IOR/L/PS/5/464, ff 176-215

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 35 of 1850, dated 25 June 1850. The enclosures, numbered 3-18 and dated 25 October 1849 to 24 June 1850, relate to the ‘slave trade’ [trade in enslaved people].

The enclosures consists of correspondence, and minutes of the Government of Bombay. They cover matters including:

• HM Consul and Honourable Company’s Agent at Zanzibar, Major Atkins Hamerton, reporting the destruction by the boats of HMS Castor of a ‘slave’ establishment at Angosh [Angoche], and the permission accorded by the Imam of Muscat for British vessels of war to enter ports, bays, creeks, and rivers between Songa Manara [Songa Mnara Island] and Cape Delgado in pursuit of vessels engaged in the ‘slave trade’ and destroy all barracoons and establishments erected for the purpose of the ‘slave trade’
• Hamerton reporting that he has made a ‘friendly remonstrance’ to the Imam on the ‘glaring violations’ of the treaty for the suppression of the ‘slave trade’ between the British Government and the Imam
• Hamerton stating that he has brought the subject of purchases of enslaved women to the notice of the Imam, with a view to the prohibition of this, in response to a letter from the Government of Bombay relating to the purchase an ‘African female’ at Muscat by a ‘Mussulman’ [Muslim] of Kutch. However, Hamerton states that it would be very difficult to stop such purchases, because he claims that the practice is widespread amongst ‘Banian’ and Indian Muslim men resident in the Imam’s territories.. Hamerton adds that he is now bringing the subject to the attention of the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• A report by Hamerton on the type of vessels which should be employed for the suppression of the ‘slave trade’, the localities in which they should cruise, and the time of year they should be employed
• A draft of instructions for the guidance of officers in command of vessels of the Indian Navy prepared by the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Navy, Captain Stephen Lushington, in communication with the Advocate General, to carry out the provisions of the Act of Parliament of 1 August 1849 ‘for carrying into effect engagements between Her Majesty [Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom] and certain Arabian Chiefs in the Persian Gulf for the more effectual suppression of the Slave Trade’.

The correspondence is mostly between the following: Hamerton; the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay, Arthur Malet; the Secretary to the Government of India with the Governor General, Sir Henry Miers Elliot; and the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Navy.

Enclosure No. 3 also includes enclosed correspondence: between Hamerton and the Commander-in-Chief, Cape Good Hope Station, Commodore Christopher Wyvill; and from the Imam of Muscat, Said bin Sultan [Sayyid Sa‘īd bin Sulṭān Āl Bū Sa‘īd], to Hamerton.