IOR/F/4/416/10289

The item consists of copies and extracts of correspondence, minutes and resolutions cited in, or enclosed with, letters from the Government of Bombay. The item relates to the 'unfriendly conduct' towards the East India Company by the Sheriffe [Sharif] of Mecca. In particular, the item is concerned with:

• Two separate incidents at Judda [Jeddah] during which 27 pieces of broad cloth which belonged to the Company were taken from the brig Fattah Mobaruk and customs duties were charged to John Benzoni, Assistant to the British Agent in the Persian Gulph [Gulf], on goods which he left at Judda and later collected
• The Government of Bombay's attempts to ascertain the standard customs duties exacted on goods at Judda and whether the Sheriffe has deviated from these regular rates
• Accounts and reports provided by Benzoni, the Sheriffe of Mecca, the Nakhoda [Captain] of the brig Fattah Mobaruk and J [Humruss], a man who has knowledge of the customs duties at Judda and is called upon by the Customs Master at Surat to provide information on this topic
• The conflicting reports of Benzoni and the Sheriffe
• The possible punishments that the Government of Bombay could apply to the Sheriffe as a consequence of his conduct.

Benzoni's correspondence also refers briefly to a draft Treaty relating to trade that he has concluded with the Pasha of Egypt.

Correspondents: Government of Bombay; Captain Henry Rudland, Agent in the Gulph of Arabia; Francis Warden, Chief Secretary to Government of Bombay; Richard Thomas Goodwin, Secretary and Translator in the Office of the Country Correspondence; Nathan Crowe, Chief at Surat; George Cumming Osborne, Secretary to Government of Bombay; John Benzoni, Assistant to the British Agent in the Persian Gulph; D C Ramsay, Custom Master at Surat; James Farish, Deputy Secretary to Government of Bombay; J [Humruss], Merchant(?); Sheriffe Ghalib of Mecca [Ghālib ibn Musā’id al-Hāshimi, Sharīf of Mecca]; Jonathan Duncan, Governor of Bombay.

Rudland is alternatively referred to within the item as the Political Agent at Mocha and the British Agent in the Persian Gulph.

The title page of the item contains the following references: 'Political No. 21, Season 1814/15, Draft 20' and 'Examiner's Office November 1812'.