330 



POLITICAL TROUBLES. 



not being open for provisions and water, the in- 

 vaders, even if left to themselves, were safe to 

 succumb by dribblets. Yet not the less were the 

 Baloch stations drained of mercenaries, whilst 

 7000 muskets, with an amount of ammunition 

 which made the city dangerous, Avere distributed 

 to the slaves and other ruffians. Daus ran down 

 from Iladramaut crowded with armed adven- 

 turers, all in the market to fight for the best 

 pay. Sayyids Jamshid and Hamdan, two of the 

 young princes, had died of small-pox, which 

 killed the rich as cholera carried off the poor. 

 Sayyid Barghash, another brother of the Prince 

 regnant, and now his successor, becoming Yaghi 

 (rebellious), made a demonstration at the Palace 

 gate with a herd of black musketeers : the Suri 

 Arabs, however, armed themselves, and the serv- 

 iles fled into the sea, throwing away weapons and 

 ammunition. Sayyid Sulayman was on the 

 square, but the turbulent llarisi chiefs held a 

 review of 2000 black musketeers, and 200 ' light 

 bobs' carrying bows and arrows: they maintained 

 an attitude of armed neutrality which threatened 

 mischief to the weaker of the rival brothers. 

 Trade was paralyzed, the foreign merchants lost 

 severely, not less than 80 native craft from Bom- 

 bay and the North were still expected at the end 



