IOR/L/PS/5/447, ff 182-213

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 137 of 1846, dated 16 November 1846. The enclosures are dated 7 October-16 November 1846.

The papers relate to the affairs of Aden, notably the following:

• The obstruction of kafilahs [caravans carrying supplies] and communications into Aden from the interior, by the followers of Sayud Ismail [Sayyid Ismā‘īl] and members of the Foutheli tribe [Faḍlī, also spelled Foutheli and Fouthelee in this item] located in the near Sheik Othman [Shaykh Uthman], and the claim by Captain Stafford Bettesworth Haines, Political Agent at Aden, that the Foutheli are secretly in the pay of Sultan M’Houssain of Lahedge [Sulṭān Muḥsin bin Faḍl al-‘Abdalī, Sulṭān of Lahej] (f 191)
• The apparent success of the British blockade of Shugra [Shaqrah] by the HC [Honourable Company’s] schooner Constance and Haines’s belief that once the Abdali [‘Abdalī], Foutheli, and other ‘hostile’ tribes discern that the British at Aden can obtain most supplies from the coast of Africa and from India they will sue for peace
• Haines’s request for a small vessel from India to assist with the blockade ‘to the westward’ which he has imposed to detrimentally affect the exports of Lahedge and injure the Sultan’s interests
• The proposal of Haines for the destruction the castle lately erected by the Foutheli Chief within four miles from the beach of Shugra, as a punishment for the latter’s ‘aggressive’ actions against the British at Aden (ff 197-198), and the Government of Bombay’s view that this measure is not at present advisable as it would increase ill-feeling towards the British
• Haines report that he has taken measures to ensure the sufficient supply of provisions for three months, and his suggestion that all purchases of grain, grass and wood, etc., are made by the Commissariat Department in Aden alone, rather than it competing with the Engineer Department in the Aden market
• The despatch by the Superintendent of the Indian Navy of the HC brigantine Tigris to Aden for addition to the Indian Naval Squadron there (f 211).

The principal correspondents are Haines and the Government of Bombay.