Enclosures of letter to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India, No.11, dated 15 January 1875: Nos. 3 to 45 of Abstract of Contents, from the Officiating Under-Secretary to the Government of India, Fort William [‎58r] (13/100)

and again in March 1874, when about to proceed to Nowsaree with His Highness
the Maharaja, the threats and manifestations of the personal feeling to which
I refer, were frequent and virulent, though there was no difference in the per
sonal bearing of ilis Highness towards me and has not been up to about a
month ago.
23. During the early part of this period which may be termed the sorcery
stage of Mulhar llao's insults and threats, a Delhi Hakim in the service of His
Highness was going about Baroda with a middle-sized magic bottle in which
my name was written both in English and Persian characters. However absurd
this proceeding may appear, it should be remembered that it was done for the
benelit of a public who have the most profound belief in magic; and I have
no doubt whatever that this magical performance was exhibited in order to show
that the Resident was in the hands of the Maharaja's magicians; indeed none
in His Highness' service would have dared to have acted in such a public
manner towards the Resident without the Maharaja's instigation or consent. His
Highness himself conversed with me on the subject of this magic bottle on one
or two occasions, and I clearly remember his asking how it was possible
that a written inscription could have been made inside such a narrow necked
bottle except by magic (Jadoo). Taking this in conjunction with the unsatis
factory An East India Company trading post. state of affairs and the threats of sorcery being used against one which
I was then receiving, I could not but feel that the object in view was to inti
midate and insult me, but I allowed the matter to pass with little or no
remark. * . i -t ■,
24. Next in order to this occurrence came the contempt and ridicule
which were thrown upon the Members of the Commission and the Resident in
a dramatic performance which took place before His Highness the Maharaja in
January 1874, as already reported to Government.
25. On our arrival at Nowsaree at the end of March 1874 I did not fail
to remark that the Maharaja posted his confidential Arab servant, Salam,
Madho Rao Kalay and others of his household as spies close to the house in
which I resided. I was at the same time anonymously warned against the
presence of these men as dangerous. On the day that under the orders of
Government I refused to attend Luxmee Race's marriage (7th May) the
Delhi Hakim above referred to appeared again with the magic bottle, and
I was afterwards told that he actually came to my bungalow with it. What
ever his object may have been, it was a sinister one, calculated to throw
contempt upon the Government of which I was the representative, and had I
seen the Hakim, I should most certainly have instituted an enquiry into the
matter. I was separately warned of this Hakim's proceedings on this occasion
in an anonymous letter.
20. A day or two after this, Mr. Dadabhai Now^rojee made his false and
malicious attack upon me in 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. of the 9th May to the address of
His Excellency the Governor; and I again received a long anonymous letter
informing me of the measures that were being adopted by the Maharaja to
destrov both my native Assistant Mr. Manibhai and myself. It was stated in that
letter that I was to be poisoned by my bottler, meaning no doubt the Chobdar
and table servant Faizoo, who, however, had been fortunately left behind at
Baroda to take care of the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. : consequently no attempt to poison me
was made at Nowsaree. I, however, cautioned my bottler (a Portuguese) who
is strictly honest and trustworthy and has served me for 25 years, not to allow
the Arab sowar In the East India Company army and later Indian Army, an ordinary native cavalryman or mounted cavalryman. Salam or any of Ilis Highness' servants to come near the
cook-room under any pretence whatever. I now feel assured that had the table ser
vant Faizoo been at Nowsaree at that time, an attempt would have been made
to poison me in consequence of the ungovernable rage of the Gaekwar at the
non-recognition by Government of his marriage with Luxmee Baee.
27. At the end of May 1874, we returned to Baroda, where the same
system * of persecution and insult continued. I have more than once been
solicited by prominent members of the Durbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family). to disobey Government
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