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793
order to anticipate the designs o£ Saiyid Sa'id o£ Masqat in that
quarter, Rahmah erossod the Gulf to Bushehr and placed h.mself with
three vessels at the disposal of the Persians. On the lOth of February
he sailed from Bushehr for Tahiri to join the Prince Governor A Prince of the Royal line who also acted as Governor of a large Iranian province during the Qājār period (1794-1925). ; but on
the way his largest Baghlah Large trading vessel. was wrecked upon a shoal near Bardistan,
Bahmah and his companions barely escaping with their lives,-an accident
which seems to have put an end to the enterprise in so far as he was con
cerned During these proceedings an order for the destruction of B ahmah s
vessels had been issued by General Sir W. Grant Keir, the commander of
the British expedition ; but, as Balmah was found to be at the time
in the employment of the Shiraz Government, it was decided to postpone
action. On" the 13th of April 1820 Rahmah was again at Bushehr,
where he was invited by the Besidmt to become a party to the
General Treaty of Peace. He declinel, pleading that he was now
a servant of the Governor -General of Shiraz ; and this excuse, on its
being corroborated by the Shaikh of Bushehr, who also undertook to be
answerable for Bahmah 's future conduct, was accepted as sufficient by t e
British autliorities.
British Kelations, 1821-23.
In 1821 in consequence of piracies committed by the inhabitants, PaniAment
the town of Bida' (now Dohah) was destroyed by the East India Com- 18al _
pany's crniser " Vestal," and three or four hundred of the people
migrated temporarily to the islands between Qatir and the Pirate Coast.
T n January 1*23, in the course of his voyage of discovery along the Vi.il o£ the
in jaiuidij , v. . ,1 i • j r p rp-.,.,-,- 1 Resident to
Arabian coast which is more fully desenbed* in the histoiy of liucia Qatarj 18 23.
'Oman, Lieutenant McLeod, the Resident in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , paid a
visit to Dohah (then Bida') on the eastern side of Qatar; he found the
place which was admittedly a dependency of Bahrain and therefore subject
to the provisions of the General'.i'reaty of Peace of 1820, under the ad
ministration of a Shaikh of the Al Bu ftinain. Dobah was at this time
the onlv port in Qatar which possessed any trading vessels; but the require
ments of the Treaty in regard to flags and the registry of vessels were not
observed by the inhabitants, who appeared to be ignorant of its terms.
Lieutenant McLeod, however, obtained a list of the shipping; and, on
his arrival in Bahrain a few days later, he made representations to the
Shaikh which, it was thought, would secure a proper observance of tbe^
* Vide page 677 ante.