, and urged its immediate fulfilment, suddenly
thwarting and opposing the project.
This intrigue was quickly followed by another.
In the month of March 1851 arrived at Debaye, on his way to
Abootlmbee, one Moobaruk bin Suroor, the Chief of the Monasir, with
letters from Shaikh Sultan bin Suggur to Shaikh Syud bin Tahnoon.
Negotiations, it would seem, had for some time past been carried on by
the chiefs above mentioned, and the letters now in the possession of
Moobaruk were nothing more or less than the acceptance of offers that
had been made to the Joasmees by the Beniyas Chief.
The envoy had scarcely placed foot on the soil of Debaye ere Shaikh
Muktoom became aware of the important documents he held in his
hands. Moobaruk was seized, and thrown into confinement; a plain
and distinct intimation was sent to Shaikh Sultan, that if he wished to
keep on good terms with the Debaye Chief, then must he neither per­
mit the letters nor the envoy to go to Aboothabee.
Shaikh Sultan, unwilling to break with Shaikh Muktoom, but more
unwilling to remain at feud with Shaikh Syud, did not boldly and
manfully declare his determination to make peace with the Beniyas
whether Muktoom wished it or no, but resorted, to effect his object, to
his usual mode of duplicity.
He feigned compliance with the desires of the Debaye Chief, by
despatching his Secretary, Mahomed bin Ali Boo Shelabee, to bring
back the letters he had sent, and so soon as he returned to Shargah he
forwarded the identical documents in charge of a man of the Aboo
Heyle straight to Shaikh Syud at Aboothabee. I
The result of the affair was that peace was concluded between the
Joasmee and Beniyas Chiefs, and Shaikh Muktoom, fearful for himself,
drew more closely to the Wahabees.
The time was now at hand for the arrival of His Highness the
Imaum from his possessions at Zanzibar, on the African Coast. He
had long talked of repairing to Muskat, for the purpose of adjusting
and arranging the quarrel that had been so unhappily raging between
his son and the Soliar Chief.
Shaikh Muktoom, enraged with the Joasmee for the alliance he had
lately contracted, and thinking the moment
a. d. 1852.
favourable for cultivating the friendship of the
Muskal authorities, deputed his brother on a friendly mission to Syud

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