IOR/F/4/2580/153767

This item consists of copies of correspondence, minutes, resolutions, and consultations cited in, or enclosed with, an extract of a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, 20 July 1854. The enclosures are dated 28 February 1853-July 1854. It is the third in a series of twelve items about the ‘slave trade’ [trade in enslaved people].

The main correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; Captain Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Resident in the Persian Gulf; Arthur King Corfield, Senior Magistrate of Police, Bombay; and William Taylour Thomson, HM Chargé d’Affaires at Tehran.

The item concerns the case of thirty-six enslaved people brought to Lingah [Bandar-e Lengeh], who were rescued by the intervention of Sheikh Saeed ben Guzeeb, Chief of Lingah [Shaikh Sa‘īd bin Qāzib, Ruler of Lingah], and of the British Agent at Lingah. It includes:

• The arrangements for the conveying of the enslaved people from Lingah to Bombay [Mumbai], including the temporary accommodation of some at the British naval depot at Bassadore [Basaʻidu]. It includes a list of twenty-three who arrived in Bombay on the Company’s ship Euphrates (f 660)
• The further rescue of two enslaved people at Bushire [Bushehr] and two at Kishm [Qeshm], and the conveying of them to Bombay along with those rescued from Lingah
• The provision of clothing and other supplies for the enslaved people, including two contingent bills for expenses (f 687 and f 696)
• The arrangements made for the accommodation and support of the enslaved people, including the placement of twenty at the ‘African Asylum’ established by Reverend George Candy. It includes a list of twenty-two of the enslaved people with details of the people taking responsibility for their support (f 682)
• The fines to be imposed on the Persian subjects responsible for bringing the enslaved people into Lingah
• The suggestion that Meerza Mahmood Khan [Mīrzā Maḥmūd Khān] Persian Commissioner for the Suppression of the Slave Trade, be given a gratuity in appreciation of his work.

The item also discusses the transmission of 60,000 Rupees from the Residency at Bushire to the Political Agency in Turkish Arabia, at Baghdad.

The item contains a table of contents (ff 646-649), and the title page (f 645) contains the following references: Draft Number ‘1045/54’, ‘Collection No. 3 of No. 49 of 1854’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’.