IOR/L/PS/5/487, ff 471-483

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 58 of 1856, dated 9 August 1856. The enclosures are dated 17 June-26 July 1856.

The enclosures comprise:

• A report by Brigadier William Marcus Coghlan, Political Resident in Aden, to the Government of Bombay, concerning his efforts to mediate peaceful relations between the Abdali [al-‘Abdalī], Foudelie [Faḍlī] and Azaiba [a sub-tribe of the ‘Abdalī], following disputes over tribute money for drawing water from the wells at Shaik Othman [Shaykh Uthman]
• A general report by Stephen Page, HM Acting Vice-Consul and Officiating Honourable Company’s Agent at Juddah [Jeddah, also spelled Judda in this item], to the Government of Bombay, notably regarding the flourishing trade in enslaved persons there, including his views that: despite the firman of the Ottoman Sultan, the local Ottoman authorities never really intended to stop the trade; the reading of the firman at Mecca generated anti-Christian and anti-English feeling; the recalled Sherrif of Mecca, Abu Moutallib [Sharīf ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib bin Ghālib bin Musā‘ad] exploited local anger to generate support for an uprising by which he hoped to regain his position; and the only way to reduce the trade is for British agents to supply intelligence to Indian Navy steam vessels employed in the Red Sea with permission to seize vessels carrying enslaved persons
• A report by Page to the Government of Bombay, notably concerning: complaints by British subjects over their treatment by local trade and customs officials and the salt monopoly; the attempt by a consulate guard to assassinate Mr Lawless, the sailing master of the British barque Futtay Sultan, who was a guest in the consulate, the guard’s trial by the Ottoman authorities and the requirement of Page to choose his punishment; and the non-cooperative business policies and general ill-feeling of the local Mooshir [mushīr, advisor or senior minister] towards the British and French at Juddah particularly since the uprising by Abu Moutallib.