"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٩‎٦‎٣] (١٧٨٢/١١١٨)

963
was supposed to entertain in the direction of 'Oman, and will be more Joppto
appropriately described in another place. v Hasa, 1841.
More than once between 1845 and 1854 the attention of the British Piracy by
authorities was attracted to the coast of Hasa by the misdeeds of Hamaid- Majdaf
bin-Majdal, a member of tlie ' A mair section of the Bani Khalid tribe, and his
who, as related elsewhere, combined with the Shaikh of Bahrain against 1845-1.850.'
the AA ahhabis in 1845 aud in 1847 transferred his support to the other
side* Early in 1845, Hamaid, who had broken with a part of his tribe,
had forsaken his usual residence on Abu 'Ali Island, and was already in
the service of the Shaikh of Bahrain, seized a Baqarah belonging to
Kharag as she was entering the port of Qatif with a cargo of wheat
from Hig and carried her to Abu 'Ali Island; the crew, after being
despoiled of all their property, were allowed to make their way home in
their empty vessel. The damages were estimated at 1,500 Muhammad
Shahi rupees; and it was reported that Hamaid-bin-Majdal, on being
warned that the goods he was plundering belonged to a person under
British protection, merely laughed and asked " Who are the English ? ' s
Such open contempt of the maritime peace and its guardians could
not be tolerated; and in May 1845 the Resident deputed his Assistant,
Captain Kemball, to superintend the punishment of the pirate, who
had now established himself on the island of Jinnah. This service, which
was undertaken by Commodore Hawkins, I.N., with his flagship u Coote "
and the schooner " Constance/' supported by two armed Baqarahs, was
attended by serious difficulties of navigation ; and Hamaid, who seems to
have believed his island inaccessible, replied insolently to the first summons
to submit ; but, when morning broke, he found himself surrounded bv
the boats of the squadron and hastened to apologise. He was obliged to
surrender his Baghlah, which was retained till the following October and
was then redeemed by him on payment of 2,059 Muhammad Shahi rupees
in cash and 141 in kind, the total demand against him being thus
liquidated. The operations at Jinnah were extremely trying to those
engaged in them on account of the terrific heat of the sun, the season being-
June ; and the skilful management and successful issue of the expedition
were highly commended by the Court of Directors.
In the summer of 1846 the Wahhabi Governor of Qatif had the British naval
presumption to address the British Resident, demanding that he should ^ Qatif^' 00
expel Hamaid-bin-Majdal from his abode and compel him to return a 1846.
Ghunchah and five other vessels belonging to Qatif which he had seized ;
in case of failure the Governor threatened to give the Bani Hajir and
other Bedouin tribes of the mainland permission to commit piracies. A
70 A