IOR/F/4/746/20306

This item consists of copies of correspondence, consultations, minutes, and resolutions cited in, or enclosed with, political letters from the Government of Bombay. The principal correspondents are the Government of Bombay; the Governor of Mauritius, Robert Farquhar; Captain Fairfax Moresby of HMS Menai.

The item concerns the abolition of the slave trade and particularly the negotiations, treaties, and agreements about the slave trade with the following: Radama, the King of Madagascar; the Haukim [Hakim] of Zanzibar, Sueed Ukburee [Sa’īd Akbari]; the Imaum [Imam] of Muscat and Oman [Sayyid Sa‘īd bin Sulṭān Āl Bū Sa‘īd]; the Governor of Bourbon [Réunion], Pierre Bernard Milius.

The item describes the treaty Farquhar concluded with Radama, the King of Madagascar, who signed it on 11 October 1820, agreeing to prohibit the sale and exportation of slaves from Madagascar, and stop the attacks on the King of Johanna [Anjouan].

There is a discussion of the legal issues of the French and British capturing each other’s ships with slaves on board, including the British captures of LeSucces and L’Eleanore, and the French captures of Espoir and Favorite, with a discussion of the Amedie case from 1810. The possibility of the French forming depots at Providence and St Marie, Madagascar is also mentioned, as is the accidental seizure of two of the Imaum’s ships by the Psyche.

The main focus of the item is the treaty Moresby negotiated with the Imaum of Muscat in 1822, whereby the Imaum agreed that no slave should be sold to Christians from his territory, including Zanzibar, and that vessels carrying the Imam’s flag might be seized if they were carrying slaves east of the Moresby line (the line from Cape Delgado to Diu). The British were allowed to establish agents in the Imaum’s territory to enforce the treaty.

The item includes a contents page, and the title page of the item contains the following references: ‘Political No. 12, Draft 496, P.C. 154, [Season] 1823/4’ and ‘Examiner’s Office 1823’.