'Papers Respecting the Slave Trade on the East Coast of Africa and the System Pursued for its Suppression' [‎34v] (8/72)

The Governor-General of India in Council to Sir 8. Northcote.
Sir, Fort William, January 14, 1868.
WITH reference to paragraph 3 of our despatch No. 107 dated 22nd June last, we
have the honour to forward copy of a further correspondence with the Bombay Government
regarding the subsidy due by the Sultan of Zanzibar to the Ruler of Muscat,
2. You will observe that we have agreed to His Highness' proposal to make the
necessary payment through the Bombay Government.
We have, &c.
(Signed) JOHN LAWRENCE.
W. N. MANSFIELD.
G. N. TAYLOR.
W. MASSEY.
H. M. DURAND.
W. MUIR.
Inclosure 2 in No. 6.
The Secretary to the Government, Bombay, to the Foreign Secretary, India, Calcutta.
(No. 274.) December 10, 1867.
I AM directed to transmit copy of a letter from the political agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. at Zanzibar,
Nos. 334-64, of the 16th September last, inclosing a reply from the Sultan of Zanzibar to
the khureeta An important letter usually sent in an elaborate textile pouch, dispatched as part of the royal or diplomatic correspondence of rulers and elites. from his Excellency the Governor-General of India, forwarded with your
letter dated the 22nd May last, No. 493. A translation of the letter is inclosed.
2. With reference to the intimation conveyed by the Sultan regarding the payment
of the arrears of subsidy due to Muscat, 1 am to state that, should the money be
offered to this Government by the agent of His Highness, it will be received; but no
demand for payment will be made pending the receipt of instructions from the Government
of India.
Inclosure 3 in No. 6.
Mr. Churchill to the Chief Secretary to Government, Bombay.
(No. 334.) September 16, 1867.
1. 1 RECEIVED by the mail that reached this on the 2nd instant your despatch
No. 1939 of the 6th June, relative to the subsidy to be paid by the Sultan of Zanzibar to
the Treasury of Muscat.
2. The subject, as you are aware, is a peculiarly tender point with Seyd Majid, and in
His Highness' present state of health, I thought it well to prepare him for the reception
of his Excellency the Governor-General's decision.
3. It was, therefore, only the third day after the arrival of the mails that I placed the
"Viceroy's letter into Seyd Majid's hands.
I remained several days without knowing, or making any efforts to ascertain, the
effect that his Excellency's firm injunctions had produced on the mind of His Highness,
refraining from making any inquiry lest he should be led to suppose that I entertained
a sort of doubt as to his complying with his Excellency's recommendations.
4. After three days' meditation Sultan Majid sent me his Secretary to read to me the
Viceroy's letter in Arabic. Shaikh Suliman, having drawn my attention to the words
"kharaj" and "bee tassaduk" contained therein, observed that the Sultan was as much
affected and pained by the terms in which his Excellency the Viceroy's letter was couched
as by its purport, for he was not only requested to pay the subsidy, of which he had
hoped the English Government would have spared him the shame, but this subsidy was
now for the first time, called "tribute," and his representations to the Government of
India were said to be "false," or "not to be believed."
5. I replied to Shaikh Suliman that I had carefully read the Viceroy's letter sent to
me in English, and that I had reason to believe His Highness' impression of the tenor of
Sir John Lawrence's letter was incorrect, but that the erroneous impression was solely to
be attributed to the translation in Arabic, for, in the English copy, I found the word