'Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government' [‎490] (532/733)

490
BENIYAS.
all the troops they could summon—to agree to a peace, and to give back
the forts he had so ably possessed himself of. The mode in which all
these things were accomplished may be thus briefly related.
Shaikh Syud invited Shaikh Syf bin Humood, the son of the Sohar
Chief, as also the head of the Naeem Tribe, to enter into an alliance
with himself. They did so, and made preparations to join him. Their
aim and plan were one,—they resolved to crush and trample under foot
the high-aspiring and boastful Wahabee.
The Beniyas, impatient of delay, and calculating his own strength, ag
well as the weakness of the enemy, determined to proceed to work at
once, and not to wait the approach of his allies,—promptness of action
was the chief thing needful. The minor lieutenants at all events could
be fought and conquered, if not the great lieutenant himself. On
the 4th of May accordingly did he, with his own troops, and a number
of men from the Zowahir, Amayir, and other subordinate tribes, hasten
to attack Shaikh Syf bin Ali, who held command of one of the Wahabee
forts in the Zowahir country. Resistance was offered, but not with
success : the fort, with all it contained, was quickly surrendered into the
hands of Shaikh Syud bin Tahnoon, who was wise enough to rest
content with the laurels he had won, and to await the arrival of his
expected allies ere venturing to beard the lion in his den at Brymee.
These shortly arrived, and on the 16th of June operations commenced
in good earnest against the stronghold of Brymee. The one, Soo-
bauh, was occupied by Mahomed bin Syfut Ujajee in person, and after
a cannonade of two days' duration was compelled to surrender. Ma
homed bin Syf, however, was not to be found ; he had deserted
his followers, and, unknown to all the soldiers in the fort, he, the chief
of the place, had fled in the dead of night, and sought refuge among
the troops in the adjoining and only remaining fort of Khunduk, which,
so confounded were the Wahabees at the activity displayed by the
enemy, so disheartened at the fall of Soobauh, and the ignominious
flight of its commander, they did not attempt to retain. The fort was
vacated, and handed over, together with the horses and property therein
contained, to Shaikh Syud bin Tahnoon, who permitted the vanquished
Nujdees to quit the place without being harmed or molested.
These w r ere great and heroic exploits no doubt,—'sweet to Shaik i
Syud, but bitter to the Wahabee, and equally bitter to the rest of the
maritime chiefs, who, though inwardly abhorring the latter, viewed with
still more abhorrence the growing power of the former. A coalition
was formed against the Beniyas,—he who had forcibly ejected the
Nudjees was in his turn to be forcibly cast out from Brymee. Sue
a plan was in course of formation, and such a plan, had not dissensions
and jealousies arisen amongst the allied parties, might well, peihapfj