"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٧‎٨‎٨] (١٢٦٢/٣٠٥)

1788
2nd to 11th
July.
Relations
with Karim
Khan
arising out of
Ka'ab affairs 3
1766-67.
the large Bushelir ship, to the help of his smaller craft; but, while hife
vessel and that of Mr. Natter engaged the enemy and both received
damage, the Bushebris confined themselves to cruising up and down at
a safe distance. From the first Captain Price had been displeased with
the conduct of bis allies, who systematically disregarded a code of signals
that he had arranged and shunned even the appearance of danger, while
the Shaikh's son even pretended that it was bsneath his dignity to take
orders from a European ; and their behaviour on this last occasion was
so unsatisfactory that on the next day Mr. Natter and some European
gunners who had been distributed among the vessels of the Bushehr fleet
o o
were withdrawn, and returned partly on board the " Tartar " and partly
on board a small yacht, belonging to the establishment of the British
Agent at Basrah, which had taken part in the later operations.
On the 2nd of July a small vessel of the Bushehr fleet was taken by
the enemy, and another was cast on shore and lost. On the 9th of July
the Agents yacht left for Basrah in company of the a Fort William/ , a
large English ship from Bengal which had called at Kharag ; and on the
10th the fleet of Mir Mahanna formed a junction, within sight of Kharag,
with that of Salman, the Shaikh of the Ka^ab, who like himself was at
war with Karim Khan, and who a few days later came to a rupture with
the British also. On the 11th of July Captain Price announced his inten
tion of returning to Bushehr on the following night; and, as the Shaikh's
son who had neither money nor provisions left, decided to withdraw like-
wise, the operations came to an end. The failure was entirely due to the
pusillanimous behaviour of the Bushehr contingent ; but Karim Khan,
nevertheless, seems to have considered that he had been badly treated in
the matter by the British.
No sooner had this enterprise reached its unfortunate conclusion than
a new train of circumstances began, of which the tendency was still
further to lower the credit of the British in the eyes of the Vakil, and
at the same time to bring their interests and his into collision. Of these
events, which are fully described in the history of 'Arabistan, the most
important were the piratical seizure by the Ka'ab tribe in July 1765 of
the " Sally " and ^ Fort William " and of the Agent's yacht, just
mentioned; the subsequent despatch of a British armament from
Bombay, at the begmumg ot 1766, to co-operate with a Turkish force
* Such at least was the opinion of the traveller Niebuhr, who was an im]
eyewitness of the whole proceedings, and who has placed it on record that ^
Mahanna " would inevitably have been defeated altogether, it only Captain Price and
Mr. Natter had not been deserted in such a cowardly manner by the Bushehr Arabs.
For his account of the operations, see his Voyage, Volume 11, pages 152 —150.