IOR/L/PS/5/375, ff 3-104

This item comprises copy correspondence, minutes and resolutions of the Bombay [Mumbai] Council, and other documents relating to arrangements for the civil government and administration, and strengthening of the military fortifications, of Aden by the British following their capture of the port city in January 1839.

The papers notably cover:

• Restoration of captured property to local rulers
• The Political Agent’s relations with local rulers, particularly: conciliatory meetings and solicitations for peace among all parties; remuneration for property destroyed during the British attack; postponement of a decision concerning whether the British should henceforth pay the stipends, or allowances, previously paid by now subjugated local rulers; divisions between ‘chiefs’; and control of ‘marauders’
• Plans for troop reinforcements and strengthening the town fortifications to prevent attacks by indigenous Arab inhabitants and by other European nations, by land or sea
• The Political Agent’s policy of encouraging trade and commerce, population increase and house building by merchants
• Minor anti-British infractions and more serious incidences including the murder of a British soldier
• Improvement of the water supply to accommodate military cantonment and population increase
• Aden Agent’s policy of avoiding British involvement in quarrels between sub-divisions of local tribes
• Arrangements for import of skilled workers to help with building fortifications, cantonments, hospitals and roads
• Requests for finance from the government at Bombay
• The temporary illness of the Political Agent between March and April 1839
• The Political Agent’s concern that sufficient space be incorporated in fortification plans to allow for economic expansion of the town
• Arrangements for customs levies and protests against them by local merchants
• Administrative appointments.

The item also includes a ‘Census of the Population of Aden taken between the 15th and 22nd February 1839’, under the categories of Bauians [Abyans] and Arab, Jewish, and Somalie [Somali, also spelled Soomalee in this item] populations (ff 15-17); letters of approach to the Governor-General of India from various sultans and merchants of Aden, received 11-12 April 1839 (ff 63-67); tables of the numbers of houses to be levelled to make way for the cantonments, with their values (ff 70-71); daily register of depth of water in the wells in Aden during March 1839 (f 72); report by Captain Robert Foster, Engineers, to Lieutenant-Colonel Edward M Wood, Military Secretary to the Government, Bombay, on current and required defences and general survey of Aden town and the whole Aden peninsular including the Turkish Wall (ff 76-93), accompanied by five plans and sketches (catalogued as sub-items IOR/L/PS/5/375, f 100; IOR/L/PS/5/375, f 101; IOR/L/PS/5/375, f 102; IOR/L/PS/5/375, f 103; and IOR/L/PS/5/375, f 104).

The correspondence is chiefly between John Pollard Willoughby, Secretary to the Government, Bombay, and Commander Stafford Bettesworth Haines, Political Agent, Aden (also referred to as Captain in this volume).

Other correspondents include: Captain Robert Foster, Engineers; Captain William Denton, Commander Indian Navy and Senior Officer in Aden Harbour; Henry Smith, Captain and Senior Officer, HMS Volage; Major Baillie, Commanding the Forces at Aden (also referred to as Acting Political Agent and Officiating Political Agent, Sind [Sindh]); William Sprott Boyd, Acting Secretary to the Government; and John P Malcolmson, Acting Civil Surgeon, Aden.