IOR/L/PS/5/486, ff 410-441

This item comprises enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee [Bombay Secret Letter], No. 23 dated 2 April 1856. The enclosures are dated 29 November 1855-2 April 1856.

The primary correspondents are Brigadier William Marcus Coghlan, Political Resident and Commandant, Aden; and the Secretary to the Government, Bombay. The item also includes: Resolutions of the Board; minutes of the Governor and President in Council; and minutes of the members in Council.

The papers chiefly cover the following matters:

• Intelligence (ff 412-415) conveying: the departure of the force of the Asseer [‘Asīr, also spelled Aseer in this item] tribe from Yemen, following an outbreak of cholera which has purportedly killed between 3,000 and 15,000, in camp and on their return home; and the destruction of the town of Zaidiah [Zaidiyyah?], and alleged atrocities committed on its inhabitants, merchants and Banians [Banyans, Indian merchants], by soldiers who had originally been sent by the Governor of Yemen to burn the houses outside the town after hearing that the Asseer had arrived there
• Uncertainty regarding the role and involvement of the prisoner ‘Mahomed Ali’ (recently brought to Aden) in the party that attacked Lieutenant Richard Burton’s Somali Expedition; Coghlan’s opinion that the arrest and the 150 deaths caused by a conflict between two branches of the Habr Owel [Habr Awwal] tribe over the prisoner’s culpability, is sufficient to end the blockade; Coghlan’s belief that he can secure the Habr Owel’s agreement to his terms for ending the blockade, including the abolition of slavery, and the concurrence of the Board providing that ‘ample reparation’ is ‘demanded from and conceded by the Habr Owel’ (f 419); and agreement by the Governor and members in Council that a man said to be ‘the actual murderer of poor Lieutenant Stroyan’ (f 420) should still be pursued
• The situation regarding the slave trade on the ‘non-Persian’ side of the Red Sea, including Coghlan’s: statement that he is unable to provide an update due to the withdrawal for other purposes of vessels which would otherwise have toured the ports, and that the majority of the trade continues in places under the government of the Ottoman Porte, despite the recent Imperial Firman abolishing it; and belief that the exportation of enslaved persons from Africa into Arabia could be stopped if he was granted sufficient powers of search and detention by the [Ottoman] Turkish authorities with regard to Turkish vessels and Turkish ports, as well as an adequate naval force at Aden
• Views of Coghlan and the Government of Bombay on the desirability of establishing a lighthouse on the island of Perim [also known as Mayyun], notably: that it would command the entrance to the Red Sea and ‘cut off the slave vessels which ply between Zailah and Tajourra [Zeila and Tadjoura] and the various ports of Yemen’ (f 429); that it would command the straits of Babelmandeb [Bab-el-Mandeb] and therefore be of major strategic importance should ‘Mr de Lesseps [Ferdinand de Lesseps] succeed in… cutting a ship canal through the Isthmus of Suez’ (f 432); that it would be of commercial and nautical benefit for steamers sailing new routes from Suez; and that it would probably become a telegraphic station. Also included are Coghlan’s views on fortification of the lighthouse and the supply of fresh water, and his intention to survey the island providing he has a vessel and assistance from the Bombay Marine Department.