"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٤‎٤‎٦] (١٧٨٢/٥٨٩)

446
Partial
failure of
Saiyid Sa'id's
second
expedition
against Has-
al-Khaimah,
and conti
nued hostili
ties with the
Qawasim,
1814-18.
Reduction of
Ris-al-Khal-
mah by a
British ex
pedition,
1S19.
In 1814 Sa id, after he had preferred an unavailing request for
naval and military reinforcements to the Bombay Government,
proceeded for the second time against Ras-al-Khaimah; and, though
he did not actually succeed in reducing the place, he compelled the
inhabitants to agree to terms of peace, among which was one of abstention
from piracy and maritime warfare in the seas extending from
Bahrain and Kangun in the Persian Gulf to Ras-al-Hadd and Gwadar
in the Gulf of J Oman. But the views of the Saiyid had, it would
seem, undergone some change ; and it was now his object to establish
his own authority at Ras-al-Khaimah and to place Sultan-bin-Saqar
over the Qawasim of Sharjah only. In 1815 Sa'id again represented
his need of assistance to the Bombay Government, complaining at the
same time of the insolence of the Wahhabi Wakil at Masqat and of
the aggressiveness of the people of Ras-al-Khaimah; but again his
overtures were doomed to failure. Before long his worst apprehen
sions were justified by the appearance of a piratical fleet of the
Qawasim in the Gulf of ^Oman; Matrah was threatened by these
marauders; and the Saiyid, being obliged to put to sea against them in
person, was wounded and very nearly captured along with his 40-gun
frigate, the "Caroline," in an action fought off Quryat. In 1816
Sa'id blockaded Ras-al-Khaimah for four months without effect, and in
the following year he was defeated by a Qasimi force on land at Khor
1 akkan. After the fall of Dara ijah in 1818, however, the Qawasim
of Ras-al-Khaimah, alarmed at the progress of the Egyptians in Najd,
besought him to enter into an offensive and defensive alliance with
them,—a proposal which he at once rejected.
Towards the ""J of 1819 the second British expedition for the
suppression of piracy in the Persian Gulf proceeded from Bombay
Masqat, against Ras-al-Khaimah. The incidents and results of that
short campaign are fully described elsewhere*: here we are only con
cerued to observe tiat Saiyid Sa'id personally accompanied the armament
to which he contributed two frigates and 600 men, besides a large land
force that arrnred too late to be of use; and that, though be obtained
no extension of terntory under the settlement,- a eontiugency which
had been con em pi a ted by the Government of Bombay,-^
pacificatnn of the Qawaeim was of great advantage to him in everv
way and released Inm faal y from the fear of a dangerous enemy. It had
ongmaly beeu desired by the British Government that the Egyptians
should co-operate with ^em against the Qawasim ; hut this part of the
^heme did noi corimend itself to Sa'id, who distrusted the' Egvptial
* Vtde page 197 ante and page 658 post.
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