SAYYID SAID. 



297 



compelled to make Zanzibar, and eventually 

 Maskat. The retreat was in consequence of the 

 troubles excited by Sarid bin Ali bin Sayf, the 

 nephew of Sayyid Bedr, supported by the sister 

 of Sayyid Hilal, chief of Suwayk, who had been 

 treacherously imprisoned. He was enabled, by 

 the aid of Isa bin Tarif and his dependents, to 

 invest, with a squadron carrying a force of 4000 

 to 5000 men, about the end of December, 1829, 

 Mombasah Fort, from which his garrison had 

 been repulsed. The Mazru'is, numbering a total 

 of some 1500, gallantly held their ground : the 

 Sayyid' s soldiers, suffering severely from fever, 

 refused to fight : briefly two campaigns had little 

 effect upon the besieged, and the Sayyid was 

 obliged to accept the semblance of submission, in 

 order to return triumphant to Zanzibar. After 

 visiting Maskat, and putting down Hamud bin 

 Azran, who had taken Rustak, and was threaten- 

 ing the capital, he broke the treaty with Momba- 

 sah, and blockaded it throughout the N. East mon- 

 soon from November, 1831, to April, 1832. During 

 the next year he attacked the place for the third 

 time ; but, after a week's campaign, he returned 

 once more with Oriental triumph to Zanzibar in 

 February, 1833. Then treachery was called in 

 to do the perfect work. Eashid bin Salim bin 



