"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٤‎٢‎٦] (١٧٨٢/٥٦٩)

Migsion
Mehdi 'Ali
Khan and
First Agree
ment with
Britain,
1798.
426
Frenchmen residing at Masqat; if there were, he was anthorieod to
offer the governor of the port from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 3,000 for the
surrender of each with his papers ; but, in the case of M. de Corches or
of the Abbe de Beauchamp, who was stated to have been sent as French
Resident to Mauritius, or of Mr. Humphries, "an Englishman of notorious
character/"' who was to have accompanied M. de Corches, the amount
might be raised to Rs. 8,000. No Frenchmen were found at Masqat,
however ; and Saiyid Sultan, in a friendly letter to the Governor of
Bombay, denied the presence of any. In 1797 a request by the
Company's broker (Narotam Ram Chandar Raoji) to be allowed to
import salt into Bengal was refused, but he was granted instead a
salary of Ks. 100 a month. At the same time he was instructed to
present a letter from the Governor of Bombay to Saiyid Sultan and,
in conjunction with the Commander of one of the Company's ships,
to obtain from him an assurance that the vessels of the French, and
of the Dutch who were in alliance with them against Britain, would
be prevented from visiting Masqat under Arab colours,—a device to
which they had begun to resort and which made impossible their capture
by the British at sea.
In 179S the occupation of Egypt by a French army and
the suspected designs of Bonaparte in the East impelled the British
authorities in India to seek a closer understanding with the ruler
of Oman, as also with the other native powers in the Gulf. In
September 1798 Mirza Mehdi Ali Khan, a Persian gentleman of
good family who had been selected for the appointment of British
Resident at Bushehr, was depatched to the Gulf in the " Panther
he was instructed to ascertain at Masqat the real disposition of Saiyid
Sultan towards the French, to endeavour to dissuade him from assisting
them, and to report on the trustworthiness of the Company's broker,
which had come under suspicion, in political matters ; he was further
to obtain, if he could, a concession for the establishment of a British
Factory at Masqat ; and he might promise, in case the Saiyid undertook
to exclude the French from 'Oman, that a surgeon would be sent him
from India. In the space of ten days, at an expenditure of only
Rs. /i,S20, Mirza Mehdi successfully discharged the greater part of
his commission ; for he obtained the execution by Saiyid Sultan, on
the 12th October 1798, of a Qaulnameh, or written agreement, securing
the main objects of British policy. By this document the ruler of
Oman bound himself always to take the part, in international matters,
of the British Government; to deny a commercial or other foothold
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