IOR/R/15/1/128, ff 63-65

Letter with two enclosures. Porter writes that Lt Balfour, Commanding Officer of the Euphrates, having demanded a boat from the Kenn [Kish] Island forces in lieu of the one captured from Bahrain, reports of further seizures by Faysal's people at Qais [Qeys] of Bahraini boats. Two enclosures are included with the letter (ff 64-65).

The first enclosure (f 64) is an extract of a letter from Lt Leeds, Commanding Officer of the Honourable Company's ship Constance, to Commodore Porter, Commanding Indian Naval Squadron, Persian Gulf, dated 7 July 1851. Leeds reports of his movements in the Gulf, and eventual anchorage off the coast of Sohar [Suhar], where two slave boys boarded the Constance on account of their master's ill-treatment. Leeds continues that the only way he could communicate with the two boys was with the help of a young man from Bushire being on board 'who spoke Hindustani badly and Arabic worse.' The second enclosure (f 64v-65) is an extract of a letter from Lt Balfour Commanding Office of the Honourable Company's ship Euphrates, to Commodore Porter, Commanding Indian Naval Squadron, Persian Gulf, dated 7 July 1851. Balfour reports from Kenn [Kish] Island that twenty-one boats under the charge of Sheikh Moobarack ben Ahmed [Mubarak bin Ahmad] are preparing to depart for Bahrain. Balfour reports of his departure for Sharjah, where he received intelligence from the native agent, including details of boats departing from Abo Thabee [Abu Dhabi] to Bidha [aAl Bidda].