'Extracts from Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia by J G Lorimer CIE, Indian Civil Service' [‎33v] (71/180)

the punishment of the guilty parties; and, after a vain attempt by the Shaikh to
present the case as one of wreck and to throw the blame upon Bedouins not
amenable to his authority, these terms were substantially fulfilled.
An ordinary case of the seizure of runaway divers upon the pearl banks was
so energetically handled in this year by the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi, who imprisoned
the chief offender and returned the kidnapped divers to the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. Agent at
Sharjah, that Government authorised a special increase in the value of his next
annual present. • • • ^ r ,
A peculiar case arose in July 1856 from the participation of a force, sent by
sea from Sharjah, in an attempt to reinstate at Abu Dhabi Sa Td-bin-TahnUn, the
ex-ruler of that place. The attack of the legitimists having failed, it was decided
to treat the case as one of maritime aggression and to hold the Qasimi Shaikh
partially responsible for the damage done in Abu Dhabi town, though this was
to some extent the work of Bedouin allies whom the de facto Shaikh had found
himself compelled to summon to his assistance. The fine on the Shaikh of Sharjah
was fixed at $25,000, payable by instalments, of which it was intended to remit
a portion should the attitude of the Shaikh be satisfactory; but his shifty conduct
placed clemency out of the question, and this large sum was in the end exacted
to the last dollar, the final payment not being received until May 1860.
In 1857, as is more fully related in another place,* the Shaikh of Sharjah was
prevented, on grounds of expediency and not under the Treaty of Peipetual Peace,
which did not apply to the case, from taking action by sea against the Shihuh,
with whom he was at war.
In 1859 an atrocity occurred, which revived for a moment, the memories of
former days. Three natives of Hasa, subjects of the Wahhabi Amir and passengers
on a vessel of Dibai bound for Lingeh, were thrown overboard by the Nakhuda
and crew, who desired to take possession of their valuables. Two were drowned:
but the third member of the party, 'Abdullah-bin-Husain, managed to keep himself
afloat until he was picked up by a vessel from Sur. Eventually he laid information
before the Resident, Captain Felix Jones, I.N., who despatched Commodore
Balfour with a squadron to require (1) the surrender for destruction of the boat
in which the crime had been committed, (2) the payment of $1,800 as compensation
for property taken, (3) the payment of $1,800 as blood-money on account of
two murders and an attempted murder, and (4) the public execution of 'Obaid,
the Nakhuda of the guilty vessel, or, in lieu thereof, the payment of a fine of $1,000.
Prompt compliance of these terms was enforced by Commodore Balfour, an
officer of very decided character, on the Shaikh of Dibai, the fine being accepted
instead of the surrender of the chief murderer; but later in the year Captain Felix
Jones, discovering that Muhammad-bin-Bazzan, another of the murderers, had
returned to his home at Khasab, went there with Commodore Balfour and
demanded his surrender under a penalty of $1,000. Muhammad-bin-Bazan was
accordingly delivered up unconditionally by the elders of the town—the first
instance, it wast stated, of such a surrender being made to the British authorities
and, having been handed over to his sovereign, the Sultan of 'Oman, was blown
from a gun at Masqat on the 21st of May 1860. In 1859 the surrender of seven
Sharjah boats which had been guilty of piratical acts, apparently upon the Persian
coast, was obtained by Commodore Jenkins, I.N., at 48 hours' notice; but the
particulars of this case are not ascertainable.
In 1860 the Shaikh of Hamiryah, after having in the previous year been
obliged to pay up a small sum on account of a robbery committed at sea on board
a vessel belonging to his port, was so ill-advised as to move by water to the
assistance of his suzerain, the Shaikh of Sharjah, who was engaged in coercing
some rebellious subjects at Khan and Abu Hail: this thoughtless act cost him $250.
Two cases which occurred at Bakhah in 1859 or 1860 may, though they belong
properly to the Ruus-al-Jibal district, be mentioned here as constituting breaches
of maritime order on the coast immediately adjoining Trucial 'Oman; in the first
a fugitive from Sha'am, at the instigation of the Shaikh of Bakhah, stole a Baqarah
and some fishing nets from Sha'am and brought them to Bakhah, and in the second
a shipwrecked crew, cast ashore at Bakhah, were robbed by the Shaikh of their
few remaining effects. In each case the Shaikh, though he was not a signatory
of any truce or peace and would at the present day be regarded as a dependent of
the Sultan of Masqat, was called upon to pay a fine of $100. Payment of the first
* The statement was not absolutely correct. It will be remembered that in 1835 two pirates
were surrendered by the Bam Yas.
t Vide page 623 ante.