IOR/R/15/1/138, ff 77-84

The letter relates to an act of piracy (the stealing of slaves) against a Zanzibar vessel committed by the subjects of Sheikh Sultan ben Suggar [Sultan bin Saqr] in early 1852, and the reasons for the delay in British officials' response to the incident.

There is an enclosure with the letter, a copy of letter no.52 of 1853 from Kemball, to Major Atkins Hamerton, Her Majesty's Consul and the Honourable Company's Agent in the dominions of His Highness the Imam of Muscat, dated 4 February 1853. The letter concerns the determination of the amount of liability due to Sheikh Sultan bein Saqr for the act of piracy, and discrepancies emerging from details of the incident. Kemball's letter to Hamerton contains two enclosures:

1. A translation of an enclosure in a letter (folios 81-82) from Khojeh Hiskael, British Agent at Muscat, to Kemball, dated 19 September 1852. The enclosure is a detailed account from eyewitnesses of the piracy incident, and of the losses incurred;

2. A translated extract of a letter (folio 83) from Hiskael to Kemball, dated 3 September 1852. Hiskael reports of his interview with the Imam of Muscat on the incident of piracy, and encloses a translation of a copy of a letter (folio 84) he has intercepted, sent from His Highness the Imam of Muscat, to Hajee Yacoob, British Agent at Sharjah (undated). In his letter the Imam suggests that the incident of slaves being stolen from a boat on the African coast is not an isolated incident, but a regular occurrence.