'Southern Arabia, by Theodore Bent, F.R.G.S., F.S.A., Author of 'The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland' 'The Sacred City of the Ethiopians' 'The Cyclades, Or Life Among the Insular Greeks' etc. and Mrs Theodore Bent' [‎59] (98/552)

SOME HISTOKICAL FACTS ABOUT OMAN 59
and wisely. So there was every likelihood that in due
course he would be thoroughly established in the dominions
of his father.
When we visited the town for the second time an even
more serious rebellion was impending, the Bedouin of the
interior, under Sheikh Saleh, having attacked Maskat itself.
The sultan and his brother, who hastily became friends, retired
together to the castle, and the town was given up to plunder.
There were dead bodies lying on the beach, and but for the
kindness of Colonel Hayes Sadler, the British Eesident,
there would have been difficulties in the fort as regards
water. They relied principally on H.M.S. Sphinx, which
lay in the harbour to protect British interests, and to main
tain Sultan Feysul in his position.
This state of terror lasted three weeks, when the rebels,
having looted the bazaars and wrecked the town, were
eventually persuaded to retire, free and unpunished, with a
considerable cash payment; probably intending to return for
more when the cooler weather should come, and the date
harvest be over. With the consent of, and at the request
of, the Indian Government, Sultan Feysul has imposed
additional heavy duty on all the produce coming in from
the rebel tribes, that he may have a fund from which to
pay indemnities to foreigners who suffered loss during the
invasion. A good many Banyan Merchant of Indian extraction. merchants, British subjects,
suffered losses, and their claim alone amounted to 120,000
rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. . As a natural result of this disaster and its igno
minious termination. Sultan Feysul s authority at thepiesent
moment is absolutely nil outside the walls of Maskat and
El Matra, and he is still in a state of declared war with all
the Bedouin chiefs in the mountains behind Maskat.
A few British subjects were scared, but not killed, and
as all was over in a few weeks no one thought much more
about it except those more immediately interested, and few