IOR/L/PS/5/490, ff 279-291

This item comprises enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee [Bombay Secret Letter], No. 21 dated 2 February 1857. The enclosures are dated 13-29 January 1857.

The enclosures comprise despatches from: Brigadier William Marcus Coghlan, Political Resident, Aden; the Secretary to the Government, Bombay; and Major-General Charles Waddington, Chief Engineer of Public Works, Bombay.

The papers relate to arrangements for the re-occupation of the island of Perim [also known as Mayyun], the building of a lighthouse there, and the permanent stationing of a military force on the island and a vessel of war at Perim Harbour. The papers notably include:

• Coghlan’s instructions to, and correspondence with, Lieutenant C B Templer, Commanding the HC [Honourable Company] Schooner Mahi and Senior Naval Officer at Aden, concerning the latter’s conveyance to Perim of Lieutenant J M Greig, Bombay Engineers, and a party of sappers, artificers and biggaries [a type of unskilled labourer]
• Coghlan’s request to the Government of Bombay for a steamer [steam ship] to ensure effective communications and supplies, especially of water, to Perim, and a letter from the Secretary to the Government to the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Navy, enquiring whether the steamer Goolanar can be made available for this purpose
• The decision of Lieutenant Henry St Clair Wilkins, Executive Engineer, Aden, to provide rations free of charge to the artificers and biggaries who went in buggalows to Perim, including its sanction by a Resolution of the Board.