"مذكرة بشأن مسودّات البرقيات المتعلقة بشؤون مسقط وزنزبار" [و‎‎٣‎١] (٢٤/١١)

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<iTiiple forces liy land to repel the Wahabee aggres
sion. This Colonel Felly could not do unless he
kept close to the Sultan. He did stay close to him,
and did rouse him, and would have made him do
for himself all that was needed had not his parricide
soon cut him off, by a crime which no one could
foresee, and which was so improbable in itself that
the poor Sultan, when warned by a faithful slave,
refused to believe it possible.
“ Colonel Felly is, I believe, the first Resident
who ever stirred from Bushire except on a holiday
trip. He has done his best by personal activity and
exertion to make up for the want of a more
numerous Agency, and has almost literally carried
his life in bis hand, in visiting, not only all the
shores of the Gulf, but in his most perilous journey
to Riadh, and this year in his trip through Oman.
“ His predecessors had always at their beck and
call a squadron, never less than two, and usually
three or four, well armed ships of war of the Indian
Navy, generally one of them a steamer, with their
head quarters at Bassadore, in the Gulf. If any
thing was to be done, and hardly a year passed
without a brush or demonstration of some kind, one
or two of these vessels were sent, and the show of
force was usually sufficient to overawe opposition.
“ Colonel Felly has nothing of the kind. He has
one small worn out steamer, which he dare not arm
lest he should give her an unequivocal character as
a pirate, and on which, owing to legal difficulties
long since laid before the Government of India with
our prayer for relief by legislation, he can neither
hoist a pennant as man-of-war, nor enforce disci
pline under the Merchant Seaman’s Act. He has
no authority over any man-of-war which may chance
to come up ; he must catch one, as he can, and can
only advise, request, and suggest.
“ The position is a most difficult one, and I am
quite certain the present system cannot last. If any
man could have worked it, I believe Felly would,
for he is on the best of terms with the navy, and his
personal character and manner prevent the Chiefs,
as far as it is possible to prevent them, from noticing
the absence of the force in ships and men of the
Indian Navy, which were always ready to back his
predecessors, and of which former Residents gene
rally made a rather ostentatious display.
“ In sending his Native Agent with the “ High
flyer,” Colonel Felly did the utmost he could, and
that at great personal inconvenience and conside
rable risk to himself. He advised Captain Fasley .
to go vid Bahrein, where he would have got any
pilots and information he could require, and had he
done this, and reconnoitered with ordinary caution,
he would either not have attacked the port at all, or
ensured its capture and destruction with little risk
of loss.
“ Do I then blame Captain Pasley and his officers
for their rashness ? I should be very sorry to do
anything ot the kind. No doubt the thing might
have been better and more prudently managed, 0 so