Publications, Newspaper Cuttings, Photographs and Correspondence about Persia and the Persian Gulf [‎322r] (646/879)

7
SOLE PROPRIETORS:
-ABETH -*B5CE
THE KIN
S L
EE
PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. RIGHTS.
His Majesty the King will hold a Levee at St.
James’s Palace on Thursday, the 6th of March, at
twelve o’clock. For this and all future Levees
cards of admission will be required, as the numbers
at each of these ceremonies must be limited. The
following are the rules to be observed :
ATTENDANCES and Presentations.
All officers, whetheron the active or retired lists,
of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines, of
whatever rank, will communicate with and obtain
their cards from the Private Secretary to the First
Lord of the Admiralty. All civil officers of the
Admiralty will follow the same rule.
All officers, whether on the active or retired
lists, of the Army, Militia, Yeomanry, or Volun
teers, of whatever rank, except those on the
Indian and Colonial Establishments, will com
municate with and obtain their cards from the
Adjutant-General at the War Office, stating
clearly whether they desire to attend or to be pre
sented, if the latter stating by whom and on what
occasion. Deputy-Lieutenants of Counties will also
communicate and obtain their cards from the War
Office.
Officers of the Household Cavalry and Foot
Guards on the active list will make application to
the Lord Chamberlain at St. James’s Palace for
cards of admission and presentation. All retired
officers of the Household Cavalry and Brigade of
Guards will apply to the War Office.
All officers of the Indian Civil Service and
Colonial Forces, of whatever rank, whether on the
active or retired lists, will communicate with and
obtain their cards from the Private Secretary to
the Secretary of State at the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , White
hall.
All officers of the Colonial Service and Colonial
Forces, of whatever rank, whether on the active or
retired lists, will communicate with and obtain
their cards from the Colonial Office, Whitehall.
Similarly all gentlemen connected with the
Foreign Office, the Home Office, officials connected
with the Houses of Parliament, or any Government
Department, will communicate with and obtain their
cards for attendance or presentation at Levees from
the Department under whichy serve.
Judges, Law Officers, King’s . unset, and all legal
officials holding appointments under the Crown are
requested to make their applications through the
secretary to the Lord Chancellor.
Peers, Bishops, Lords Lieutenant of Counties,
Members of Parliament, clergy of all Denomina
tions, and all gentlemen other than the above-
mentioned, will be good enough to communicate
with the Lord Chamberlain at St. James’s Palace,
when they will each be furnished with a card of
admission for use at the Levee.
The names, both for attendance and presenta
tion, must be received at the various offices above
indicated not later than eight days prior to the
date of each Levee.
AVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.
Capt. W. T. Mainprise, R.N. (retired), C.B., died on
Sunday at his residence, Farnham, Hants, at the age of
eighty-four. Entering the Navy in 1830 Capt. Mainprise
saw much varied service, including the bombard
ment of St. Jean d’Acre. In November, 1851, he
was appointed Master of the Britannia, and served
in her while she was flagship in the Black Sea, being sub
sequently appointed Master of the Fleet by the Com-
mander-in-Chief. He was present at the attack on
Fort Constantine, and was mentioned in despatches for his
services. The late officer received many honours. He had
the Crimean and Turkish medals and the Sebastopol clasp,
the Fifth Class Medjidieh, and was a Knight of the Legion
of Honour. From 1856 to 1864 Capt. Mainprise was
Master Attendant at Malta, and from 1864 to 1869 at
Portsmouth.
Despatches from the Cruiser Squadron at Alexandretta
received at Plymouth yesterday state that in the squadron
it is believed that on its return to England the commodore,
Captain A. L. Winsloe. will commission the new cruiser
Good Hope with the present crew of the St. George, that
the crew of the Juno will turn over to the Ariadne, and the
crews of the Brilliant and Rainbow to the St. George and
Juno. No doubt is felt that the Admiralty’s intention is
to materially increase the strength and sea-going qualities
of the Squadron.
The Admiralty has approved the spring cruise of the
sea-going training ships. The Cleopatra is to leave Ply-
mouth on the 27th inst. and visit Arosa Bay, Gibraltar, Palma,
Majorca, and Vigo, returning to Plymouth on April 14. The
Calliope, which is now at Gibraltar, is to visit Malaga,
Por" Mabon, Palma, and Vigo, returning to Portsmouth
on April 13.
The cruiser ^.’arioti,? nu’linto Brest yesterday afternoon
DEFENCES OF MASKAT.
THE SULTAN'S DILEMMA.
BRITISH AMD FRENCH INTERESTS.
WRITTEN BY H. J. WHIGHAM,
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.
MASKAT, Jan. 21.
Maskat, which is reached from Karachi in some
forty-eight hours by the mail steamers of the
British India Company, lies about three hundred
miles down the Arabian coast from Cape Mus-
sandim, and is, therefore, outside the Persian
Gulf proper; but its natural strength and
historical prestige combine to make it in
separable from the politics of the narrower waters
which in the past it has always influenced and at
times dominated. On a clear morning you may
bring up the jagged mountainous coast of Oman at
a distance of thirty or forty miles, and an hour or
so later the mud-coloured houses of Muttra,
clustered together under the rocks, become
visible over the steamer's bow ; but the
presence of Maskat, save for a glimpse of
a yellow Portuguese fort, is quite un
suspected until the coast is almost reached, and
a deep cove suddenly discovers itself on the port
bow, land locked on every side save the north, with
a white flat-roofed Arab town occupying the
shelving southern beach straight opposite. On the
east and west sides of the cove are precipitous
rocks, those on the eastern side composing an
island three hundred feet high, barely separated
from the town by a shallow passage, in the middle
of which stands a Portuguese fort with a double
row of embrasures exactly balanced by a similar
erection overhanging the town on the west. The
harbour, therefore, though only a little over a mile
long by half a mile in width, is more capacious
than it seems, and save against a north-east wind
is admirably secure. One is struck immediately,
not merely by the extreme picturesqueness of the
town, with its gleaming houses lying like a white bar
between the black rocks and the turquoise sea,
flanked by the aged yellow masonry of the forts,
but also by the wonderful strength of the place,
which with very little assistance from human art
can be made impregnable both from land and sea,
while the riny cove with its precipitous sides can
give protection to six or seven men-of-war riding at
anchor under the eastern bluff.
Maskat Defenceless.
At present Maskat is at the mercy of the
smallest gunboat of any modern fleet, which,
standing across the mouth of the cove, could
soon reduce the Sultan’s Palace on the sea front to
ruins without coming inside the range of the old
smooth-bore cannon of the forts generously pre
sented to the Sultan by the Government of India.
The forts were built by the Portuguese and com
pleted, according to the inscription on the western
pile, in the year of the Spanish Armada, when there
was a Portuguese Viceroy in India ; and they were
admirably adapted to the requirements of that age.
To-day the Cossipur guns are not much better
than the old Portuguese cannon which bear the date
1606, and in the emeute of 1895 it is credibly
asserted that their round shot frequently fell short
of the Sultan’s Palace, which is not a quarter of a
mile away, and on a much lower level. It is pre
cisely because Maskat is so defenceless to-day, and
might be made so impregnable to-morrow, that it is
a place of considerable value on the chessboard of
Indian politics, more especially as from its position
it forms a strong outpost beyond the gates of the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , which lie between Cape Mussandim
and Bunder Abbas. And just as Russia is
looking greedily towards Bunder Abbas, so France,
the ally of Russia, is always ready by intrigue
and subtle agitation to push her influence at the
Court of Maskat. In order that we may protect
our vital interests in the Persian Culf it is neces
sary that we should first of all understand the posi
tion in which we stand with regard to the Arabs of
the coast, and more especially tha Arab ruler of
Oman. In the years which followed the downfall
of the Portuguese Empire Maskat came under t
THE KI
SOLE PROPRIETORS:
“ABETH URTICE
7.
PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. RIGHTS.
His Majesty the King will hold a Levee at St.
James’s Palace on Thursday, the 6th of March, at
twelve o’clock. For this and all future Levees
cards of admission will be required, as the numbers
at each of these ceremonies must be limited. The
following are the rules to be observed :
Attendances and Presentations.
All officers, whetheron the active or retired lists,
of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines, of
whatever rank, will communicate with and obtain
their cards from the Private Secretary to the First
Lord of the Admiralty. All civil officers of the
Admiralty will follow the same rule.
All officers, whether on the active or retired
lists, of the Army, Militia, Yeomanry, or Volun
teers, of whatever rank, except those on the
, Indian and Colonial Establishments, will com
municate with and obtain their cards from the
Adjutant-General at the War Office, stating
clearly whether they desire to attend or to be pre
sented, if the latter stating by whom and on what
occasion. Deputy-Lieutenants of Counties will also
communicate and obtain their cards from the War
Office.
Officers of the Household Cavalry and Foot
Guards on the active list will make application to
the Lord Chamberlain at St. James’s Palace for
cards of admission and presentation. All retired
officers of the Household Cavalry and Brigade of
Guards will apply to the War Office.
All officers of the Indian Civil Service and
Colonial Forces, of whatever rank, whether on the
active or retired lists, will communicate with and
obtain their cards from the Private Secretary to
the Secretary of State at the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , White
hall.
All officers of the Colonial Service and Colonial
Forces, of whatever rank, whether on the active or
retired lists, will communicate with and obtain
their cards from the Colonial Office, Whitehall.
Similarly all gentlemen connected with the
Foreign Office, the Home Office, officials connected
with the Houses of Parliament, or any Government
Department, will communicate with and obtain their
cards for attendance or presentation at Levees from
the Department under which', ey serve.
Judges, Law Officers, King’s v unsel, and all legal
officials holding appointments under the Crown are
requested to make their applications through the
secretary to'the Lord Chancellor.
3 Peers, Bishops, Lords Lieutenant of Counties,
Members of Parliament, clergy of all Denomina-
- tions, and all gentlemen other than the above-
mentioned, will be good enough to communicate
t with the Lord Chamberlain at St. James’s Palace,
when they will each be furnished with a card of
% admission for use at the Levee.
- The names, both for attendance and presenta
tion, must be received at the various offices above
7 indicated not later than eight days prior to the
date of each Levee.
» __
’ AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.
Capt. W. T. Mainprise, R.N. (retired), C.B., died on
r Sunday at his residence, Farnham, Hants, at the age of
eighty-four. Entering the Navy in 1830 Capt. Mainprise
f saw much varied service, including the bombard-
, ment of St. Jean d’Acre. In November, 1851, he
I was appointed Master of the Britannia, and served
in her while she was flagship in the Black Sea, being sub-
f sequently appointed Master of the Fleet by the Com-
mander-in-Chief. He was present at the attack on
Fort Constantine, and was mentioned in despatches for his
services. The late officer received many honours. He had
the Crimean and Turkish medals and the Sebastopol clasp;
the Fifth Class Medjidieh, and was a Knight of the Legion
1 of Honour. From 1856 to 1864 Capt. Mainprise was
Master Attendant at Malta, and from 1864 to 1869 at
Portsmouth.
Despatches from the Cruiser Squadron at Alexandretta
received at Plymouth yesterday state that in the squadron
3 it is believed that on its return to England the commodore,
s Captain A. L. Winsloe, will commission the new cruiser
1 Good Hope with the present crew of the St. George, that
s the crew of the Juno will turn over to the Ariadne, and the
7 crews of the Brilliant and Rainbow to the St. George and
e Juno. No doubt is felt that the Admiralty’s intention is
3 to materially increase the strength and sea-going qualities
L of the Squadron.
r The Admiralty has approved the spring cruise of the
sea-going training ships. The Cleopatra is to leave Ply-
, mouth on the 27th inst. and visit Arosa Bay, Gibraltar, Palma,
Majorca, and Vigo, returning to Plymouth on April 14. The
1 Calliope, which is now at Gibraltar, is to visit Malaga,
Por Mahon, Palma, and Vigo, returning to Portsmouth
on April 13.
- The cruiser Furious puyinto Brest yesterday afternoon
**—**=. -- engines being out of order. The
3 I is accompanied by the Izyini Fox.
The cruiser Ampkitrite, nibm China, sailed yesterday ror
: Portsmouth from Gibraltar.
5 The sloop Espiegle has arrived at Malta from Gibraltar.
The Rinaldo, from Sheerness, has arrived at Singapore.
5 The Duke of Connaught, commanding the forces in
, Ireland, attended by a large staff, arrived in Athlone yes
terday to inspect the troops in garrison under the command
of Colonel Carter. His Royal Highness was received at the
station by a guard of honour of the Royal Irish Constabu
lary. After inspecting the troops and a new military rifle
range outside the town, the Duke returned to Dublin.
The death is announced of Gen. J. G. Touch, Indian
Staff Corps, whose military service began in 1842, he being
placed on the supernumerary list in 1882. Gen. Touch
served in the Burmese War of 1852-53. at the capture of
the Pegu Forts, and Martaban, receiving the medal and
clasp. He died at St. Stephen’s-square, Westbourne-park,
on Saturday, in his seventy-ninth year.
The following appointments were made at the Admiralty
yesterday : Lieutenants—G. W. Vivian, C. R. N. Burne,
and H. C. S. Rawson, to the Excellent, for short G course,
H. D. R. Watson, D. M. Anderson, R. H. Bather, and
J. A. Ingles, to the Excellent and Vernon, additional, for
short G and T course, to date March 1. Acting Sub-
Lieutenants—J. C. Hamilton and H. G. Giffard, to the
Revenge, A. S. Burt and R. G. Talbot, to the Resolution,
J. K. B. Birch, to the Anson, C. J. Ciocker, to the Camper
down, H. T. C. Gibbs, to the Empress of India, H. R. G.
Moore, to the Collingwood, C. G. Robinson, to the Benbow,
R. A. A. Plowden, to the Australia, J. C. Hodgson, to the
Galatea, C. D. O. Shakespear, to the Spanker, W. Scott,
to the Alarm, H. E. de P. Rennick, to the Skipjack. J. G.
Neligan, to the Renard, all lent for cruise of the Reserve
Squadron, to date January 22; and R. B. Irving, to the
Excellent and Vernon, for short course G and T, to date
March 1.
THE GUARDS 1 NEW UNIFORM.
General Kelly-Kenny, Sir Henry Trotter (commanding
the Home District), Colonel Kinloch (commanding the
Grenadier Guards), Colonel H. Fludyer (commanding the
Scots Guards), Colonel Graves Sawle (commanding the
Coldstream Guards), and Colonel Vesey Dawson (command
ing the Irish Guards) waited on the King at Marlborough
House yesterday afternoon to discuss with his Majesty
the new uniform for the officers of the four regiments of
Foot Guards, and to take the royal pleasure as to the
various details. It is understood that the suggested
changes are few and unimportant. The lace will not in
any way be touched, and but few of the special features
of the outfit will be changed. His Majesty was shown
samples of the new uniform.
Sir Arthur Bigge visited Bristol yesterday for
the purpose of going over the route to be traversed by the
1 Prince and Princess of Wales on the occasion of their visit
a to Avonmouth on March 5. He was met by the Lord
f Mayor, and after driving through the City to Clifton Down
1 Station proceeded by special train to Avonmouth.
f Baron Hayashi, the Japanese Minister in London,
* • i. be the principal guest at a dinner to be given at the
Reform Club by Mr. Joseph Walton, M.P., on Wednesday,
March 19.
Mr. William Harrison Last, of Somerset House,
who recently retired after forty-five years service from the
office of chief inspector of stamps and taxes, Inland
Revenue Department, attended on Saturday at the City
Inland Revenue Offices, Telegraph-street, to receive a
presentation from the inspectors and surveyors of taxes of
Great Britain and Ireland. There was a large attendance
of the members of his late department, presided over by
Mr. Gerard J. Rawes, the newly-appointed chief inspector.
The presentation, consisting of numerous articles of silver
plate, a gold watch, and an illuminated address, with a
diamond pendant for Mrs. Last, was made by Sir Frederick
Lacy Robinson, deputy chairman of the Board of Inland
Revenue.
The Worshipful Company of Leathersellers has
generously granted the loan of its hall for a bazaar to be
I opened by the Lady Mayoress early in May in aid of the
Belgrave Hospital for Children.
At a general meeting of the Society of Oil
| Painters, Piccadilly, held last evening Miss E. Fortescue
I Brickdale, Messrs. Terrick Williams, Thomas Millie Dow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. ,
Talbot Hughes, and A. F. W. Hayward were elected
members.
The friends of Colonel Paschkoff, of Russia, well
known in connection with evangelistic work in many
countries of Europe, will hear with regret of his death in
Paris on the 12th inst.
SIR William WALROND’s Constituency.—The
Radical Executive of the Tiverton Division of Devonshire,
which is at present represented by Sir William Walrond,
the Chief Government Whip, has unanimously resolved to
recommend to the delegates as the Radical candidate for
the division Mr. AV. H. Reed, of Exeter, who is an
Alderman of the Exeter City Council, a magistrate, an
owner of paper mills in the Tiverton Division, and the
chief proprietor of a newspaper there. Sir W. Walrond was
returned unopposed in 1900 and in 1895, and twice in 1886.
In 1892, when he was challenged to a contest by Sir J. B.
Phear, his majority was 1,332, and he defeated Mr. S. J.
Stern in 1885 by 1.103 on an electorate of 9.067.
DEFENCES OF MASKAT.
THE SULTANS DILEMMA.
BRITISH AND FRENCH INTERESTS.
WRITTEN BY H. J. WHIGHAM,
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.
MASKAT, Jan. 21.
Maskat, which is reached from Karachi in some
forty-eight hours by the mail steamers of the
British India Company, lies about three hundred
miles down the Arabian coast from Cape Mus-
sandim, and is, therefore, outside the Persian
Gulf proper; but its natural strength and
historical prestige combine to make it in
separable from the politics of the narrower waters
which in the past it has always influenced and at
times dominated. On a clear morning you may
bring up the jagged mountainous coast of Oman at
a distance of thirty or forty miles, and an hour or
so later the mud-coloured houses of Muttra,
clustered together under the rocks, become
visible over the steamer's bow ; but the
presence of Maskat, save for a glimpse of
a yellow Portuguese fort, is quite un
suspected until the coast is almost reached, and
a deep cove suddenly discovers itself on the port
bow, land locked on every side save the north, with
a white flat-roofed Arab town occupying the
shelving southern beach straight opposite. On the
east and west sides of the cove are precipitous
rocks, those on the eastern side composing an
island three hundred feet high, barely separated
from the town by a shallow passage, in the middle
of which stands a Portuguese fort with a double
row of embrasures exactly balanced by a similar
erection overhanging the town on the west. The
harbour, therefore, though only a little over a mile
long by half a mile in width, is more capacious
than it seems, and save against a north-east wind
is admirably secure. One is struck immediately,
not merely by the extreme picturesqueness of the
town, with its gleaming houses lying like a white bar
between the black rocks and the turquoise sea,
flanked by the aged yellow masonry of the forts,
but also by the wonderful strength of the place,
which with very little assistance from human art
can be made impregnable both from land and sea,
while the tiny cove with its precipitous sides can
give protection to six or seven men-of-war riding at
anchor under the eastern bluff.
Maskat Defenceless.
At present Maskat is at the mercy of the
smallest gunboat of any modern fleet, which,
standing across the mouth of the cove, could
soon reduce the Sultan’s Palace on the sea front to
ruins without coming inside the range of the old
smooth-bore cannon of the forts generously pre
sented to the Sultan by the Government of India.
The forts were built by the Portuguese and com
pleted, according to the inscription on the western
pile, in the year of the Spanish Armada, when there
was a Portuguese Viceroy in India ; and they were
admirably adapted to the requirements of that age.
To-day the Cossipur guns are not much better
than the old Portuguese cannon which bear the date
1606, and in the emeute of 1895 it is credibly
asserted that their round shot frequently fell short
of the Sultan’s Palace, which is not a quarter of a
mile away, and on a much lower level. It is pre
cisely because Maskat is so defenceless to-day, and
might be made so impregnable to-morrow, that it is
a place of considerable value on the chessboard of
Indian politics, more especially as from its position
it forms a strong outpost beyond the gates of the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , which lie between Cape Mussandim
and Bunder Abbas. And just as Russia is
looking greedily towards Bunder Abbas, so France,
the ally of Russia, is always ready by intrigue
and subtle agitation to push her influence at the
Court of Maskat. In order that we may protect
our vital interests in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. it is neces
sary that we should first of all understand the posi
tion in which we stand with regard to the Arabs of
the coast, and more especially the Arab ruler of
Oman. In the years which followed the downfall
of the Portuguese Empire Maskat came under the
domination of the great Sedir, Shah of Persia,
slut the Persian yoke, which never rested heavily
.Omar, -= vigorously shot of by Ahmed Bin
Said, a camel-driver of Sohar, who founded the
present dynasty about 1741, and in 1769 Maskat
definitely and finally refused to pay any tribute
whatsoever to Persia except for the leased terri
tory of Bunder Abbas, on the mainland of Persia
itself.
The British Treaty of 1798.
The century which followed that step saw the
rise and fall of the Oman power. Ahmed Bin Said
and his son Seyid Sultan, who usurped the Throne
from his elder 1 other, were fighting Monarchs, who
established a maritime Empire from Zanzibar, on
the African coast, to Gwadur and Bunder Abbas,
in Persia, and even threatened Bushire and Busra.
It is probable, however, that the acquisitions of
territory on the African coast led to the final ex
tinction of Maskat as a sea power, for the great
Seyid Said, who succeeded Seyid Sultan after an
interregnum about 1807, preferred, not unnaturally,
the more tropical vegetation and less torrid climate
of Zanzibar to the barren rocks of Maskat, and
towards the end of his long reign, which
closed in 1856, he confined his attentions
so exclusively to his African possessions that
but for the continual intervention of Great Britain,
or rather the East India Company, the dynasty
must have fallen and Maskat would long ago have
become a dependency of Nejd. Our first treaty
with Maskat was entered into in the year 1798, and
provided for the total exclusion of French and
Dutch trade, and especially French influence, from
Maskat. The treaty bears the mark of the period
when Napoleon and the Emperor of Russia were
putting their heads together to discover a plan for
the invasion of India. It is curious that just a
century later in these same waters we are com
pelled to protect ourselves against an alliance of
the same two Powers. Two years later Sir John
Malcolm visited Maskat on his way back from the
capital of Persia, and not only ratified the treaty,
which had been brought about by our nativeagent, but
provided for the residence at Maskat of a repre
sentative of British birth. The stipulation, as we
learn from Morier, who travelled up the Gulf a few
years later, was carried out in only a desultory
fashion owing to the desperate climate of the Arab
stronghold, and it was not until 1840 that a British
agent was permanently established at the Court of
the Sultan, and even he had his residence at
Zanzibar until the two Kingdoms were separated.
MAN of Wide Views.
In the meantime Seyid Said proved himself the
firm friend of Great Britain, to the extent even of
joining heartily in the campaign of 1819-20 against
the pirates and—a thing which is even more
extraordinary — in our anti-slavery programme,
which was initiated about 1822. He was, appa
rently, an Eastern potentate of the best type,
with an almost inordinate love for the British.
Captain Hart, of the British Government vess I
Imogene, has described a visit to Zanzibar in 1834,
in the course of which he had many interviews wit]
Seyid Said, who begged him to accept a fine seventy
four-gun cruiser on behalf of his King, and askec
him to encourage British trade, in spite of the fac.
that by far the greater majority of the vessels
trading With Zanzibar at that time were American.
It is unfortunate that Seyid Said left to the world
no worthy successor to his Throne. A man of wide
views and wonderfully catholic taste, he had wives of
almost every creed and shade, from the grand-
daughter of a Persian Monarch to an Abyssinian
slave, and Captain Hart has left it on record how
the Sultan was disappointed at the first letter of the
Queen of Madagascar, in which she offered him a
young Princess, but regretted the law which for
bade her to marry him herself. Yet of all
his progeny those only survived him whose Negro
blood made them hereditarily incapable of govern
ment. Seyid Thoweyni, who finally succeeded
him on the Throne of Maskat, by his fatuous policy
and villainous treachery had already before his
father’s death done his best to ruin Maskat, of
which he was the Deputy Governor after 1840.
Many times did Great Britain come to the rescue
when Maskat was assailed by the Wahabis of
Nejd, by the chief of Sohar, by the Sultan of the
Jowasmi tribe, the hereditary enemy of Maskat,
and even by the more distant power of Egypt; and
once Maskat had been clean gone if the British
Government had not instantly summoned Seyid
Said from Zanzibar to repair the ruin brought on
his Kingdom by the vile trick by which
Thoweyni had entrapped the Sohar chief and
so raised up a confederacy against himself.
Question of Succession.
But the return of the Sultan to Maskat for a
few months from time to time could only tem
porarily avert the downfall of the power of Maskat.
Thoweyni already in 1852 paid a tribute of twelve
thousand crowns to the ruler of Nejd, and his hold
of Bunder Abbas and its dependencies was con
stantly disputed by Persia until his death in 1866.