IOR/L/PS/5/446, ff 548-577

This part of the volume consists of copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 130 of 1846, dated 2 November 1846. The enclosures, numbered 3-17 and dated 7 October to 2 November 1846, relate to affairs at Aden and within its vicinity.

The enclosures consist of correspondence, and minutes of the Government of Bombay, covering matters including:

• The Political Agent at Aden, Captain Stafford Bettesworth Haines, reporting that the blockade of Shugra [Shuqra] and the bay around Gibul Hassan [Jabal Hassan?] has been ‘manifestly successful’, dissuading those ‘Chieftains’ who intended to unite their tribes at Sheik Othman [Ash Shaikh Outhman] from doing so, and leading Sultan Hamed Foutheli [Sulṭān Aḥmad bin ‘Abdullāh al-Faḍlī] to retire to Shugra to protect his territory, leaving the roads open for kafilas [caravans] to reach Aden
• Haines pointing out the advantages of a small vessel with a long gun being sent to Aden for service
• The Imam of Sana [Sanaa] reportedly intending to march to Lahidge [Lahij or Lahej] to subjugate it and the surrounding area; Haines’s belief that the Imam may wish to confer with him about the ‘agitated’ state of the tribes inland; his view that the Imam may easily regain Taaes [Taʿizz] and Ebb [Ibb]; and that if this is the Imam’s intention then the coffee producing area will be open to the Aden market, and Haines requesting the opinion of Government on this possibility
• The French Consul at Mussowah [Massawa] having written to Haines regarding a ‘Banian’ merchant named ‘Woobee’ being (in the Consul’s opinion unjustly) imprisoned and ‘ill-treated’ by the Turkish [Ottoman] Governor for a debt of seventy years standing, and Haines writing to the Governor to request kindness to be shown towards a British subject and that no punishment may be inflicted until the justice of the claim has been enquired into in the presence of a commander of a vessel of war, which Haines will send to Mussowah as soon as practicable
• The arrival of the Honourable Company’s schooner Constance at Aden, Haines reporting having despatched the vessel to blockade the port of Shugra, and the arrangements made by him to supply the vessel with water and provisions
• Haines requesting sanction from the Government of Bombay for having obtained supplies from Maccalla [Mukalla, also spelled Maculla in this item] for the Commissariat at Aden, costing 279 German Crowns
• Haines reporting on the supply of provisions for the garrison at Aden, and his expectation that there will not be any scarcity
• Measures taken to relieve the wing of HM 94th Regiment at Aden.

The majority of the correspondence is between the Secretary to the Government of Bombay, Arthur Malet, and the Political Agent at Aden. The enclosures also include: letters from Malet to the Secretary to the Governor-General of India, Frederick Currie; a letter from Malet to the Superintendent of the Indian Navy, Captain Sir Robert Oliver; enclosed letters from Haines to the Secretary to the Secret Committee, and to the officer commanding the Honourable Company’s schooner Queen and Senior Naval Officer at Aden, Lieutenant John Glen Johnstone, Indian Navy; and an extract from the proceedings of the Government of Bombay in the Military Department, consisting of a copy of a letter to Haines from the Secretary to Government in the Military Department, Peter Melvill Melvill.