"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٥‎٥‎٦] (١٧٨٢/٦٩٩)

Increasing
intimacy of
the Sultan
with France,
18U8.
556
Masqat by a slave of the SuJtaii aud subjected, along- with two officers
of his ship, to ignominious treatment by certain of His Highness's
officials. On the matter being represented to the Sultan the slave was
flogged and the officials imprisoned; but the affair was none the less an
indication of the state of feeling prevalent in palace circles at Masqat.
Soon after this matters began to move more rapidly. The French gun
boat Gabes " arrived at Masqat in February 1898 and remained there
until March ; but the object and results of her visit could not at the time
be ascertained by the British Political Agent. In October another French
gunboat, the " Scorpion," spent a fortnight at Masqat: she brought
a breech-loading field gun as a gift from the French Government to the
Sultan. The stay was made the occasion of friendly demonstrations and
secret conferences, in which M. Ottavi played a large part; valuable return
presents were given by the Sultan; and the officers of the ship, with the
French Vice-Consul, made an expedition to Bandar Jissah, a small but
defensible harbour on the coast 5 miles south-east of Masqat, of which they
took photographs and mad<? rough plans. A direct result of the visit of the
" Scorpion" was the dismissal by the Sultan of his Wazir, Muhammad-
bin-Sa'id, whom he^ad appointed in January 1897, and the reinstatement
of Muhammad-b^ Azzan. The latter, besides being illiterate, was now in
Ins dotage; bvc he was a more facile instrument in the hands of the French
party than Muhammad-bin-Sa'id, who in May 1898 had induced the
Sultan t j re-open discussion of the flag question with M. Ottavi, and who
was Mieved to have opposed the rapprochement with the French in all its
stages. French interests at Masqat were now actively promoted by an in-
dmdual m ho held a peculiar dual position as confidential secretary to the
Sultan and as dragoman of the French Vice-Consulate; this was 'Abdul
Aziz, an Aiab of the Bam Ruwahah tribe, who had been known to M.
Ottavi at Zanzibar and who with Hilal-bin-'Amr, a name with which we
T' 1 hereafter ' had been spelled from that island
in 1893 and who d^ 1 fTT'T ' Abdul ^ who first arriYed at Masqat
n 18 J3, and ho doubtless harboured resentment against the British author-
Sultan " /YT had been a salaried of the
™ 7 Smce + N0v r ber 1895 ; a nd in his capacity as such he
Ao-ent for I^tt i" Sultan ' s correspondence with the British
tXi Zl n Agency were sometimes in his
t f 7 n0t be ^ ^at the knowledge he thus obtained
0f 1118 ^ em ^ ^ " Vice-Consul.
ment in the ^ ^ ^ ^ occurred was an announce-
of
vv ai had established a coaling-station at
J m'
•jii
ie i