IOR/G/29/33

The volume relates to affairs in Persia [Iran] and contains copies of letters, extracts and translations of letters, intelligence reports, and proceedings of Governor-General in Council meetings at Fort William, Calcutta [Kolkata], being enclosures to several despatches sent during the first half of 1808 (9 February, 31 March, 3 May, and 6 June) to the Secret Committee, in London, from the Secret Department of the Bengal Presidency, Fort William.

A list of the enclosures is included at the beginning of the volume (folios 3-4), including enclosure number, date written, summary of content, and a page reference (to the original pagination). This is followed (folios 5-10) by a separate ‘list of packets’ for the 9 February, 31 March, and 3 May despatches. Each is a list of the numbered enclosures that were included within each packet when sent. Not all items contained in these lists are present within the volume.

The papers deal with a range of matters, including:

• British fears of French ascendency in Persia, including a suspected plan to invade India from Persia
• The outbreak of war between Britain and Denmark, and the subsequent occupation of Danish colonies in India by Britain
• Affairs in Bagdad [Baghdad], including relations with the Pacha [Pasha]
• Appointment of Brigadier-General John Malcolm as Political Agent in Persia and his diplomatic mission to the Persian Court in 1808
• Events connected to the Napoleonic Wars including the evacuation of British forces from Alexandria in September 1807, the surrender of the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, and the Treaty of Tilsit, 1807, between France and Russia
• Internal affairs of Persia
• French plans for a trading settlement in the Persian Gulf
• British plans for stationing a naval force in the Gulf
• Relations between the British Resident at Muscat, Captain David Seton, and the Imaum [Imam Sayyid Sa‘īd bin Sulṭān Āl Bū Sa‘īd]
• Affairs in Afghanistan.

Correspondents include the following: Lord Minto [Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound], Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William; Neil Benjamin Edmonstone, Secretary to the Governor-General, Fort William; Nicholas Hankey Smith, Resident, Bushire [Būshehr]; Captain Court Schuyler, Resident, Goa; John Hine, Acting Resident, Bagdad; President and Council, Fort St George, Madras [Chennai]; Samuel Manesty, Resident, Bussora [Basra]; Jonathan Duncan, Governor of Bombay [Mumbai]; Raphael de Picciotto, Austrian Consul, Aleppo; John Barker, Consul of the Levant Company, Aleppo, writing from exile in Haussa [Harissa, Keserwan, Lebanon]; Captain Benjamin Hallowell, Commander of the Tigre and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty’s Sea Forces on the Coast of Egypt; Brigadier-General John Malcolm, Political Agent in Persia and Envoy to the Persian Court; and Jafer Ali Khan [Ja‘afar ‘Alī Khān], Agent at Sheraze [Shiraz].

Folios 196-201 comprise extracts, translated extracts, and summarised intelligence taken from intercepted letters to Monsieur Frezel, a French Engineer and Aide-de-Camp to General Gardanne [Claude Matthieu de Gardane], the French Envoy to the Court of Persia.