XIU 



When the main body of the expedition returned to Bombay, he was 

 left in charge of lias al Khyma with 1 100 men, Sepoys with a detachment 

 of European artillery, and was eventually ordered to demolish the town, 

 and withdraw the troops to the island of Kishme on the Persian coast. 

 A misunderstanding having arisen between the Bombay Government and 

 the Arabs of Al Ashkerch on the coast of Oman, who had plundered certain 

 boats, the former sent an order to Captain Thompson to act against them from 

 Kishme in the event of their clearly appearing to be piratical, but to address 

 a letter to them previously to any attack being made. This attempt at nego- 

 tiation failing through the murder by the hostile tribe of the messenger 

 bearing the letter, the injunction to communicate appeared to be fulfilled 

 and answered. Few will see any alternative but to execute the orders to 

 act ; and military men will comprehend the duty of acting with decision 

 under the circumstances which had arisen. Landing at Soor, on the 

 Arabian coast, forty-six English miles from the town of the hostile tribe 

 of Beni Bou Ali, Captain Thompson's small force of 320 Sepoys and four 

 guns was joined by the Imam of Maskat with 2000 men of his own. The 

 force of the enemy was reported to be 900 bearing arms. On the 9th 

 November, 1820, as the column was toiling through the sand, the hostile 

 sheik, Mohammed Ben Ali, advanced to the attack, sword in hand. What 

 followed is best described in Captain Thompson's own words, written in a 

 private letter the next day : — " The Arabs made the guns the point of 

 attack, and advanced upon them. The instant I heard a shot from the 

 light troops, which showed the Arabs to be in motion, I ordered the 

 Sepoys to charge with the bayonet. Not a man moved forward. I then 

 ordered them to fire. They began a straggling and ineffectual fire, aided 

 by the artillery, the Arabs all the while advancing, brandishing their 

 swords. The Sepoys stood till the Arabs were within fifteen yards, when 

 they turned and ran. I immediately galloped to the point where the 

 Sepoys were least confused, and endeavoured to make them stand ; but 

 they fired their musquets in the air and went off. The Imam's army began 

 a fire of matchlocks, and went off as soon as the Arabs approached. I 

 rode to the Imam and found him wounded. The people just ran like 

 sheep. I saw some of the European artillerymen, and ran to endeavour to 

 make them stand ; but they were too few to do anything." 



In the midst of the melee the writer was struck on the shoulder by a 

 matchlock ball, which passed through coat and shirt, grazing the skin, as 

 he used to say, " like the cut of a whip." The loss of the force in men 

 and guns was most severe, "as must always be the case," he observes, 

 "when troops wait to be attacked with the sword and then give way." 

 The remnants were at length rallied at the town of Beni Bou Hassan, 

 about three miles from the scene of action, and after repulsing a night 

 attack, were led back overland to Maskat by Captain Thompson in person, 

 eight days after the fight. 



Another expedition was quickly sent from Bombay. The town was 



