MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



463 



We might indeed thus separate 

 tlie Joassmee tribe from the 

 Wahabee, for we had already, in 

 a formal treaty, recognized them 

 as an independent power ; though 

 perhaps for all other purposes, they 

 might be considered as identified. 

 The strength, however, of the 

 Joassmees alone was very consider- 

 able. The ports in their possession 

 contained, according to a well- 

 authenticated calculation, in the 

 middle of the year 1809, 63 large 

 vessels, and 810 of smaller sizes ; 

 together manned by near 19,000 

 men. This force was increasing ; 

 the pirates, in a fleet of 55 ships, 

 of various sizes, containing alto- 

 gether 5,000 men, had, after a 

 tight of two days, taken the Mi- 

 nerva, and murdered almost all 

 the crew : in the next month a 

 fleet of 70 sail of vessels (navi- 

 gated severally by numbers rising 

 from 80 to 150 and 200 men) 

 were cruizing about the Gulph and 

 threatenir.g Bushire : and the chief 

 of Rag al Khyma, whose harbour 

 •was almost the exclusive resort of 

 the larger vessels, had dared to 

 demand a tribute from the British 

 government, that their ships might 

 navigate the Persian Gulph in 

 safety. Our forbearance was now 

 exhausted, and an expedition was 

 sent from Bombay, under Captain 

 Wainwright, and Lieut.-Colonel 

 Smith, of his Majesty's sea and 

 land forces, to attack the pirates 

 in their ports. The first object 

 was Ras al Khyma. The arma- 

 ment, after a short siege, carried 

 the place bj' storm, destroyed all 

 the naval equipments, and sparing 

 the smaller vessels, burnt the 50 

 large ships which the harbour con- 

 tained. They proceeded to the 

 ' -ports of the Arab pirates on the 



Persian coast, and completed the 

 destruction of all their means of 

 annoyance. They then attacked 

 Shinass, one of their harbours on 

 the Indian ocean. The defence of 

 this place was most heroical ; and 

 was conducted indeed for the 

 Joassmees, as was subsequently 

 learnt, by a favourite and confi- 

 dential general of Saood Ibn 

 Abdool Uzzeer, the chief of the 

 Wahabee. When on the third 

 day of the siege, the few survivors 

 were called upon to surrender, they 

 replied, that they preferred death 

 to submission ; and when the towers 

 were falling round them, they re- 

 turned upon their assailants the 

 hand-grenades and fire-balls before 

 they could burst. Twice Lieut.- 

 Colonel Smith ceased firing, to 

 endeavour to spare the unavailing 

 effusion of their blood ; till at 

 length, when they were assured of 

 being protected from the fury of 

 the troops of our ally the Imaun of 

 Muscat, which had co-operated 

 with us, they surrendered to the 

 English. 



The expedition then scoured all 

 the coast a second time, to destroy 

 any fragments of that pirate power, 

 against which it was directed ; 

 and extirpated in every quarter all 

 the means of annoyance which the 

 Joassmees possessed. There was 

 indeed another force of another 

 tribe, which might eventually 

 grow up into a formidable enemy ; 

 but this was distinctly under the 

 protection of the Wahabee, who 

 had invested its thief with the title 

 of Sheik al Behr, or " Lord of 

 the Sea;" and till it marked its 

 hostility to us by joining in the 

 attacks upon our commerce, it was 

 judged expedient not to confound 

 it in one mdiscriminate warfare ; 



but 



