IOR/R/15/1/32

This volume consists of contemporaneous copies of outward letters from the Bushire Residency. Most of the letters are written by the Resident in the Persian Gulf, Ephraim Gerrish Stannus. A small number of letters are written by the Assistant Surgeon at Bushire, James Pringle Riach, who was temporarily in charge of the Residency during Stannus's absence. Most of the letters are addressed to East India Company officials at Bombay, of which the most prominent recipients are the following: William Newnham, Chief Secretary to Government, Bombay; John Wedderburn, Accountant General, Bombay; and Mountstuart Elphinstone, President and Governor in Council, Bombay. Many of the letters to William Newnham contain copies of the Resident's correspondence with a number of local rulers, including: Sulṭān bin Saqr Āl Qāsimī, ruler of Sharjah and Ra's al-Khaymah; Shaikh ‘Abd al-Rasūl Khān, Governor of Bushire; His Royal Highness Ḥusayn ‘Alī Mīrzā, Prince of Shiraz; and the Imam of Muscat, Sa‘īd bin Sulṭān Āl Sa‘īd. Other recipients include a number of commanders of East India Company ships as well as Henry Willock, His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires at the Court of Persia, and his brother, George Willock, Secretary in Charge of the British Mission, Tabrīz. The letters in this volume cover a range of topics, including the following: the accounts and expenses of the Bushire Residency; trade, both at Bushire and at other Persian ports; relations between Rahma bin Jabir and the ruler of Bahrain; the estate of the former Governor of Bushire, Muhammad Nabi Khan; a dispute between Tahnun bin Shakhbut, Shaikh of Abu Dhabi, and his brother, Muhammad bin Shakhbut Al Nahayan, former Shaikh of Abu Dhabi; speculations on the intentions of Sulṭān bin Saqr Āl Qāsimī; the Resident's concerns about the reduced scale of the marine establishment; the costs involved in carrying out alterations and repairs on the Residency building; updates from Stannus regarding an act of piracy, which is reported to have been committed to the south of Muscat by two boats from Sharjah.