"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٤‎٣‎٠] (١٧٨٢/٥٧٣)

430
British Poli
tical Agents,
1800-03.
Repnlse of a
French mis
sion in accor
dance with
the Britisli
treaties,
1803.
Reasons
of Saiyid
Sultan's
adherence to
British
intweat.
certificate covering tlie consignment from the Company^ broker at
Masqat.
Dr. Bogle, the first British Agent or Resident at M asqat, died in less
than a year, a victim of the Masqat climate, and was succeeded in 1801
by Captain David Seton of the Bombay Army, Ill-health obliged
Captain Seton in 1802 to take a yearns leave to India, but in June 1803
he returned to his post.
The fidelity of Saiyid Sultan to his engagements with the British
power was after this subjected to a severe test; but he emerged with credit
from the ordeal. General de Caen, who in the spring of 180o had been
appointed by Napoleon to be Captain-General of the French possessions
in the East and had received a special commission to report on the poai-
tion of the British iu India, now established himself in Mauritius, and
thence despatched, in September 1803, a M. de Cavaignac whom Napo
leon had himself invested with the quality of French Consul and
Political Agent at Masqat. On the 3rd of October 1808 M. de Cavaig-
nae reached Masqat in the French frigate "(Atalanta/' a well-known
ship of her day. Fortune at first seemed to smile upon his enterprise,
for Captain Seton had left Masqat on a cruise in the Persian Gulf and
the town was full of French sympathisers, chiefly merchants and others
vrho had commercial relations with Mauritius. While awaiting the re
turn o£ Saiyid Sultan, then engaged at a distance in negotiating with
the Wahhabi commander, M. de Cavaignac was made aware of the exis
tence of the British agreements of 1798 and 1800, hitherto apparently
unknown to the French; this discovery may perhaps have prepared him
for the ultimate failure of his mission. On the l , 2th of October Saiyid
Sultan arrived in his capital and immediately informed the French
mission that, while he was willing to discuss commercial matters, he could
not, on account of his agreements with the British, accept a French re
presentative at Masqat, or even entertain proposals on such a subject. So
decided was his attitude that no interview at all took place between him and
M. de Cavaignac, and the " Atalanta," after remaining one day more iu
port to test the finality of his reply, vanished under cover of night.
That Saiyid Sultan consented to enter into an exclusive arrangement
with the British and that, having done so, he scrupulously regarded its
obligations are facts of which the explanation is to be sought in the
importance to the inhabitants of 'Oman of the Indian trade, rather than
in any personal preference on the part of the ruler for Englishmen
over Frenchmen. It seems to have been directly intimated to Sultan
more than once, that, were he to throw in his lot with the French,