IOR/L/PS/5/452, ff 21-64

This part of the volume consists of copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 95 of 1847, dated 12 November 1847. The enclosures are numbered 3-29 and are dated 14 April to 30 October 1847.

The enclosures consist of correspondence, and minutes and resolutions of the Government of Bombay, relating to the steam ship Nitocris on the River Euphrates. They discuss matters including:

• The price which should be paid for the purchase of a supply of coal for the use of the Nitocris on the Euphrates (to be landed at Bussorah [Basra, also spelled Bussora in this item] and stored at Bagdad [Baghdad]), and the type of coal which would be most suitable
• The resolution of the Government of Bombay that the officer proceeding in command of the Nitocris should be enabled to distribute presents to persons (‘Arab Chiefs’) from whom he may receive aid in facilitating the surveys contemplated
• The amended scale of establishment (rates of pay for the Commander and crew) submitted by the Superintendent of the Indian Navy to the Governor of Bombay for the Nitocris
• The recommendation of the Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq] that Lieutenant James Felix Jones, commanding the steamer Nitocris, be appointed Surveyor in Mesopotamia [Iraq] in addition to his present duties, to carry out ‘surveying mapping and reporting on the countries watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, and their affluents’, and his subsequent appointment on an allowance of five Rupees per day or 150 Rupees per month when actually employed on survey duty.

The main correspondents are the following: the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay, Arthur Malet; the Superintendent of the Indian Navy, Captain Robert Oliver; the Political Agent in Turkish Arabia, Major Henry Creswicke Rawlinson; and the Under-Secretary to the Government of India with the Governor-General, William Edwards.