'Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government' [‎324] (366/733)

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JO ASM EES.
his statement that the insult to the vessel had been offered without his
knowledge, directed the first boat that had boarded the Sunbury to be
burnt, and the individual who had hauled down the colours to be tied
up and flogged.
In June 1829, a peace was concluded between Shaikh Sultan bin
Suggur and Shaik Tahnoon bin Shakboot, through the mediation of the
Chief of Lingah, the principal condition of which was that neither party
should interfere in any way with the subjects or dependents of the
other.
The Imaum of Muskat being on the point of proceeding to his
dominions on the African Coast, deemed it prudent to provide for the
tranquillity of his Arabian territories by paying an annual sura to each
of the Joasmee Chiefs ;—2,000 German crowns a year was the amount
fixed for Shaikh Sultan. Notwithstanding this arrangement, the
Shaikh was on the point of sending 400 men to assist the sister of
Syud Hillal, the Governor of Soweik, in the war which she was
carrying on against the Imaum (in consequence of the unjust imprison
ment of her brother) ; but the chief men of his tribe, having assembled
together, represented the disgraceful nature of such a proceeding so
strongly as to induce him to desist for the time. Soon afterwards, he
received a communication from the British authority in the Gulf,
acquainting him that any hostile steps against His Highness' territories
would be viewed as a declaration of war by his Government.
In May 1830, the minds of the inhabitants of the Arabian Coast were
much agitated, in consequence of the great and
^ D " 1So() ' unexpected success of Toorkey bin Saood, the
Wahabee Chief, over the Beni Khalid Tribe, and the gradual advance
of that sect to the southward. To the bulk of the Joasmees, and
particularly to Shaikh Rashid bin Humeed of Ejman, and Mahomed
bin Rashid of Amulgavine, the prospect of the re-ascendancy of the
Wahabee power appears to have given unmixed satisfaction,—the lower
orders anticipating a return to their former piratical habits, and the
above two chiefs expecting to emancipate themselves from their depen
dence upon Shaikh Sultan bin Suggur. This latter personage, how-
ever, viewed the successes of Shaikh Toorkey in a very different light,
and plainly saw that he could expect nothing but a diminution of influ
ence and revenue in consequence. These sentiments he however care
fully concealed, and professed himself outwardly as hearty as any one
in the cause of Wahabeeism ; but in a letter addressed to the British
authority in the Gulf, in July 1830, he expressed his earnest desire to
co-operate with the British Government in checking their further pio-
gress, and went so far as to declare that he was determined to oppose