IOR/F/4/2235/112011

This item consists of copies of political and secret letters from the Government of Bombay to the Court of Directors of the East India Company. The enclosures to these letters are contained in the subsequent items. It is the first in a series of five items on the Persian Gulf.

The item concerns the agreements made by the British Government with the Imaum [Imam] of Muscat on 2 October 1845, and with the rulers of Ras-el-Khyma and Shargah [Ra’s al-Khaymah and Sharjah], Debaye [Dubai], Ejman [Ajman], Aboothabee [Abu Dhabi], Amulgaveen [Umm al-Qaywayn], and Bahrein [Bahrain] in April and May 1847, for the suppression of the ‘slave trade’ [trade in enslaved people]. It includes:

• The seizure on 13 September 1847 of five vessels belonging to subjects of the Imaum of Muscat carrying fifty-nine enslaved people
• The need for an amendment to provide the Government of Bombay with the power to adjudicate on the vessels which have been seized under the terms of the agreements
• The positions of Persia [Iran], the Ottoman Empire, and Koweit [Kuwait] in relation to the ‘slave trade’ in the Gulf.

The item also contains:

• Marine letters containing an extract from ‘An Account of an Overland Journey from Leskaira [Al Ashkharah] to Meskat [Muscat] and the Green Mountains of Oman’, by C S D Cole
• Two letters from the Commissioners for the Affairs of India [Board of Control] to the Court of Directors. Included with these are copies of letters from Edward John Stanley, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and William Rothery, an advisor to the Admiralty, concerning the preparation of bills, to be submitted to the British Parliament, authorising Vice Admiralty Courts to deal with vessels captured under the above agreements, and suggesting that such powers also be granted to a tribunal at Bombay [Mumbai].

The item contains a table of contents (f 124), and the title page (f 123) contains the following references: ‘Bombay Political Department’, ‘Draft N. 294/48’, ‘Collection Vol: 1’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’.