IOR/F/4/2416/130526

This item consists of copies of correspondence, minutes, and consultations cited in, or enclosed with, political letters from the Government of Bombay. These political letters appear in IOR/F/4/2416/130506. It is the twenty-first in a series of twenty-eight items on the Persian Gulf.

The correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Hennell, Resident in the Persian Gulf; Moullah Houssein, Agent at Shargah [Sharjah]; Commodore John Patterson Porter, Commanding Indian Naval Squadron, Persian Gulf; Lieutenant James Tronson, commanding HC brig Euphrates; and Commander Archibald Macdonald, commanding HC steam frigate Auckland.

The item concerns an attack carried out by a party of the Beniyas [Banī Yās] tribe against two boats from Himreyah [Al Hamriyah, also rendered as Himreya in the item], which were anchored along the coast between Aboothabee [Abu Dhabi] and Debaye [Dubai, also rendered as Debai in the item]. Hennell demands reparation from Sheik Saeed ben Tahnoon [Shaikh Sa‘īd bin Ṭaḥnūn Āl Nahyān], ‘Chief’ of Aboothabee [also referred to as the ‘Beniyas Chief’], and sends the vessels Tigris, Euphrates, and Auckland to Aboothabee to enforce this.

Other topics discussed in this item include:

• Further attacks on vessels carried out by subjects of the rulers of Aboothabee and Debaye
• The activities of Sheik Saeed ben Tahnoon at Brymee [Al Buraymi]
• The seizure, by some subjects of the Sheik of Debai, of a letter and presents sent by Hennell to Sheik Saeed ben Tahnoon
• The acts of ‘piracy’ committed by Soheil ben Ateish [Suhayl bin ‘Uṭaysh, also referred to as Sahib bin Hatish and Sahib bin Atish in the item].

The item contains a table of contents (f 635), and the title page (f 634) contains the following references: ‘Dft. No. 424 of 1851’, Collection No. 1, Vol. 21’, and ‘Examiner’s Office’.