Abstract: This part of the volume consists of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 25 of 1841, dated 31 March 1841. The enclosures consist of copies of correspondence dated 22 to 31 March 1841.The correspondence concerns: instructions for the Officer in Command of the Squadron ordered on duty to Aden, for the purpose of strengthening British influence in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf; and the suppression of the slave trade between the East Coast of Africa and several ports on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.The correspondence is between the Secretary to the Government of Bombay (John Pollard Willoughby) and the following: the Secretary to the Government of India (Thomas Herbert Maddock); the Officer in Command of HM Naval Force proceeding to the Red Sea; the Political Agent at Aden (Captain Stafford Bettesworth Haines); the Resident in the Persian Gulf (Samuel Hennell); and the British Agent at Muscat (Captain Atkins Hamerton).Physical description: There is a list of enclosures, numbered 1-5, on folio 616.
Abstract: Enclosure nos. 2-18 to a despatch from the Secret Department, Government of Bombay [Mumbai], dated 17 January 1852. The enclosures are dated 16 June 1851-17 January 1852.The enclosures consist of copies of correspondence relating to four separate subjects.Folios 85-97 cover a complaint from the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Persia [Iran] that tents supplied to the British Mission at Tehran by the Government of Bombay in 1849 have proven to be of inferior quality to previous batches, and an enquiry into the tendering process and specifications of the tents.Folios 98-99 consist of an extract from a resolution by the East India Company Secret Committee relating to the establishment of steam navigation on the Indus and Punjab rivers for the purposes of communication.Folios 100-103 cover attempts to reduce the volume of communications between departments of the Government of India.Folios 104-113 cover the trade in enslaved persons within the dominions of the Imam of Muscat and Oman (including Zanzibar), and efforts against it by both the Imam and the British.The primary correspondents are: the Envoy in Tehran; the Government of Bombay; the Government of India; the Secret Committee; and the British Consul, Muscat.Physical description: 1 item (33 folios)
Abstract: The volume contains copies of letters sent by the British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, mainly to J P Willoughby, Secretary to the Government of Bombay, in 1843. Although Captain Samuel Hennell was Resident at this time, letters dated January to October 1843 were sent by Lieutenant Colonel H D Robertson, Captain Atkins D Hamerton and Lieutenant Arnold Burowes Kemball, who successively officiated for Captain Hennell during his absence.The letters often contain or enclose separately, copies of other pertinent correspondence sent or received by the Resident, such as: local intelligence reports from the native agents and occasional letters from or to local Arab rulers about military conflict, maritime treaty infractions and dispute resolution. The local intelligence reports are from British Government Native Agents Hajee Jassim at Bahrein [Bahrain], Moollah Hoosein at Shargah [Sharjah] and Reuben Aslan (also referred to as Khojal or Khojah Reuben) at Muscat. The letters from Arab rulers include: Sheikh Mubarak bin Abdullah of Demaum, ex-Sheikh Abdullah bin Ahmed of Bahrain, Sheikh Sultan bin Suggur of Ras-el Khyma, Sheikh Abdoollah bin Rashid of Amulgavine [Umm-ul-Kawain], Sheikh Mucktoom bin Butye of Debaie [Dubai] and Sheikh Khuleefa bin Shaboot of Aboothabee [Abu Dhabi].All copies of the Resident’s Arabic correspondence with native agents and ruling sheikhs, a petition by the islanders of Karrack [Kharg], transcripts of oral statements made by merchants and a slave child in the course of investigations, are in the form of English translations. There are no Arabic originals or copies in the volume.The correspondence discusses events in the Persian Gulf in 1843, predominantly in relation to: slavery, piracy, conflicts between the rulers and inhabitants of the Trucial Coast Sheikdoms, civil war in Bahrain and their implications for British foreign policy, relations and interests in the region. Typical contents include:Letters from the officiating British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf to Commodore W Lowe at Bassadore [Bāsa‘īdū], with orders to transport six Arab pirates in British custody to the Imam of Muscat for punishment. The Resident also expresses his views on the maritime treaties and punishable acts, such as the selling of persons and the seizure of boats as punishment for piracy, 1843 (folio 12);Letter from Syed Soweynee, Governor of Muscat and others from the Native Agent at Muscat, to the British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, about the recovery of several Indian slave children living with Muscat inhabitants, including a transcript of the oral testimony of one of the slave children, February to July, 1843 (folios 17-20, 61-62);Letters from Lieutenant A B Kemball, Assistant British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf in Charge, to J P Willoughby, Secretary to the Government of Bombay reporting on his tour of the Trucial Coast by ship, to negotiate the annual renewal of the Maritime Truce with the ruling sheikhs and obtain their signatures, May 1843 (folios 29-30, 36-46);Letters from Lieutenant A B Kemball, Assistant British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf to in Charge, to J P Willoughby, Secretary to the Government of Bombay reporting on the plunder of vessels and other disturbances at Bahrain, including further attacks for supremacy of the island after its recent invasion by Sheikh Mahomed bin Khuleefa, March-June 1843 (folios 12-13, 16-17, 21-22, 27-28,47-49, 51-53);Letters from Lieutenant Colonel H D Robertson, officiating British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf to Colonel Justin Sheil, British Chargé d’Affaires at the Court of the Shah of Persia, Tehran, as well as internal Residency memoranda by Captain A D Hamerton, about the management of the British Persian Gulf Residency, its personnel, especially interpreter Hajee Ahmed and British coal agent Hajee Yacoob, arrangements for the temporary transfer of the Residency to Karrack Island, relations with the island inhabitants and with the Persian authorities, January, March- April, July-August 1843 (folios 1-5, 10, 23-26, 67-68, 76-78).Physical description: Foliation: numbered 1 to 100, from the front to the back of the volume. The numbering is written in pencil on the recto, in the top right corner.Pagination: numbered 23-30, 53-62, 65-68, 75-78, 81-88, 101-110, 129-148, 153-158, 177-198, 209-216, 231-240, 243-246, 257-270, 301-304, 307-310, 323-328, 331-346, 357-362, 377-382, 427-430, 449-456, 459, 460 and 471-486, from the front to the back of the volume. The numbering is written in ink, in the top right and left corner of the recto and verso respectively.
Abstract: This file contains copies of a series of letters (and their various enclosures) between Admiral Sir Leopold George Heath, Commander of HMS
Octaviaand the following individuals:The Secretary of the Admiralty, Lord Henry George Charles Gordon-Lennox;Britain's Agent in Zanzibar, Henry Adrian Churchill;The Secretary of the Admiralty, William Edward Baxter;The Governor of Bombay, Sir William Robert Seymour Vesey Fitzgerald.The correspondence, that dates from October 1868 to June 1869, concerns Commodore Heath's visit to Zanzibar regarding the slave trade on the East Coast of Africa and the means he suggested in order to stop it.Physical description: Condition: the file is contained within a bound volume that contains a number of other files.Foliation: The foliation for this description commences at f 92, and terminates at f 97, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is also present in parallel between ff 5-134; these numbers are written in pencil, but are not circled, and can be found in the same position as the main sequence.
Abstract: Enclosures nos. 3-6 to dispatch no. 7 from the Secret Department, Bombay Castle, dated 27 March 1861. The enclosures are dated August 1860 to March 1861. Received 19 April 1861.The enclosures include correspondence from Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Palmer Rigby, HM Consul and British Agent, Zanzibar, describing recent slave trading activity at Zanzibar, and the role played by the French Consul there.Physical description: 1 item (13 folios)
Abstract: Enclosures nos. 3-4 to dispatch no. 21 from the Secret Department, Bombay Castle, dated 21 June 1861. The enclosures are dated April 1861. Received 15 [?] July 1861.The enclosures consist of letters from Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Palmer Rigby, HM Consul and British Agent, Zanzibar, concerning the involvement of 'piratical Arab tribes' in the slave trade at Zanzibar. The second letter includes translations into English of Arabic letters found on the dhows involved.Physical description: 1 item (6 folios)
Abstract: This item consists of a copy of a Political Despatch from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India, dated 17 January 1873, forwarding papers regarding Sir Bartle Frere’s mission in connection with the trade in enslaved East African people, with reference to the correspondence ending with the telegram from the Secretary in Political and Secret Department, dated 14 November 1872.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at f 95, and terminates at f 99a, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. The sequence contains five foliation anomalies: f 95a, f 96a, f 97a, f 98a, and f 99a.
Abstract: This item consists of copies of a Political Despatch from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India, dated 16 June 1874 and received via Brindisi on 13 July 1874, forwarding, for information, copies of papers regarding the arrangements made by the Political Agent and Consul-General at Zanzibar for the disposal of one hundred and ninety-four enslaved persons captured off the Madagascar Coast by HMS
Daphneon 13 March 1874.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with f 276 and terminates at f 281a, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. The sequence contains six foliation anomalies, f 276a, 277a, 278a, 279a, 280a, and 281a.
Abstract: This item consists of copies of a Political Despatch from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India, dated 30 June 1874 and received by the India Office Political Department on 27 July 1874, forwarding copies of further correspondence and proceedings connected with ‘slave-dealing’ carried on by ‘natives’ of India at Zanzibar, in continuation of Despatch No. 66 of 4 April 1874 (IOR/L/PS/6/117, ff 333-357).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with f 365 and terminates at f 381, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. The sequence contains two foliation anomalies: f 366a and f 380a.
Abstract: This item consists of a copy of a Political Despatch from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India, dated 15 September 1873 and received by the India Office Secret Department on 13 October 1873, forwarding a copy of papers relating to the circumstances connected with the ratification, by the Sultan of Zanzibar, of the Treaty abolishing the trade in enslaved people. The despatch is in continuation of Political No. 57 of 16 June 1873.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at f 303, and terminates at f 311, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. The sequence contains one foliation anomaly: f 303a.
Abstract: This item consists of copies of a Political Despatch from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India, dated 24 January 1873 and received via Brindisi on 17 February 1873, forwarding a copy of papers regarding the capture of a ‘slave dhow’ by HMS
Vulture, and stating that, pending the receipt of a reply to the separate despatch, relative to the source from whence the cost of ‘liberated’ enslaved people should be met, a separate account of the expenditure incurred on behalf of the enslaved people released by the
Vulturewill be kept and charged to ‘Political Agencies’.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at f 155, and terminates at f 160a, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. The sequence contains six foliation anomalies: f 155a, f 156a, f 157a, f 158a, f 159a, and f 160a.
Abstract: This item consists of copies of a Political Despatch from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India, dated 9 October 1873 and received via Brindisi on 3 November 1873, forwarding copies of papers, chiefly correspondence and reports of HM Political Agent and Consul in Zanzibar, relating to measures for the suppression of the slave trade and the general conditions of affairs in Zanzibar. The despatch is in continuation of Political No. 153 of 15 September 1873.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at f 255, and terminates at f 291a, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. The sequence contains three foliation anomalies: f 255a, f 273a, and f 291a.