IOR/L/PS/5/487, ff 324-342

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 43 of 1856, dated 10 June 1856. The enclosures are dated 1 May-10 June 1856.

The enclosures principally relate to the British blockade of Berbera as reported to the Government of Bombay by Brigadier William Marcus Coghlan, Political Resident in Aden. They specifically cover the following:

• Rumours that the Turkish [Ottoman] authorities plan to occupy Berbera when the blockade is withdrawn, Coghlan’s view that this could affect trade to Aden and other British places and lead to increased trade in enslaved persons, and Coghlan’s suggestion that the settlement with the Habr-Owel tribe [Habr Awwal] therefore include a clause on the independence of Berbera port
• Proceedings conducted by Lieutenant Robert Lambert Playfair, Assistant Political Resident, Aden, regarding the recent evasion of the blockade of the Berbera coast by the nacoda [nakhuda] of the Aden bugaloo [baghlah, also spelled bugla in this item] Mahmondich (ff 331-335)
• Coghlan’s suggestion that in order to end the blockade and avoid British humiliation, modified terms should be offered to the Habr Awal, which would take into account: Coghlan’s views that there is no point demanding the surrender of the murderer of Lieutenant Stroyan (during an attack on Richard Burton’s Somali Expedition) as the possibility of locating him is so remote and that the Habr Awal have been punished enough; that one of the ‘actors in the outrage’ (f 338) is already in British custody; and that the alleged murderer would be punished if he fell into British hands in future.

Also included in this item is a letter from Stephen Page, HM Acting Vice-Consul and Officiating Honourable Company’s Agent at Juddah [Jeddah] to the Government of Bombay, reporting: the arrival of the HC [Honourable Company’s] ship Elphinstone; the tranquility now prevailing at Juddah and Mecca; the continued presence of the insurgent Abu Montallib [‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib bin Ghālib bin Musā‘ad] (former Sharīf of Mecca) at Tayf [Taif] and his desertion by his followers.

The principal correspondents are Coghlan, the Government of Bombay and Page.