IOR/L/PS/5/414, ff 100-237

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 126 of 1842, dated 31 October 1842. The enclosures are numbered 3-47 and are dated 1 September to 29 October 1842. There is no abstract of contents.

The enclosures, which consist mostly of correspondence with some resolutions of the Government of Bombay, relate to Persian Gulf affairs. They concern matters including:

• The Officiating Resident in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Dundas Robertson, addressing a despatch to the Secret Committee, suggesting the advisability of removing the Residency from Bushire [Bushehr] to some other position in the Persian Gulf
• Robertson residing in Karrack [Kharg] instead of Khoormooj [Khormoj] during the Summer months
• ‘Insults’ to British subjects in Persia [Iran], including members of the British Mission and Residency, by soldiers in Bushire and others, and punishments for these ‘insults’
• The Government of Bombay requesting that Robertson be cautious in his proceedings at Karrack and refrain from ‘interfering in matters in which the British Government is not concerned’, in response to a letter from Robertson regarding the ‘oppressive conduct’ of Lootf Ally Khan [Luṭf ‘Alī Khān Lārī], the Officer in Charge of the detachment of Persian troops stationed at Karrack, towards the inhabitants of the island and the men under his command
• The removal of the Head Quarters of the Indian Naval Squadron in the Persian Gulf from Karrack to Bassadore [Basaidu, also spelled Bassidore in this item], and the establishment of a naval depot on Bassadore
• The reply received from Abdoolla bin Sooneyan [‘Abdullāh bin Thunyān bin Ibrāhīm Āl Sa‘ūd], the Ruler of Nedgd [Najd, also spelled Nedjed in this item], to a letter from Robertson regarding Abdoolla bin Sooneyan’s letters to the ‘Arab Piractical Sheikhs’
• The Native Agent at Bahrein [Bahrain], Mirza Mahomed Ali [Mīrzā Muḥammad ‘Alī], reporting on affairs at Bahrein, including his account of what happened after it became known that some of the ‘women, children, slaves [enslaved persons] and dependents’ of Humood Omeree [Ḥammūd al-‘Umayrī] were in the Native Agent’s house under British protection, and Abdullah bin Ahmed [‘Abdullāh bin Aḥmad] ‘gave orders to his sons to go and kill them’ (folio 152v)
• The Government of Bombay requesting an enquiry to be instituted by the Officiating Resident in the Persian Gulf into the conduct of the Native Agent at Bahrein in having first offered an asylum, and then surrendered to the contending factions on that island, persons whom it appears had fled to his house for protection
• The decision that no remuneration should be granted to the Moonshee [Munshi] attached to the Residency of the Persian Gulf for expenses incurred in entertaining a person in the ‘habit and character of a Derveesh [dervish]’ representing himself to be the son of the late Futteh Allee Shah [Fath-‘Ali Shāh Qājār] of Persia and uncle of the present King [Shāh], but who was ‘an imposter’
• HM Consul and Honourable Company’s Agent in the Dominions of the Imam of Muscat (also spelled Maskat in this item), Captain Atkins Hamerton, addressing a letter to the Government of Mauritius regarding him sending a British seaman, James Dawson, to Mauritius to be tried for the murder of an ‘Arab’ seaman named Ramzan [Ramaḍān], a subject of the Imam of Muscat, in the town of Zanzibar
• Documents relating to the complaint made to the Imaum [Imām] of Muscat against Robert Brown Norsworthy, residing in Zanzibar, by Schaikh Awez [Shaikh ‘Uways al-Barāw] of Barawa (also spelled Browa in this item)
• The reports of the Commodore in the Persian Gulf, William Lowe, on affairs in the Persian Gulf, including: the state of the public buildings at Bassadore; everything being ‘quiet on the [Arabian] Coast with the exception of their usual squabbles inland’ (folio 188); this season being the best for many years for pearl fishing, with some of the merchants having made large sums of money; and his recommendation of Ally [‘Alī], the eldest son of the Agent at Sharga [Sharjah], Moollah Hussain [Mullā Ḥusayn], for the position of Agent at Lingar [Bandar-e Lengeh]
• A complaint of obstruction by Persian soldiers to the passage through the gate of the town of Bushire of Lieutenants C D Campbell and W B Selby of the Indian Navy
• Lieutenant A E Ball, commanding the Honourable Company’s brig of war Euphrates, reporting his proceedings on the trip he was deputed to take to the Arab Coast and pearl banks of the Persian Gulf
• Commodore Lowe’s intended measures for removing the naval stores from Karrack to Bushire
• The separation of the Commodore in the Persian Gulf’s guard for the naval depot at Bassadore from the guard of the Resident in the Persian Gulf
• The appointment of a committee to determine whether a horse given to Commodore Lowe by the Prince of Shiraz is fit for cavalry, or should be sold by public auction; and the payment by the Government of Bombay of expenses incurred by Commodore Lowe and others on account of the horse.

The main correspondents are the following: the Government of Bombay; the Officiating Resident in the Persian Gulf; the Secretary to the Government of India with the Governor-General; the Superintendent of the Indian Navy; HM Consul and Honourable Company’s Agent in the Dominions of the Imaum of Muscat; and the Deputy Adjutant General of the Army, Major C Hagart.

Other correspondents include: Abdoolla bin Sooneyan; the Commodore in the Persian Gulf, William Lowe; HM Chargé d’Affaires at the Court of Persia, Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Sheil; and the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Meerza Abul Hassan Khan [Mīrzā Abū al-Ḥasan Khān Shīrāzī, Īlchī Kabīr].