text:  Even if the tact and _savoir faire_ which Captain Haines must be admitted to have displayed in an eminent degree in the execution of his instructions had succeeded in intimidating the Arabs into surrendering the place without resistance such a proceeding would have amounted to nothing more or less than the appropriation of the territory of a tribe not strong enough to defend themselves simply because it was situated conveniently for the purposes of our own navigation: and the open force by which the scheme was ultimately carried into effect imparts to this act of usurpation a character of violence still more to be regretted