IOR/F/4/479/11531

This item consists mostly of copies of correspondence cited in, or enclosed with, letters to and from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai]. The primary subjects are:

• Reports of the appearance of a lone European in Abyssinia [the Ethiopian Empire] who is travelling in the direction of the Red Sea, and the suggestion that he could be Mungo Park, the missing explorer
• The reports collected by Captain Henry Rudland, Resident at Mocha (also called Agent for the British Government in the Gulph [Gulf] of Arabia in the item), regarding the sightings of this European and of his whereabouts, including information provided by the explorer Nathaniel Pearce
• The efforts of Rudland to provide assistance to the European, including requests to Ras Welleta Sellasie [Ras Wolde Selassie], Governor of Tigre [Tigray] and to Currumchund, a merchant at Massowah [Massawa] to provide assistance should they encounter him
• Efforts to ascertain the veracity of reports regarding the European in Abyssinia and to secure his release should he be detained, and the scepticism of Theodore Forbes, Agent at Mocha (also called Agent in the Gulph of Arabia in the item), regarding the reports.

The primary correspondents are: Captain Henry Rudland; Nathaniel Pearce; and Theodore Forbes.

The title page (f 95) of the item contains the following references: ‘Bombay Political No. 5, Season 1815/16, Draft 315’; and ‘Examiner’s Office, August 1815’.