IOR/L/PS/6/692, ff 269-280

This item is a collection to Bombay Political Despatch No. 65 of 4 July 1859, from the Secretary of State for India to the Government of Bombay Political Department (the Political Despatch itself is not included in this item). The collection consists of papers forwarded with the Government of Bombay’s Political Despatch No. 34 of 4 November 1859 to the Secretary of State for India. It comprises correspondence from the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Navy to the Governor and President in Council, Bombay, relating to an original manuscript of a work received from the Commander of the Persian Gulf Squadron, comprising a short explanatory memoir (ff 275-280) and plans of the ruins of Babylon, Mesopotamia [Iraq], by Commander William Beaumont Selby, Indian Navy, Commander of the steam vessel Comet, and prepared with the assistance of Lieutenant Collingwood, Indian Navy.

The manuscript was forwarded to the Secretary of State for India, London, requesting the work be forwarded to Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson. The Governor of Bombay further intimated the expectation that twenty printed copies will be forwarded to Commander Selby, who expressed an intention to present copies to high officials in Mesopotamia. The location of the aforementioned plan is not disclosed.

Correspondents include: the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Navy; the Commander of the steam vessel Comet; the Governor and President in Council, Bombay; and the Commander, Persian Gulf Squadron.