مراسلات، قصاصات من الصحف، صورة فوتوغرافية ومراسلات عن بلاد فارس والخليج العربي [ظ‎‎٣‎٢‎٢] (٨٧٩/٦٤٧)

8
when the rule of the Sultan was confined to Oman,
with the addition of a strip of the Mekran coast
about Gwadar. In the meantime, after Seyid Said’s
death Zanzibar and Maskat had been separated on
condition that Seyid Burgash, who got Zanzibar,
paid a compensation of seven thousand two hun
dred rupees a month to Thoweyni, his elder brother,
who got the poorerProvinceof Maskat. Thisarrange-
ment, w h ich was made by Lord Canning's Commission,
is a striking instance of the influence exerted over
the twin Sultanate by the British. Thoweyni was
murdered in 1866, probably by his son Salim,
who succeeded him, and reigned for two years ; but
the Throne finally went to Seyid Turki, a brother
of Thoweyni, and, like him, the son of an Abyssinian
mother, who asserted his authority in 1871. His
offspring, Feyzul, now sits on the Throne of Mas
kat. There was some doubt when Lord Curzon
visited the city in 1889 whether the British Govern
ment would recognise the succession. But since
that time Seyid Feyzul has proved himself an
honest ruler, and is now on the best of terms with
the political agent.
THE NORTHERN Colossus.
It will be seen from the foregoing brief survey
that the critical years for Maskat were from about
1840 to 1866, when Thoweyni was de facto ruler of
the kingdom. In those years’ we did un
doubtedly save the capital of our ancient
ally Seyid Said; and there would be no
Maskat at all to-day but for our goodwill.
At the same time it must be pointed out that we
were content to preserve Maskat from extinction,
and moved no finger to save the territories of
Maskat on the mainland of Persia. In 1849 and
1850 Seyid Sultan was forced to appeal directly to
the Residen of Bushire to save Bunder Abbas,
but our representative was unable to act promptly
on his own responsibility, and the Sultan, left to
his own resources, merely succeeded in staving off
surrender by a monetary payment to the Persian
Governor of Fars, who was threatening Bunder
Abbas. That was the thin end of the wedge, and
twenty years later there was an end of the Sultan’s
rule in Kish in, Ormuz, and Bunder Abbas. It is
probable that in keeping to our time-honoured
policy of non-interference except to stop actual
warfare in the Gulf we lost a great chance. If, in
stead of backing up Persia in her claims, we had
stood out solidly for the rights of our older ally of
Maskat there would have been no Persian Power
at all in the gulf to-day ; and we should have had
to deal only with a friendly and obedient Arab
ruler instead of a feeble Government which is
under the thumb of Russia. In point of fact, “ we
put our money on the wrong horse ” ; and yet it
would be unfair to blame those who were respon-
sible for our policy in those days. The power of
Maskat was most rapidly on the decline in the
decade between 1850 and 1860, a period in which
we fought two great wars and had other things to
think of than the Persian Gulf; nor could the
statesmen of the Fifties quite foresee the time when
the shadow of the Northern Colossus should have
lengthened to such an extent as almost to darken
the waters of the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately,
we cannot repair the mistakes of that period; but
we can guard against a repetition of them.
Abolition of Slave Markets.
Having by our action on many occasions saved
the Throne of Thoweyni almost against his own
will, even if we did not preserve the Empire which
he was determined to throw away, we further placed
him under an obligation by securing for him the
Zanzibar subsidy when he succeeded to Maskat.
His own weakness very soon obviated the necessity
for the continued payment of this tribute by
Zanzibar, and it was not until 1873 that the British
Government undertook to pay the sum itself as a
reward for the final abolition of slave markets in
both Maskat and Zanzibar. It is important to
bear this point in mind, because it might other
wise be supposed that Great Britain, having taken
Zanzibar under herprotection, was legally or morally
bound to continue the annual subsidy. This is so
far from being the case that the British Govern
ment two years ago made it abundantly clear by
stopping the subsidy that the Sultan received it
only by the goodwill of his powerful ally ; for he
could certainly never have compelled payment on
the part of Zanzibar. It can hardly be doubted,
then, that in view of our past services, and of the
present helplessness of Maskat against foreign
attack, from which our gunboats preserve him, and
finally of bis yearly stipend, the Kingdom of Oman
is practically, though not nominally, under the pro
tection of Great Britain. It is true that the Sultan
still enjoys the privileges of treaties made with his
grandfather by the French and American Republics,
and these treaties grant the extra-territorial rights
usual to European Powers in the East. But it
must not be forgolion that the French Treaty of
1844 was only made with the permission of the
British Government and it did not prevent us from
taking over the Protectorate of Zanzibar in 1890.
GREAT BRITAIN and France.
It would be inconceivably foolish in the light of
past events to relinquish one tithe of our moral
rights over Maskat-; and yet to-day we are con
stantly on the verge of admitting that we have no
stronger claims to exert our influence in Oman
than the French, who have never done a single
thing to advance the country or develop its trade or
police its waters. It was only in 1894 that a French
Consul was appointed to Maskat* but before that
time the French had been a thorn in our side by
encouraging Arab dhows to fly the French flag, and
so engage in the prohibited slave trade with
impunity. This indefensible habit became so
common that in 1891 the Sultan of Muskat was
driven to issue an order, with the full approval of
the Indian Government, in which his subjects were
warned not to resort in future to this method of
protection. Since 1891 he has twice been informed
that he has the Indian Government behind him in
this matter, and in June of 1900 he went to Sur,
accompanied by the British political agent,
harangued the dhow owners, and got their assur
ances that those of them who were flying the French
flag would henceforth give up the practice. Next
year, however, the French cruiser Catinat arrived
at Maskat, the senior naval officer interviewed the
Sultan, and afterwards, with M. Ottavi, the French
Consul, went to Sur and undid all the work of the
previous year. The dhow owners who had agreed to
give up the use of the French flag have not done so,
and the result is that the flag question remains
just where it stood before 1891. The Sultan is
sincerely desirous of exerting his legitimate rights
in the matter, but he cannot do so in the face of
the French Consul’s opposition without firm back
ing from the British Government, and it remains
to be seen what steps will be taken by Lord Salis-
bury's Government, which, for obvious reasons, is
unwilling to bring the matter to an acute stage.
No British Protectorate.
Questions of this sort, however, cannot be left to
convenient occasions. The Sultan is fortunately
on the best of terms with the British political
agent at Maskat, but that is all the more reason
for backing him up when he is trying to act in the
best interests of his country. Nor can we dismiss
the whole matter as trivial. The very folly of the
French in thwarting our anti-slavery efforts is suffi
cient in itself to indicate that they have some
motive beyond the mere desire to protect Arabs
who are engaging in the illegal slave traffic. Our
position in the matter is not too clear. The French
tried exactly the same tactics at Zanzibar, where
our best efforts to stop the traffic between the
mainland and the islands were spoiled by the
dhows, which crossed under the French flag to
Pemba with perfect impunity. But when the
Anglo-German Agreement of 1890 put Zanzibar
and its dependencies directly under our protection
we were able to employ a very strong argument
against the use of the French flag on Arab dhows.
Since French gunboats could not patrol the waters
these dhows would have gone free altogether
if right of search had been refused to
British gunboats. Morally the case of Mas
kat is on exactly the same basis, since
there is no record of any slave having been set
free by a French gunboat. Technically, however,
we have no protectorate, and we can only stop the
abuse through the Sultan himself, and it would be
unpardonable weakness on our part to refuse
him support simply because our consent to his
action in 1891 was the consent of the Indian
Government and not of the British Foreign Office.
Such a course would not only be discreditable, but
it t ' ’ ' ' tal in its results.
The Dhow Question.
Nor is there the slightest reason for hesitation
now. The French Treaty gives the French Consul
jurisdiction over bona-fide French subjects in
Maskat or its dependencies, but it was never in
tended that the French flag should protect the
Sultan’s own subjects from the arm of the law; and
the abuse is doubly wrong when the French flag is
used, as it constantly has been, to screen slave-
traders from detection. It is impossible to believe
that the French Government or the French people
would uphold such an abuse if it were really brought
home to their notice. But the question has also its
political side. It is only two and a half years since
M. Ottavi carried through a secret agreement with
the Sultan, whereby the small port of Jissa, five
miles south-east of Maskat, was granted to the
French Government as a naval station. The intrigue
leaked out, it is said, through a paragraph in the
French Press, and the British admiral very quickly
put a stop to its ratification by a threat of
instant bombardment. The danger was averted,
but the French had shown their hand,
and every doubtful action on their part
rural now be watched with suspicion. Knowing
what one does of French Consuls in the East, one
is almost driven to the conclusion that M. Ottavi
is one of those officials whose constant aim is to
undermine British influence and cause annoyance
to British officials at any cost. It is a curiously
unsatisfactory game to all parties concerned, but
it is one which is undoubtedly persisted in by
many French Consuls and political agents, and has
now an increased importance on account of the
Franco-Russian Alliance. There is every week, I
believe, a paper published in Arabic at Beirout
which is spread over the Arabian Peninsula and
the Persian Littoral,and seldom fails to produce an
article inspired by the French Consulate at Maskat
in which Great Britain is decried and every little
action of the British agent viewed with suspicion.
For the present M. Ottavi is quiescent. The Jissa
incident was a fiasco, and he has gone home on
leave, having found something more than his match,
perhaps, in the new British political agent who arrived
at Maskat in the autumn of 1899. But the dhow
question is not settled, and may at any moment
become acute, so that M. Ottavi, even if he does
not return, has not laboured altogether in vain.
On the Horns OF a Dilemma.
Even without the assistance of the French Consul
our relations with the Sultan of Maskat cannot be
free from difficulty. It has recently been pointed
out in an able article by Mr. Cantine, of the
American Mission, that the Sultan is on the horns
of a dilemma. If he displeases us he loses his
subsidy, which is a matter of considerable im
portance to him ; if he follows our advice too
closely he is bound to incur the hostility of
the Sheikhs of Oman, over whom he exercises a
somewhat precarious suzerainty. But the dilemma
would be in no way serious if he could depend on
our thorough support. The slightest show of
military strength would be sufficient to overawe
the Arab tribes of the interior, who have appa
rently very few soldierly qualities. This has been
fairly well proved both in the affair of 1889,
which Lord Curzon describes in his book on Persia,
and again in 1895, when the Bedouins were incited
by the Sheikh Saleh to enter the town of Maskat
by stealth and seize the Sultan’s Palace. In both
cases protracted fighting took place without any
adequate result in the shape of a casualty list, nor
would it be possible for the town to be attacked at
all if the hills behind were even moderately well de
fended. The affair of 1895wasoneof thoseregrettable
incidents which happen in diplomacy as well as in
warfare. The British political agent of those days
had a great opportunity of asserting British
supremacy in Maskat when each side in turn
appealed to his authority. Instead of settling
matters with a firm hand, he left the Sultan to
make his own bargain with the Bedouins, and con
tented himself with sending in a heavy bill of
damages.
The Ever-Blessed “ Status Quo.”
Of course, it may be argued that we desire no
supremacy in Oman nor any part of the Arabian
Peninsula outside of Aden. We hold in all
circumstances to the ever-blessed status quo, which
may mean anything or nothing at all. Unfortu
nately for this line of argument history cannot
stand still, more especially now that we are only
one of many competing Powers. It is almost
impossible for us to mark time in the politics of
the gulf without actually losing ground,
and the probability is that a more definite
protectorate over Oman will soon be forced on us.
That the danger or difficulty of such a protectorate
is insuperable it is hard to believe. As long ago
as the reign of Seyid Said the great Sultan himself
tried to hire soldiers from Madagascar to sup
press a rebellion in Pemba on the ground that his
own Arabs had no stomach for fighting ; and more
recent events represent them in no better light.
Nor could a single stone be thrown at us on ac
count of any action we may take to open up the
interior of the Arabian Peninsula. Of all passages
in British history there is none which shows the
British Government in a better light than that
which deals with the Nineteenth Century history
of the gulf. Fifty times at least in the past hundred
years we have had an excellent opportunity of
annexing as much Arabian territory as we liked,
but on every occasion we have set our faces against
territorial aggrandisement, and aimed solely at the
pacification of the Persian and Arabian seas. And
not content with destroying the power of the
pirates, we have courted unpopularity, and still
court unpopularity, with the Arabs by our anti-
slavery policy. Starting in 1822, we gradually
forced on the various tribes more and more stringent
treaties, until to-day slavery is as illegal in Oman or
the gulf as it is in the State of New York, and our
men-of-war alone of all the Navies of the world
have spent torrid summers in stamping out the
evil. That we get little thanks for it is a wont--
of course. Indeed, there are tl-ve who tell us that
we benefit nobody by it, least of all the slaves, who
rather enjoy slavery than otherwise. Still, what
ever political force we may lose by it, no true
British subject would ever regret for one moment
the self-imposed task nor forego his privilege of
holding out freedom to everyone who seeks his
protection from the bonds of slavery.
The Question OF Trade.
Whatever unpopularity we may earn in this
direction might be easily counteracted by firm
ness of political control, and it is the bounden I
duty of those who are responsible for our foreign |
policy to see to it that no other Power is allowed a |
territorial footing on the coast of the Arabian
Peninsula or the shores of the Persian Gulf.
The prospects of Oman belong more properly to
a letter on the trade of the gulf in general. But
it may be said here that of the trade of Maskat,
which amounts to nearly half a million sterling per
annum, the bulk is in the hands of British or British-
Indian merchants, the shipping is entirely British
and native, and there are some two thousand Indian
subjects of the King-Emperor in the dominions of
the Sultan. The French, who are our only political
opponents in this sphere, have practically no trade
at all and very little prospect of any in the future,
and yet they would like to undermine our influence
and, if possible, secure a harbour on the coast. In
the face of such designs, it is necessary for us to
make it abundantly clear, not only that we shall
suffer no encroachment, but also that should we at
any time find it necessary to assert a more definite
control over Oman we are under no obligation
whatsoever to grant compensating advantages to
France or any other Power on the Arabian
Peninsula.
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE LECTURES.
Admiral Sir John Dalrymple Hay presided last night at
a lecture given at the Imperial Institute by Dr. C. F.
HARFORD-BATTERSBY, Principal of Livingstone College, on
“The Obstacles to Development in West Africa.” After
referring to some of the minor impediments to West
African development, such as the apathy of the past, the
difficulties of landing owing to the surf, the transport
question, and the lack of industrial training, the lecturer
dwelt at length with the two main obstacles, the liquor
traffic with the native races, and the malaria question.
Largely owing to the efforts of the native races and the
Liquor Traffic United Committee immense improvements
had of late years taken place with regard to the liquor
question, and the lecturer believed that a splendid oppor
tunity now existed for preventing the traffic from extending
into the interior among the natives hitherto untouched by
it; but he was of opinion that the utmost vigilance
would be needed to secure this much to the
desired result. A detailed description was given of
the great discoveries which had recently been made with
reference to the malaria question. It was now unive 3.2, -
admitted by all malarial specialists that the mosquito was
the means of communicating this and some other diseases
to man. In this connection reference was made to Major
Ross, and also to Dr. Manson, under whose leadership the
London School of Tropical Medicine had done such useful
work, both in educating a large number of medical practi
tioners proceeding to different tropical climates, and in
various expeditions for investigating the subject of tropical
disease. The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine had
also conducted a series of investigations into the subject of
malaria on the West Coast of Africa, and were now engaged
in carrying through important sanitary operations besides
educational work in this country. Dr. Harford-Battersby
also referred to the instruction that was being given at
Livingstone College to missionaries in questions of tropical
hygiene, and to the facilities afforded by the Travellers’
Health Bureau to those who might desire information with
regard to what precautions should be taken on entering a
tropical climate. He also referred to the Colonial Nursing
Association, which supplied nurses for hospitals in the
tropics ; and, in conclusion, hoped that the Governments of
the different colonies would take up in real earnest the
sanitary measures necessary to carry into practical effect
the important discoveries which had been made by scientific
experts, and that the public generally would recognise the
necessity of acting on the recommendations which had
been made as to protection from mosquitoes, and would
co-operate in carrying through adequate sanitary reforms.
THE SULTAN AND DR. HERZL.
Dr. Herzl, the Zionist leader, has been summoned by
the Sultan, and is now in Constantinople. That this event
has not been altogether unexpected is evidenced by the
article which Mr. Israel Zangwill contributes to the current
issue of HousehM Words, in which he foreshadows the
development of the movement, and discusses who will be
the first President of Palestine.
Ordered by the Butler. — At Brompton
County Court yesterday Judge Stonor tried the case of
“ Budgeon v. Bliss,” which was a claim for goods supplied
to Sir Henry Bliss. The question which the court had tc
determine was whether the defendant’s butler had any
authority to order a bottle of whisky and half a dozer
syphons of soda water a day to be charged to his master’
account. The learned judge found a verdict for the
ngines being out of order. The Furious
is accompanied by the bluing Fox.
" The cruiser Amplitrile, niom China, sailed yesterday for
i Portsmouth from Gibraltar.
’ The sloop Espiigle has arrived at Malta from Gibraltar.
The Rinaldo, from Sheerness, has arrived at Singapore.
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. Ctocker, to the Camper-
down, H. T. C. Gibbs, to the Empress of India, H. R. G.
Moore, to the CoUingwood, 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' 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
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,
y.il 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
I Belgrave Hospital for Children.
j At a general meeting of the Society of Oil
. Painters, Piccadilly, held last evening Miss E. Fortescue
Brickdale, Messrs. Terrick Williams, Thomas Millie Dow,
( Talbot Hughes, and A. F. W. Hayward were elected
, members.
1 The friends of Colonel Paschkoff, of Russia, well
1 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,
4 which is at present represented by Sir William Walrond,
I the Chief Government Whip, has unanimously resolved to
4 recommend to the delegates as the Radical candidate for
6 the division Mr. W. H. Reed, of Exeter, who is an
- Alderman of the Exeter City Council, a magistrate, an
I 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.
But the Persian yoke, which never rested heavily
, Gmer,—- -s-vigorously th s off by Ahmed Bit
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 L other, were fighting Monarchs, who
established a maritime Empire from Zanzibar, on
the African coast, to Gwadur and Bulkier 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,
closed in 1856, he
which
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 or 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 1
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 asked
him to encourage British trade, in spite of the fact,
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 thevile 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.