IOR/L/PS/5/385, ff 200-448

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 38 of 1840, dated 22 June 1840. The enclosures are numbered 3-90 and are dated 10 August 1839 to 22 June 1840. Enclosure numbers 4, 6-8, 10, 12-17, 19-39, 47, 57-61, 81, 88 are recorded as missing on a note on folio 201. Enclosure number 90 is also missing.

The enclosures relate to the Indus steam flotilla, Scinde [Sindh, also spelled Sinde in this item] and Luss [Las Bela], Afghanistan, and Bussora [Basra]. They concern matters including:

• The opinion of Commander Thomas Grere Carless, Commanding the Indus Steam Flotilla, on the suitability for the navigation of the River Indus of the steam vessels which have recently been introduced on that river
• The voyage of the steam vessel Indus from Bukkur to Muthenkote [Mithankot or Kotmithan] and back
• Carless reporting on some experiments on certain types of wood found on the banks of the River Indus as fuel for steam vessels
• Regulations for the conveyance of passengers and freight in the steam vessels employed on the Indus
• The establishment of monthly packet boats to ply from Kurrachee [Karachi] to Sukkur
• The death of Lieutenant Walpole H Clarke, second in command of the Scinde Irregular Horse, killed in an action with a large body of Belochees [Balochis]
• The price of goods in the Shikarpoor [Shikarpur, also spelled Shikarpore in this item] market on 27 April 1840
• An inadvertent trespass by a British officer on one of Meer Noor Mahomed’s [Mīr Nūr Muḥammad’s] shikargahs [game reserves] and steps adopted to prevent a repetition of this
• A memoir by the Assistant Political Agent, Shikarpore, J Postans, on the Arral [Aral Wah] and Narrah [Nara Canal] Rivers and Munchur Lake [Lake Manchar] in Scinde
• Reports by captains Edward Patterson Del Hoste and C F W Hart, containing useful information regarding Scinde and the neighbouring state of Luss
• The state of the Treasury of the Lower Scinde Agency on 31 December 1839
• A demand made for sea customs on some goods from boats bound for Kurachee landed at Mandavie [Mandvi] due to adverse weather conditions
• The strength and distribution of the Scinde Irregular Horse
• The Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq], Robert Taylor, reporting having conveyed the khareeta [kharita] from the Government of Bombay announcing the capture of Ghuznee [Ghazni] and the fall of Cabool [Kabul], and forwarding a letter from the Pacha [Pāshā] of Baghdad expressing sentiments of friendship towards the British Government
• Lieutenant Walker, the Field Engineer at Kharrack [Kharg Island], forwarding a plan of the city of Bussora.

The main correspondents of the enclosures which are present in this item are the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay, Lestock Robert Reid, and Political Agent in Lower Scinde, Captain James Outram. The other correspondents, mostly military and political officials, include: the Superintendent of the Indian Navy, Captain Robert Oliver; Carless; the Adjutant-General of the Army, Lieutenant-Colonel Stratford Powell; and the Resident in Sinde, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Pottinger.