RESIDENCE OF THE MISSION AT BUS HIRE. 
43 
had prepared for him, as our acting Agent at Shiraz, a rich dress of 
honour, which, however, he had found means to decline from a fear of 
the jealousy which it might have excited against him. But the Prince, 
resolved on bestowing upon him some distinguishing mark of his favour, 
had given him a shawl, which belonged to one of his own head-dresses, 
and a young and promising Arab horse,which had been sent as a present 
to himself by the Governor of Chabi. So well indeed had Jaffer Ali 
deserved the confidence of both the negociating parties, that Sir Har¬ 
ford Jones, now at the close of these preliminary arrangements, sent 
him a patent constituting him the Agent for the British affairs at the 
Court of Shiraz. 
It will be recollected that the Nereide, the Sapphire, and the Sylph , 
sailed with the mission from Bombay on the 12th of September. The 
Nereide arrived first; the Sapphire also reached Bushire about sun-set 
on the 18th October. The Arab ships too, that we passed off Cape 
Verdistan , had come in about noon on the same day, and had continued 
firing their guns at distant intervals till the evening: but the Sylph , on 
board which were the Persian Secretary and some of the presents, was 
yet missing; nor indeed had we seen her, since the second day after that 
on which we had left together the harbour of Bombay. On the 29th 
Oct. arrived the Nautilus , H. C. cruizer, which had sailed from the same 
port on the 22d Sept. Though she had neither seen or heard directly 
any thing of the Sylph, yet the circumstances of her own passage pre¬ 
pared us to anticipate the worst. The Nautilus had been attacked off 
the large Tomb, in the Gulph of Persia, by the Joasmee pirates; three 
only were at first in sight, but on the signal of a gun, a fourth appeared, 
and together they bore down, two on the quarters and two on the bows 
of the Nautilus ; they were full of men, perhaps six hundred in the 
four vessels, all armed with swords and spears, and, as they shouted 
their religious invocations, they shook their weapons at the ship. When 
the engagement became closer, they maintained a fire of twenty-five 
minutes, and one of their shot killed the boatswain of the Nautilus . 
Of these pirates an interesting account was published in India by Mr. 
g 2 
