'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎317] (336/622)

HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAYT.
317
Far different from these were the next passengers carried by
the ' Ferooz.' From Suez she conveyed to Jiddah, the new
Shereef, or High Priest, of Mecca, and his harem of wives, who
were jealously guarded by the te those sable-hued
and hideous eunuchs, from the contaminating glances of the
young midshipmen An experienced sailor, but not a commissioned officer. and other Feringhees. All the officers were
required to give up their cabins and mess-rooms to this aged
ecclesiastic and his bevy of beauties, for which they received no
return ; and when the Shereef expressed his desire to testify his
acknowledgment for the great inconvenience to which all the
officers had been subjected, by presenting them with some
token of his regard, the Government refused the proffered gift,
and with equal magnanimity, themselves made no return.
The' 'Ferooz' arrived at Bombay on the 28th of April, and, on
the 21st of June, sailed for Calcutta.
During the course of the year 1855, the ' Akbar' was fitted
up as the receiving-ship and flag-ship of the Commander-in-
chief, in place of the old ' Hastings,' which was finally towed
away from her moorings to be broken up, after thirty years of
not very eventful service, for this small thirty-two gun frigate,
which was built on the eve of the first Burmese War, was the
least successful of any ship launched from Bombay dockyard,
and indeed, while her wretched sailing qualities fully entitled
her to the opprobrious term of " an old tub," her limited accom
modation unfitted her for the duties of a receiving-ship.
On the 14th of January, 1856, the ' Queen,' Lieutenant
Adams, sailed from Bombay for Jiddah and the other ports of
the Eed Sea,* to afford protection to the British and French
♦ Our last account of the events at Mocha, in which the Indian Navy partici
pated, brought us down to the year 1836, when Turkee Bilmas and the remnant
of his followers narrowly escaped an imminent death by taking refuge on board
the Hon. Company's ships ' Benares 5 and ' Tigris/ Early in 1840, the Egyptian
troops evacuated Yemen, which threw the country into a state of anarchy, and,
in May, Hoossein Shereef of Aboo Areesh, who had obtained the co-operation
of the Beni Asseer, a powerful Bedouin tribe mustering twenty thousand
warriors, had already occupied Hodeida and Mecca, for which he agreed to pay
the Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. of Egypt an annual tribute of 90.000 dollars. The Shereef now ad
dressed a most insulting letter to the Governor of Bombay, demanding the imme^
diate surrender of Aden, while his conduct towards the merchants of Mocha was
cruel and oppressive. In April, and again in July, 1841, the Imaum of Sanaa
sent missions to Captain Haines, to request the co-operation of the Bed Sea
squadron in an attack on the ports of Yemen, but the Political Besident's instruc
tions enjoined strict non-intervention in the affairs of Arabia, and he was forced
to reply in the negative. The recognition by the British Government of the
Suzerainty of the Porte over Yemen, induced the latter, owing to the representa
tions of the British Ambassador at Constantinople, to despatch a Commissioner,
Ashraf Bey, in March, 1842, to depose the truculent Shereef, but so well did the
latter play his hand—probably resorting to that trump card of Turkish officials,
bribery—that the Special Commissioner not only avoided all chance of meeting
Lieutenant Cruttenden, I.N., Assistant Political Besident at Aden, who had been
sent to confer with him, but reported to the Porte that the Shereef had been
much misrepresented, and that he was submissive to the Sultan and solemnly
denied all intention of insulting the British flag. In July, 1843, this clever schemer
was raised to the dignity of Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , and formally invested by Ashraf Bey with the
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