Page 567 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

KHOR HASS AN. 523

eighteen of which he captured. He captured also a ship, and several
Dows and small craft belonging to Muskat, Bushire, Congoon, &c., and,
with very few exceptions, put the crews to death. Apprehensions were
generally entertained that, if measures were not pursued to reduce his
growing strength, the whole of the Gulf would, as soon as our cruisers
quitted the station, be reinfested with his spoliators.
In the month of May 1S11 Rahmah bin Jaubir again put to sea, on
a cruising expedition, accompanied by a fleet of
a. d. 1811.
boats belonging to the Joasmee Tribe called
Ejman, that inhabited the coast to the northward of Ras-ool-Khyma,
which escaped without suffering any injury from the late expedition.
A desperate action was fought between Rahmah’s fleet and the
Uttoobees of Bahrein, in which the latter were victorious.
Some captures having been made in the Gulf, and remonstrances
sent to the Wahabee, and the Chiefs of Ras-ool-
a. d. 1813.
Khyma and Khor Hassan, Rahmah bin Jaubir,
in a letter dated the 27lh of October, detailed the circumstances attend­
ing the capture of a Buggalow from Bussora with horses on board,
belonging to the Honorable East India Company, of which he was not
aware, but as soon as he found they were British property, he engaged
boats to convey them to Bombay, where they all arrived in safety.
On the 26th of October 1816 Mr. Bruce reported that the famous
Piratical Chieftain Rahmah bin Jaubir, with all
A. D. 1816.
his boats, and tribe, consisting of about five
hundred families, had arrived at Bushire, and the Governor, Shaikh
Mahomed, had received them, and allotted them a particular quarter of
the town to reside in, on condition of being friends with his friends, and
enemies with his enemies; that he possessed two very large Buggalows,
a large Buteel, and several small Buggarahs. He gave out that he
intended leaving off his predatory life, and to employ his boats on mer­
cantile concerns,—at all events as long as he resided at Bushire. Mr.
Bruce thought he would be on peaceable terms with most of the ports
of the Gulf, as the Bushire Government was so with them.
The Imaum was anxious for Rahmah bin Jaubir to have accompanied
him to Muskat, and offered him any of his ports to settle in; but his late
defeat had shown such a want of foresight and judgment that he had
lost his character much in the estimation of the Arab Tribes: Rahmah
was therefore afraid to put himself so much in his power. He would
not have left his former abode if he could have avoided it; but the
Wahabee Chief, Abdoolla bin Saood, was so incensed against him for
having taken part with the Imaum of Muskat, that he directed his pro-
perty and family to be seized, and brought up to Deriah, and it was
with great difficulty he was able to get them from Khox Hassan.