IOR/G/17/3

The volumes contain papers relating to the East India Company’s factory at Mocha.

The papers chiefly comprise letters, including: from the Mocha Factory to the Company’s Court of Directors; between the Mocha Factory and the Bombay Factory, to which it was subordinate; and between various of the Company’s agents at Mocha, Beetlefackee [Bayt al Faqih, various other spellings are also used], and on board EIC ships.

The papers also include accounts, primarily related to the Company’s purchases of coffee at Mocha and Beetlefackee or accounts of individual EIC ships, but also including accounts related to other goods, and to the transport of bullion.

Other documents include: invoices and receipts; lists of ships arriving at Mocha; manifests of private trade carried by EIC ships; papers relating to the hiring of privately owned ships for EIC voyages; and lists of gifts given to the Governor of Mocha and other officials.

Folios 471-474 contain two letters forwarding intelligence related to the French campaign in Egypt and Syria, including the French retreat from Acre and the British retreat from Suez.

The papers were sent by ship to the Court of Directors in London, and most of the papers are endorsed with the title of the document, the number of the document, the name of the ship it was received by, and the date it was received by the Court of Directors.