"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٢‎٤‎٦] (١٧٨٢/١٤٠١)

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because of the danger of a revival of plague and partly because of the
risk of a sudden onslaught by the Persians, to furnish trading vessels
bound from Masqat to Basrah, as had been requested by the Turkish
authorities, with a convoy to protect them against Persian attack. On
the 20th February 1 7 74), acting upon his own view of the situation,
the Agent caused the " Revenge" and Drake " to be provisioned for
three months and prepared for receiving the stock of woollens then in
the Factory; but the Mutasallim, Sulaiman Agha, deprecated the
removal of the goods, which would, he said, alarm the town, cause many
of the inhabitants to take flight, bring trade to a stand-still, and play into
the hands of Karim Khan, whose object it was by destroying the
commerce of Basrah to compel the British to re-open their settlement at
Bushehr. Eventually, on the Mutasallim's assuring the Agent that he
had made arrangements for obtaining prompt information of the move
ments of the Persian army and that there was a prospect of detaching
from the Persian cause the Ka'ab tribe, without the aid of whose fleet
nothing could be effected by the enemy, and on his further giving a
guarantee on behalf of the Pasha and the Sultan, in which the Daftardar
and Shaikh Darwish—the latter probably the Basrah Naqib of the
day— associated themselves with him, that the East India Company
should be indemnified for any loss which they might sustain through
their goods remaining for the present on shore, Mr. Moore agreed to
delay action for a few days longer. He also undertook that the Ka'ab of
'Arabistan, against whom the East India Company had claims, should
not be attacked by the British squadron if they brought their vessels to
Basrah to help in the defence of the town ) but, to a suggestion that the
British should themselves intervene on the side of the Turks, Mr. Moore
replied with decision that his nation were only merchants at Basrah, and
that they would observe strict neutrality, retiring on board ship with so
much of the Company's property as they could remove on the approach
of the Persian army, but not finally quitting the place so long as it
lemaiued in possession of the Turks. The Agent, probably in March,
informed the Pasha of Baghdad of what had passed between himself and
the Mutasallim and again urged that Basrah should be placed in a state
of defence; but before the end of April, authentic information was
received from Shiraz that no preparations had as yet been made by the
Persians for a campaign against Basrah,—a truth which had already
been reported by the Ka'ab Shaikh to the Mutasallim,— and it began to
be believed that Karim Khan had, for the time at least, laid aside his
original aggressive intentions. r l he Mutasallim, in the meanwhile, had
done his best to pacify the \ akil by promising to assist him with the