IOR/F/4/2657/175369

This item consists of copies of correspondence, resolutions, and consultations cited in, or enclosed with, extracts of Political Letters from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, 18 March 1856. The enclosures are dated 17 September 1855-March 1856. It is the third in a series of six items about the ‘slave trade’ [trade in enslaved people].

The correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; Lieutenant-Colonel Atkins Hamerton, HM Consul and Company Agent in the dominions of His Highness the Imaum [Imām] of Muscat; Richard Spooner, Officiating Commissioner of Customs, Salt, and Opium, Bombay [Mumbai]; Lawford Acland, Acting Company Solicitor, Bombay; William Howard, Acting Advocate General, Bombay; Lieutenant-Colonel George Le Grand Jacob, Political Agent in Kutch; and William Crawford, Senior Magistrate of Police, Bombay.

The item concerns a report of two vessels sailing from Zanzibar to Bombay and Kutch [Kachchh] with enslaved people on board. The accused vessels are the Futtay Kurreem [Fatḥ al-Karīm] and the Runchor Pursad [Ranchhoṛ Parsād; Raṇachoḍa Parsāda] also rendered in the item as Runchor Passu [Ranchhoṛ Pasāʾo; Ranchhoṛ Pasāʾū; Raṇachoḍa Pasāō; Raṇachoḍa Pasāū]. Investigations are made, and discussions had as to whether vessels are liable to prosecution for bringing enslaved people into Indian ports if those people are on board as seamen or domestic servants, and not with the intention of being traded.

The item includes statements from four people who travelled on the Runchor Pursad, and one who was on the Futtay Kurreem.

Also included are copies of correspondence between the Governments of Bombay, India, and Bengal dating from December 1844-May 1845 (ff 167-173), referring to cases similar to that being discussed in this item.

The item contains a table of contents (ff 145-147), and the title page (f 144) contains the following references: Draft Number ‘1445- /56’, ‘Collection No. 2 of No. 27 of 1856. (In 2 volumes) Vol: 1’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’.