IOR/L/PS/5/486, ff 247-266

This item comprises enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee [Bombay Secret Letter], No. 17 dated 16 February 1856. The enclosures are dated 5 December 1855-16 Feburary 1856.

The primary correspondents are Brigadier William Marcus Coghlan, Acting Political Resident and Commandant, Aden; the Secretary to the Government, Bombay; and Stephen Page, HM Acting Vice-Consul and the HC [Honourable Company] Officiating Agent at Juddah[Jeddah, also spelled Judda and Jiddah in this item]. The item also includes three related Resolutions of the Board.

The papers cover the following matters:

• The ‘tranquil’ state of affairs in Aden, including relations between the Oulaki [Awlaki] and Abdali [‘Abdali] ‘chiefs’ and the gathering of supporters by the Foudheli ‘chief’ [Aḥmad bin Abdullāh al-Faḍlī] regarding his stipend (from the British authorities)
• News from Mocha and Hodeida [Al Hudaydah] relating to the serious state of affairs in Yemen, notably with regard to a force of the Aseer [‘Asir] tribe, rumoured to be 30,000-40,000 strong, allegedly advancing to take the sea ports of Yemen, including copies of: a letter from the principal merchants of Mocha appealing for British protection; Coghlan’s instructions to the Commander of the HC [Honourable Company] steam frigate Queen, to proceed to Mocha and Hodeida and if necessary assist the ‘subjects of the allied powers living there’, or proceed to Juddah as previously ordered; and Coghlan’s report to Bombay regarding the strength of Ottoman defences at Mocha and Hodeida
• The prevalence of smallpox in Aden, including: the possible origins of its introduction to the peninsula by commercial steamships from Calcutta [Kolkata], most probably the Hindustan; a ‘Daily statement of smallpox prevailing amongst the several corps and departments at Aden’, 1 February 1856, by the Medical Department Superintendent, Aden (f 252); and measures taken to stop further spread including the use of the island of Seerah [Sirah] as a quarantine station and the commencement of a vaccination programme
• Intelligence, conveyed by the commander of the Queen, regarding the successful suppression by Ottoman authorities and forces of the rebellion in Mecca and Juddah, but their subsequent defeat ‘by Bedouins’ in their attempt to capture Taif [Ta’if] to where the rebel leader Sheriff Abdul Min Tulab [Sharif ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib bin Ghālib bin Musā‘ad, also spelled abd-el Mutalib and Abn Mootallib in this item] had fled
• The political situation in Mussowah [Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa] following the rebellion against the Governor of Massawa, including a copy of a letter to Coghlan from Raffaello Barroni, Agent to Mr Plowden [Walter Chichele Plowden], HM Consul in Abyssinia [now Ethiopia], reporting that the Governor has left in order to summon the support of Egyptian troops; and Coghlan’s later report to Bombay that since the situation is less critical than that in Yemen the commander of the Queen has left that place for Hodeida
• Two letters from Stephen Page, HM Acting Vice-Consul and HC [Honourable Company] Officiating Agent at Juddah, relating to the ‘disturbance in Mecca’: citing the Firman of the Sultan [ruler of the Ottoman Empire] prohibiting slavery as the cause of the rebellion; reporting that the route between Juddah and Mecca is closed; requesting a HC vessel to protect British and British Indian property which is at risk; and reporting that rebel leader Abn Mootallib has fled to Tayf [Ta’if] with 4-5,000 followers.