IOR/F/4/2580/153771

This item consists of copies of correspondence, 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 9 April-10 June 1854. It is the seventh in a series of twelve items about the ‘slave trade’ [trade in enslaved people].

The correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; Captain Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Resident in the Persian Gulf; and Arthur King Corfield, Senior Magistrate of Police, Bombay.

The item concerns two enslaved children who were purchased at Lingah [Bandar-e Lengeh] by a group of pilgrims from Lucknow. It includes a letter from Abdool Nubee [‘Abd al-Nabī], a passenger on the vessel in which the pilgrims were travelling, who handed over the enslaved children to the British. The children were subsequently taken to Bombay [Mumbai] and placed under the charge of the African Institution.

In light of this episode, Kemball makes enquiries regarding the liability of British subjects of India, or of protected states, when engaging in the ‘slave trade’.

The item contains a table of contents (f 767), and the title page (f 766) contains the following references: Draft Number ‘1045/54’, ‘Collection No. 7 of No. 49 of 1854’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’.