IOR/L/PS/5/385, ff 27-123

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 35 of 1840, dated 20 June 1840. The enclosures are numbered 3-29 and are dated 22 April to 19 June 1840.

The enclosures consist of correspondence, relating to affairs at Aden and within its vicinity. They concern matters including:

• The request of the Political Agent at Aden, Commander Stafford Bettesworth Haines, to be provided with another writer for the Political Agency
• The approbation of the Governor-General of India in Council of the measures adopted by Haines and the Senior Naval officer in the Red Sea, Lieutenant F T Powell, for the protection of British subjects and property at Mocha following the departure of the Egyptian troops from Hodedah [Al Hudaydah] and Mocha
• An attack on Aden on 21 May 1840 by the ‘Arab tribes’, the actions of the Naval Force at Aden during the attack, and events at Aden prior and subsequent to the attack
• The cantoning of the troops at Aden
• Haines reporting that Aden will be attacked on one of the four ensuing nights (from the date of his letter, 3 June 1840) by a stronger force than has yet been assembled and that Sultan Mahamed Houssain [Muḥsin bin Faḍl al-‘Abdalī, Sulṭān of Lahej, also referred to as Sultan Mahomed Houssain Fudthel in this item] or his sons will advance with it
• The observations of the officer commanding the troops at Aden, Lieutenant-Colonel D Capon, on the arduous duties of the troops at Aden, and his request to be furnished with a reinforcement of European troops.

The main correspondents are the following: Haines; the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay, Lestock Robert Reid; the Government of India; Powell; and Capon. Other correspondents include: the Superintendent of the Indian Navy, Captain Robert Oliver; Lieutenant G Jenkins, commanding the Honourable Company’s blockship Charger and Assistant Political Agent at Aden; the Executive Engineer, Aden, Lieutenant W Western; the Adjutant-General of the Army, Bombay; the Lieutenant commanding the Honourable Company’s brig of war Euphrates, Richard Ethersey; the Native Agent at Mocha; Sultan Mahomed Houssain Fudthel.