'Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government' [‎494] (536/733)

494
BENIYAS.
allies is not known. He would seem, however, after perpetrating all man
ner of mischief on the plantations and country adjacent to Brymee, to
have gone back to Aboothabee, and there to have remained for a while,
when he again returned to Brymee, and amused himself foraying the
districts of Shargah and Ras-ool-Khyma, and engaging in skirmishes with
Mahomed bin Abdoolla and the tribe of the Naeem A1 Boo Kheriban.
He does not appear to have afforded active support to His Excellency
Syud Soweynee against the Joasmee confederacy; and as regards the
subsequent aggressions upon the Brymee territories, with which we are
more immediately concerned, no further mention is made of the subject
until the month of November 1850, when we find the Joasmee, Beniyas,
and Naeem Chiefs acting in concert against the Nujdee garrison at
Brymee.
The years 1849 and 1850 were noted for the number of disputes
that occurred between the people of Aboothabee and those of Debaye,
regarding the seizure and counter-seizure of slaves from boats at sea.
These were all satisfactorily settled through the endeavours of Colonel
Hennell, and the remonstrances he addressed to the chiefs of the
respective tribes.
In the autumn of 1850 a gross violation of the Maritime Truce was
made by the subjects of the Beniyas Chief, who seized upon a boat of
Himreeah, and killed two of the crew on board of her.
The vessels of war were despatched to demand satisfaction from
Shaikh Syud bin Tahnoon, in the shape of the payment of 600 dollars,
the sum required as the Deeah or price of blood for the two Joasmees
slain, and the surrender of the captured Himreeah boat, with the stores
pertaining to her.
The boldness displayed by Lieutenant Manners, in command of the
Tigris, as also by Lieutenant Tronson, of the Euphrates, in taking their
vessels through the intricate channel that leads for upwards of three
miles to the inner harbour of the port of Aboothabee, thereby bringing
them within effective gunshot range of both the town and the native
craft on the beach, somewhat astonished Shaikh Syud bin Tahnoon,
who had never before beheld a British cruiser so close to his home, and
led him to comply w ith the requisition preferred against him without
hesitation or demur. The 600 dollars were paid in October 1850, and
the boat and stores surrendered so soon as demanded.
A few words will suffice to relate the proceedings of Shaikh Syud bin
a. d . 1851. Tahnoon in the year 1851. He concluded a
peace with Shaikh Sultan bin Suggur, notwith-
standing the intrigues set on foot by Shaikh Muktoom to prevent it;
e proeeeded to the assistance of the Bahrein Shaikhs in their struggle
1th the Wahabee ruler, and through his good offices it was that