'Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government' [‎221] (263/733)

MUSK AT.
221
be they Somalees, or be they Abyssinians,—one and all are like
prohibited.
The agreement for the suppression of the slave trade was shortly
followed by another convention,* wherein His Highness established
certain rules, regulating the amount to be paid by vessels entering the
port of Muskat, or any other of His Highness' ports. It was thereby
enacted that in all the harbours pertaining to His Highness, a full duty
of five per cent, should be exacted on all cargoes transhipped from
one vessel into another ; that no vessel of any nation should pay duty
on cargo landed at any of his ports, should such vessel have either put
in through stress of weather, or for purpose of refit, and should such
cargo be re-embarked in her; and lastly,, it was therein stipulated that
on no occasion should duty be charged on stores belonging to the
British Government that might be landed at any of His Highness' ports.
The above rules, it will be observed, affect vessels of every nation,
and not exclusively those of the British State. I have thought them,
however, worthy of a passing notice, believing, as I do, that they owe
their origin to the Resident in the Persian Grulf, who, on more than one
occasion, found himself at a loss how to decide certain claims for im
munity from charges on transhipment of cargoes in Muskat harbour,
that were referred for his decision by the British Agent at that port.
The want of defined regulations for the settlement of such like cases
was represented by him (the Resident) to the Bombay Government,
and on the 13th April 1846 His Highness was induced to establish the
rules above mentioned.
Early in the summer of 1846 attention was called to the disturbed
A D lg46 state of affairs that existed in the Imaum's rented
possessions on the Persian Coast. The proceed
ings connected with this affair extending over a period of more than
two years, and being well nigh productive of serious complications, it
may not be amiss to enter somewhat fully into an account of the
cause of the disagreement, and to watch its progress through all its
phases.
The Imaum had two grounds of complaint ; the first, though it gave
rise to much irritation, being comparatively speaking of little impor
tance, shall be told as briefly as possible, and at once diposed of:
In the year 1846 Mahomed Ali Bundera, an influential merchant
of Muskat, visited the town of Bushire. Meerza Abbas, at that time
governor, hearing that the new arrival was possessed of much wealth,
and instigated, it was said, by the evil counsels of one Meer Banker,
a Bushire merchant of no repute, resolved by some means or another
to extort from his visitor a large sum of money. Mahomed Ali Bundera
* A copy of which will be found at page 259 of this Selection.