'Précis of correspondence regarding the affairs of the Persian Gulf, 1801-1853' [‎25v] (50/344)

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Part II—Chap. XII •
CHAPTER XII.
THE CHARGES AGAIXST THE IMAM OF MASRAT AND HIS
'"'i Poll- EVPLAIVATION, 1804.
Dept. Diury No. 158 _ '
of 1804, p. 2467. 72. Seyyid Sultan deputed his Vakil Elected representative or attorney, acting in legal matters such as contracting marriage, inheritance, or business; a high-ranking legal official; could also refer to a custodian or administrator. Haji Mahomed Ibrahim with a view
to place certain facts before the Governor of Bombay (Mr. Duncan) and clear
misunderstanding. He explained the facts in a letter addressed to the
Governor dated 17th April 1804.
73. In the first place, he stated there was a certain person inhabitant of
Who is Swedi or Suvedi ? His piracies. SoVedy of tJlB trib6 o/* Joncishim* who
• Jowasim ? having offended the Sheikh left that place
and fled for protection to Syud Sultan, and took up his abode in Hormuz;
as Syud Sultan was at that time at war with the tribes Jonashim and Ootaob,
he took this opportunity of ravaging and plundering these people by carrying
on a piratical warfare in their coasts. It once happened that a botella
belonging to the Mehedi Ali Khan from Bushire by which Mr. bruce
had dispatched a Government packet was stranded on the Islands of
Sheikh Syil and seized and plundered of its cargo. When the Imam received
this intelligence he sent out his people for the recovery of the Botella, which \
he retook with the packet and what remained of the cargo, and though the
vessel belonged to Bushire (with the people of which port he was not on
terms of friendship) yet from respect to the Company's packet he gave back
the vessel and forwarded the dispatches himself. He at the same time wrote to
the Souvedy, in the most clear and positive terms, that if in future he were
guilty of any outrage or disrespect to the property vessels or packets of the
Hon'ble Company, he would put him to death and confiscate all his effects.
74. In another instance from motives of friendship and a wish to strength
en the bonds of attachment and unanimity, he told Mr. Seton in the Vakil Elected representative or attorney, acting in legal matters such as contracting marriage, inheritance, or business; a high-ranking legal official; could also refer to a custodian or administrator. 's
Danger of sending Company's packets and goods presence that oil account of avei y boister-
in small ships. Imam undertakes to convey them. qus weather and i'oughness of the sea
in the Gulf at that season, it would he dangerous to trust the Company's
goods or packets in small botellas or dows without people. He could be de
pended upon to navigate them. It would be better when it should be necessary
to send any goods or packets on small craft either from Bombay to Bussorah or
from Bussorah to Bombay to consign them to him, or any of his agents that
they might be forwarded on vessels of his own, or that he might ensure them, ^
a safe passage by granting them his pass or protection by convoy, by which
they would reach their ports without fears being entertained for their safety.
75. Notwithstanding this diligence and attention on the part of Syud Sultan,
Despatch of goods and ganpowder in small 9" 0d *
vessels. Capture of them by Sweedy. The Imam from Bombay OU a small VCSSel, Which
attacks him. no t make Maskat, but after being
tossed to and fro from the wide oceSn was at last taken and fell into the
hands of this Souvedy ;t when he discovered that the vessel and cargo which he
had plundered were English property, in consequence of the letter which he
had a short time before received from the Imam in which he was warned by
all that was sacred to desist from laying violent hands on the goods and
packets of the Honourable Company, he thought that this destruction must
be the inevitable consequence and from fear of death, and confiscation of his
house and property went to Hormuz, and carrying off with him all the effects, 3*
he had in that quarter, fled over to the Wahabis; when this intelligence
reached the Imam he took with Mr. Seton, and went himself in pursuit of
this renegade with his own fleet and army. When the contest took a turn and
the field of action was transferred to the shore (as the enemy had left the sea
and landed on the coast of the Wahabis), Syud Sultan was anxious to
disembark his troops and seize him on shore, but Mr. Seton did not approve of
t Written also Swedee. This was a consignment of gunpowder proceeding from the Company's Arsenal al
Bombay to the Basha of Bagdad on the botella.