IOR/F/4/2536/147467

The item consists of copies and extracts of correspondence and minutes cited in, or enclosed with, a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, dated 28 November 1853, and found at IOR/F/4/2536/147461. It is the seventh in a series of seven items about the 'slave trade' [trade in enslaved people].

The item relates to two recent seizures of vessels carrying enslaved people, one near Ras-el-Hadd [Ra’s al Hadd] and one near Bassadore [Basaʻidu], as reported to the Government of Bombay by Captain Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Resident in the Persian Gulf.

The first seizure involves ships, the Saad [also rendered as Saiad and Said] and the Futh ul Mubaruck [Fatḥ al-Mubārak], bearing the Imaum [Imām] of Muscat's flag. The item contains:

• Letters from Lieutenant Stradling, Commander of the Company ship, Constance, to Commodore George Robinson, Commanding the Persian Gulf Squadron, providing details of: the capture of the vessels; the enslaved people onboard; and the subsequent transfer of the vessels and people involved to Muscat
• Statements and depositions by the nakhodas [nakhudas] of the vessels and crewmembers of the Constance
• Accompanying letters from Khwaja Hiskael [Khawājah Ḥizqīl bin Yūsuf], British Agent at Muscat, reporting actions taken at Muscat following the vessels' arrival
• Letter from Captain Sir Henry John Leeke, Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Navy, to the Governor of Bombay, enclosing reports from Robinson and receipts from Khwaja Hiskael
• Minutes by the Governor of Bombay with instructions, based on the relevant Act of Parliament 5 September 1848, on what to do with the vessels and the nakhodas.

The second seizure involves a Persian [Iranian] vessel, the Furras [Faras [?], also rendered in text as Turras], owned by merchants from Hyderabad and seized by Lieutenant James Tronson, Commanding the Company ship Tigris. The item contains:

• Letters from Tronson to Robinson, providing details of: the capture of the vessels; the owners of the vessel; and enslaved people onboard
• Tronson's request for 'head money' [money paid per enslaved person as a reward for taking them from enslavers]
• Letter from Kemball to William Taylor Thomson, HM Chargé d'Affaires at the Court of Persia, reporting on this incident
• Minute by the Governor of Bombay discussing the 'head money' conventions in the numerous treaties Britain has with the Imaum of Muscat, with Persia, and with the 'Arab chiefs' of the Persian Gulf.

The item also contains the Government of Bombay's instructions for forwarding on the above papers to Leeke, the Government of India, and the Secret Committee [mostly likely the Court of Directors Secret Committee].

The item contains multiple spellings of multiple personal names and place names.

The title page of the item contains the following references: 'Bombay Political Department', Draft Number '161 1854', 'Collection', 'Vol: 7', and 'Examiner's Office'. Originally, the Collection was described as 'No. 2 of No. 108 of 1853' but this has been crossed out.