IOR/F/4/2580/153775

This item consists of copies of correspondence, minutes, 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 29 August-23 November 1853. It is the eleventh in a series of twelve items about the ‘slave trade’ [trade in enslaved people].

The correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; Henry Bartle Edward Frere, Commissioner in Sind [Sindh; also rendered as Sinde in the item]; and John Maclead [Macleod], Deputy Collector of Customs to the Commissioner in Sind.

The item concerns reports of the taking of people from India to sell into slavery along the coast of Beloochistan [Baluchistan], and suggestions as to how this practice might be stopped. The cases of two such enslaved people, who were discovered by Maclead in Guader [Gwadar], are discussed. The item includes depositions taken by Maclead from the two enslaved people, Norr Mahomed [Nūr Muḥammad] and Bhonee [possibly Bhaunī or Baunī], and their respective owners, Teeum [Z̤aygham] and Peer Mahomed Sobuck [Pīr Muḥammad Sabuk].

The item contains a table of contents (f 846), and the title page (f 845) contains the following references: Draft Number ‘1045/54’, ‘Collection No. 10 of No. 49 of 1854’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’.