GOVERNMENT OF ARABIA. 175 



When about 4000 shot and shells had been dis- 

 charged, a breach was reported to be practicable, 

 and the castle was accordingly stormed. The re- 

 sistance made in the town was still desperate, the 

 Arabs fighting as long as they could wield the sword ; 

 and even thrusting their spears up through the 

 smoking fragments of towers and houses, in whose 

 ruins they remained irrecoverably buried. Their 

 loss in killed and wounded was computed at up- 

 wards of 1000 men. The expedition having now 

 swept round the bottom of the Gulf, and believing 

 their object was accomplished, returned to India. 

 But the sequel proved that their task was far from 

 being completed. In a few years the piracies were 

 renewed, accompanied with the usual atrocities, and 

 extended as far as the entrance of the Red Sea. 



A second expedition was fitted out, which sailed 

 from Bombay in November 1819. Ras el Khyma 

 and the fort of Zyah were again reduced, the 

 Arabs during these operations displaying a cour- 

 age and pertinacity that excited the astonishment 

 of the troops opposed to them. To bind them 

 more strictly, and to try the effect of moral influ- 

 ence, a treaty was concluded, which guaranteed the 

 cessation of plunder and piracy by sea and land. 

 Matters being so far adjusted, the squadron re- 

 turned to Bombay, leaving a force of 1200 native 

 troops and artillery at Ras el Khyma, the occupa- 

 tion of which was merely intended as a temporary 

 measure. The services of this detachment were 

 soon rendered necessary against a tribe of Arabs 

 called the Beni bu Ali, occasioned chiefly by the 

 complaints of the Imam of Muscat. The settlement 

 of this fierce tribe lay near Cape Ras el Hud, but 



