IOR/F/4/2442/134095

The item consists of copies and extracts of correspondence and minutes cited in, or enclosed with, a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, dated 31 January 1850, and found at IOR/F/4/2442/134094. It is the second in a series of five items relating to the 'slave trade' [trade in enslaved people] in the Persian Gulf and on the Arabian Peninsula.

The item relates to the results of a recent mission to Juddah [Jeddah] by Lieutenant G N Adams, Commanding the Company schooner Constance. It includes:

• Details about his investigation into the alleged sale of enslaved people at Juddah organised by Haj Rijeb Ali [Ḥājjī Rajab ‘Alī al-Hirātī], a shopkeeper in Bombay [Mumbai], and carried out by this man's agent, Syud Abdulla [Sayyid ‘Abdullāh]
• Names and status of the people alleged to have been sold, as well as transcripts of interviews with them and with Syud Abdulla
• Statements provided by witnesses in Bombay and Juddah, including Mahomed ibn Abdool Russool [Muḥammad bin ‘Abd al-Rasūl]
• Instructions sent by Haj Rijeb Ali to Syud Abdulla
• Details about Adams's investigation into complaints made by British Indian merchants regarding their poor treatment at the hands of the Turkish [Ottoman] authorities at Juddah
• Discussions regarding the failure of the Turkish Government at Juddah to return the salute of a Company steamer
• Summaries of conversations Adams had with Alexander Ogilvie, the British Vice Consul at Juddah, and Hasyb Mohamed Pashah [Ḥasīb Muḥammad Pāshā], Governor of the Hedjaz [Hejaz], as well as copies of their correspondence
• Concerns that the enslaved people interviewed were coached by Syud Abdulla and that Hasyb Mohamed Pashah was given money by a broker involved in the alleged sale
• Brief updates on Mocha.

The item also contains:

• Comments on Adams's reports by the Government of Bombay and by Stafford Bettesworth Haines, Captain in the Indian Navy and Political Agent at Aden, who had originally requested naval officers to investigate the above cases
• Governor of Bombay's instructions to the Senior Magistrate of Police, Bombay, to pursue further lines of enquiry into the alleged sale and requesting details about the process of examining vessels before their departure from Bombay
• Governor of Bombay's request to the Commodore and Commander-in-Chief, Indian Navy, that naval officers' political reports should be sent direct to political, rather than naval, authorities.

As well as the above, correspondents include: Shaim Ackmut Effendi [Chaim or Ḥāyyīm Aḥmad Effendī], Officiating Governor at Juddah; Khawaja Thomas [Khawājah Tūmā Mekalakki?], merchant; and Charles Augustus Murray, HM Consul General in Egypt.

The item contains multiple spellings of multiple personal names and place names.

The title page of the item contains the following references: 'Bombay Political Department', 'Draft No. 17 of 1852', 'Collection', Vol: 2', and 'Examiner's Office'. Originally, the reference read 'Collection No 1 of No 9', but 'No 1 of No 9' has been crossed out.