Page 115 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

CHAPTER IX

‘They rise, they fall,
Now skim in circling rings, then stretch away
With all their force, till at one fatal stroke
The vigorous hawk, exerting every nerve,
Trussed in mid air bears down her captive prey.’
Field Sports: William Somerville - 1735

HE return from Basra was accomplished more easily than
the outward voyage, and on March 21st, the Eden was at
Bushire, where she stayed until May 2nd. On March
28 ti, a Bombay merchant vessel arrived from Muscat, which,
Loch says, was ‘an extraordinary circumstance* for she was the
first merchant ship to cross the Gulf alone, without escort. For
a long time, no merchant ships had ventured in Gulf waters
except ill convoy, owing to the danger from pirates.
A few days later, the Company’s cruisers Mercury and Vestal
arrived from Ras al Khaima, carrying fifteen Indian women,
widows of sepoys who had been taken by pirates and murdered.
They had been on board the same ship as Mrs. Taylor, the wife
of Bruce’s assistant at Bushire, who had been held for some time
as a prisoner of the Joasmi at Ras al Khaima, but was later released
on payment of a large ransom. The release of the Hindu women
in exchange for pirate prisoners at Bombay, was arranged through
the Shaikhs of Bahrain, at the request of Loch when he had
recently been in Bahrain.
At the same time, Loch received a letter from Hassan bin Rah-
mah, Shaikh of the Joasmi at Ras al Khaima; it was written in
Indian ink, on sea-green paper. In his recent letter, the Shaikh
protested against Bruce’s behaviour during a recent visit. He
complained that Bruce had made ‘certain demands for which he
had no grounds, and thus broke the treaty and commenced hos­
tilities’. The Shaikh declared that he had not molested any Bri­
tish ships (which was quite untrue). He was apparently referring
to an agreement which was made between the British and his
predecessor in 1806, but the conditions of this agreement had
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