"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٦‎٤‎٩] (١٧٨٢/٧٩٢)

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at first made a sbow of resistance; but, learning that the town of Rams
had been spared, they eventually surrendered 8 large vessels for destruc
tion. At Sharjah no large vessels in good condition were found.
The war fleet of ; Ajman evidently was spared or escaped, for in 1811
we find it cruising in the Gulf in company of the pirate Rahmah-bin-
Jabir. On the 21st of January the armament, having crossed the Gulf,
anchored at Mughu on the Persian coast, and four Sharjah boats found in
the anchorage were destroyed. Nakhilu, Charak, Kung and Band
Mu'allim were visited, but no large craft were found ; a strict warning
was addressed, however, to the Shaikhs of the two first-named ports.
Before the return of the whole expedition to India, a discussion took Question ^
place as to the expediency of operations against Rahmah-bin-Jabir, the
piratical chief of Qatar, who, with the assistance of the Qawasim, had
defeated an attack made on him by the Persian authorities of Bushehr. His
punishment was strongly advocated by Mr. Hankey Smith, the British
Resident at Bushehr ; but the project was in the end negatived, partly
on the ground of Rahmah's neutral and even friendly attitude towards
the British power, and partly on that ol a close connection which he
had recently formed with the Wahhabis. The bulk of the expeditionary-
force returned to Bombay in February 1810; but a portion was detained
in the Gulf until the question of Rahmah's punishment had been settled,
and did not reach India till April.
As Sultan-bin -Saqar, the legitimate Shaikh of the Qawasim, was General
still at this time an exile without authority over his tribe, while the 0 o f™™ e
Qawasim themselves as yet remained in strict if not voluntary subjection expedition,
to the Wahhabi agents set over them, no attempt was made to arrange
the conciliatory convention which it had been one of the objects of the
Bombay Government to bring about. Regard being had to the
somewhat inconclusive end of the military operations at Ras-al-Khaimah,
it is probable that no satisfactory arrangements could have been
attained at this time without further coercion. An impression
nevertheless prevailed among British officials that the danger from the
Uawasim was practically at an end ; and diecuss.on was limited to
proposals for preventing its recrudesocnoe. Mr. Manesty, the Ros.dcn
at Basrah, advised that an embargo shonld be laid by Government on
the exportation of timber from India to Masqat and the ports of the
Persian Gnlf ; and his suggestion, which was supported ^ ^
Malcolm, British Envoy to Persia, was adopted^ but prove d f" '«•
. ii,, 6a i e of ArabsTn was prohibited for a time
until experience showed that they had no difficnltv in ohtaimag .t thence by mdnect
means, especially from Travancore.