IOR/L/PS/5/452, ff 202-214

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 102 of 1847, dated 15 December 1847. The enclosures are numbered 3-9 and are dated 29 November to 15 December 1847.

Enclosure Nos. 3-4 consist of two letters from the Political Agent at Aden, Captain Stafford Bettesworth Haines, to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay, Arthur Malet, reporting news from Aden, including:

• The neighbourhood of Aden remaining ‘tranquil’, due to Sultan Hamed ibn Abdulla Foutheli [Aḥmad bin Abdullāh al-Faḍlī] declining to ratify an agreement made between his brother and Hydra ibn Maidee [Shaikh Ḥaydarah bin Mahdī] of Bir Ahmed [Bi’r Aḥmad] for assistance in plundering the Abdali kafilas [caravans] entering Aden
• Sheil writing to Hydra ibn Maidee and cautioning him against any such ‘outrage and breach of faith’ which would interfere with the commerce of Aden
• No new cases of smallpox occurring since Haines’s last letter
• The cool weather during the month of November
• The death Sultan M Houssain Fudthel [Muḥsin bin Faḍl al-'Abdalī] on 29 November.

Enclosure No. 4 includes enclosed copies of translated letters from Ahmed M’Houssain Fudthel [Aḥmad bin Muḥsin al-‘Abdalī] and his brothers, and from their father Sultan M’Houssain Fudthel to Haines, regarding the Sultan delegating to his sons responsibility for securing the roads, and the sons requesting the restoration of the stipend formerly paid to their father. This enclosure also includes a letter in reply from Haines to Sultan Ahmed Fudthel (following the death of his father), expressing his pleasure at the brothers commencing to secure the roads, stating that he has written to the Government of Bombay regarding the stipend, and offering his condolences on the death of Sultan M’Houssain Fudthel.

Enclosures 5-6 consist of a minute of the Government of Bombay and a letter from Malet to Haines, regarding the approval of the Government of Bombay of Haines’s actions following the death of the late Sultan of Lahedge, requesting Haines to express the regret of Government to the family of the deceased, and informing Haines that the question of the restoration of the pension of the Sultan of Lahedge has been referred to the Governor-General, but he has not yet replied.

Enclosure No. 7 is a letter from Malet to the Secretary to the Government of India with the Governor-General, Henry Miers Elliot, forwarding copies of the correspondence with Haines relating to the death of the Sultan of Lahedge.

Numbers 8-9, listed in the abstract of contents as copies of the Bombay Overland Times and the Bombay Overland Telegraph and Courier, dated 15 December 1847, are not included in this item (a note dated 30 October 1906 states that they are missing).