تقارير إدارية من الخليج العربي ١٨٨٣/١٨٨٤ – ١٩٠٤/١٩٠٥ [ظ‎‎٢‎٤‎٨] (٦٠٢/٥٠١)

10
ADMINISTRATION REPORT ON THE PERSIAN GULF POLITICAL
ordinary slight inconveniences incidental to travelling in a barren and waterless
country with, a large caravan. Mr. Oldham's investigations occupied about a
fortnight, and he left Sur for Maskat and India on 21st November. JPrima
facie, the opinion which he came to with regard to the coal seemed to be, that
it did not exist in sufficient quantities to repay the cost of working in such a
difficult country, but up to the conclusion of the year his official report has
not come to hand.
After the departure of Mr. Oldham and his Native miners. Captain
Dowding remained with me in Sur, in the hope of my being able to arrange to
return to Maskat by land through the Sharkiyeh. Arrangements for this were
in progress, and I think the journey could have been carried through, but the
contemplation of it seemed to cause His Highness the Sultan a considerable
amount of anxiety, and therefore, in deference to his express wishes, I felt
bound to relinquish the project for some other occasion.
It was arranged, however, that we should land at Daghmar near Kurriyat,
and return to Maskat, via the Devil's Gap, the "Wadi Tyin, and the Semail
Valley. Accordingly, disembarking from His Majesty's S. Lapwing at Dagh-
mar, on 1st December, we reached Maskat on 10th idem, after an interesting
journey of 150 miles. "We were most hospitably received by the tribes on
our route, except at one of the small villages in the adi Tyin, named Akda,
inhabited by 30 or 40 of the Beni Uifiar Battash.
We had two Shaikhs of the tribe with us, as " Khafeers," and in the
other villages of this tribe had been made welcome, but this particular hamlet
seems to be inhabited by a community of ignorant and turbulent characters,
who turned out en masse with their matchlocks, and barred the way to our
caravan and baggage guard, which was winding peacefully along the Wadi
Tyin, waiting for orders to halt for the night.
No harm had resulted when we arrived on the scene, but the villagers,
with the fuses of their matchlocks lighted, were in a very excited state, and had
one rifle been discharged, on purpose or by accident, it would have inevitably
resulted in a general fusillade and a good deal of bloodshed.
As it was, after an houi's delay, we passed through to the next village of
the same tribe, where the inhabitants made us welcome and were profuse in
their apologies for the behaviour of their neighbours, who were also subsequently
said to be craving for pardon. The excuse given was, that the villagers had
received no previous warning of our approach, and were alarmed and suspicious
at the arrival of such a large caravan in their midst. Such a plea might have
been accepted for a momentary scare, but was no adequate reason for their
maintaining their offensive attitude after the arrival of their own tribal elders
on the scene, and the villagers of the adjoining hamlet, where we camped for
the night, were told to let their comrades know that the matter would not be
allowed to rest where it was.
Such incidents as the above are inseparable from travel in an unsettled
country like Oman, and it is undesirable to attach too much importance to them;
but, as it turned out in the present instance that this village of Akda had
treated Colonel Miles' caravan in precisely the same way when he passed through
the Wadi Tyin in 1884, His Highness Sayyid Eeisal agreed with me that the
offence could not be considered as condoned by the mere apologies of the, tribe
concerned, and that further notice must be taken of it, and I am able to report,
that at the time of writing one man of the village implicated is in durance vile
in Maskat, and that action will be taken against others when they or their goods
appear at the coast.
5. The French Flag. —I can hardly dismiss Sur from notice without touching
upon the important subject of the Trench Flag in Oman waters— a question of
vital consequence to the Sultan, which, it is to be hoped, will soon arrive at
a definite adjustment.
In last year's report, mention was made that an undertaking had been
given to the Sultan, during his visit to Sur in June 1900, by which the Erench
flag-holders among his subjects voluntarily engaged to cease from flying the
Prench Plag over their dhows and to return their papers at their respective
ports of registry before a certain date, and in conclusion it was observed that
the period will be coming to an end in a few weeks and it remains to be seen