IOR/L/PS/5/486, ff 47-58

This item comprises enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee [Bombay Secret Letter], No. 7 dated 16 January 1856. The enclosures are dated 17 December 1855-14 January 1856.

The papers chiefly comprise correspondence between Brigadier William Marcus Coghlan, Acting Political Resident and Commandant, Aden, and the Secretary to Government, Bombay, covering the following matters:

• Relations with and between the tribes in the vicinity of Aden, including the ‘Foutheli Chief’ [Aḥmad bin Abdullāh al-Faḍlī, also spelled Foudheli in this item]
• The continued British blockade of Berbera, including the Government of Bombay and Government of India's: scepticism regarding the alleged ‘solemn warning’ (f 50) given by the Elders of the Habur Owel Tribe [Habr Awwal, also spelled Habr Owel and Habr-Awel Tribe in this item] which was apparently disregarded by Lieutenant Richard Francis Burton leading to the ‘disastrous termination of the late Somali Expedition’ (f 54); and criticism of Coghlan for accusing Burton ‘in very positive terms, of culpable carelessness’ (f 55). Coghlan vigorously defends his position particularly referring to the depositions which indicate that warning was indeed given.

Also included in this item is a letter from the Secretary to the Government of India to the Secretary to Government, Bombay, questioning the ‘professions to peace’ of the Foutheli Chief, whom they consider endangers the security of the trade of Aden.