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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1873' [‎87v] (181/670)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (332 folios). It was created in Dec 1872- Dec 1873. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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122
they were transported by buggalow Large trading vessel. to Massowah. Tahir Agha was
received with great distinction at Massowah, where the object of his
mission was a secret to no one.
Later in the year, the son of Aboobekr, the Ameer of Zaila,
arrived at Massowah with two young eunuchs (some people said a
much larger number) as a present for the Viceroy, and this party was
also conveyed to Suez in a Government steamer. It is reported that
negotiations are in progress for the transfer of Zaila and Tajurra from
the Turkish to the Egyptian Government, and that the object of
Aboobekr in making this present was to ingratiate himself with the
Viceroy.
A French subject, the overseer of the works now being carried
on in connexion with Munzinger Bey’s aqueduct, complained to me
that on a recent occasion two female servants had been openly
abducted from his house, while he was sitting at dinner with his wife,
and had been sold to certain persons at Massowah, whom he knew.
The persons concerned in this affair were the irregular Egyptian
soldiers, who are under the general control of Abdullah Effendi; but
the Frenchman informed me that the whole population of the villages
were more or less implicated in the traffic, and that, on searching in
some of the houses for the abducted girls, he had found them full of
slaves. He further stated that he] had made a formal complaint to the
French Vice-Consul, who however had been unable to obtain for him
any redress. I inquired why he did not apply for protection to the
Governor, on which he significantly remarked that he was in the
service of that Officer.
I had a long conversation with the French Vice-Consul {see p. 64o)
upon the subject of the slave trade. M. de Sarzec stated that he was
fully aware of the extent to which the traffic is carried on at Massowah ;
that he has used his utmost endeavours to cope with it, but that such
a task is entirely beyond his powers; that no heed is paid to his
frequent representations ; and that without the support of another Con
sular Officer nothing can be done. This gentleman only arrived at
Massowah in June 1872, and as the duties of the Consulate during
the preceding year had been discharged by a German gentleman,
who had been nominated by Munzinger Bey on his appointment as
Governor of Massowah, the influence and prestige which the French
Consulate had formerly possessed had almost disappeared.
It must in justice be added that no one in Massowah (at least no
one amongst those who have the best means of judging) includes the
piesent Governor amongst those who openly profit by, or even coun
tenance, the slave trade. All that is said is that no cases are ever
biought to his notice by his subordinates, and that he shuts his eye to
what goes on around him. The position of a Christian Governor in
a Mussulman country is a peculiarly difficult one ; and whilst Mun-
zingei Bey is earnestly labouring for the material prosperity of the
distiicts undei his administration, moral and social questions are left

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Content

Confidential printed abstracts of letters received by the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. from the Government of India, and from senior officials in certain areas outside India, during the year 1873. The letters are dated December 1872-December 1873. The abstracts each have one of the following titles:

  • Abstracts of Letters received from India
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Sir B Frere
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Aden
  • Abstracts of Military Letters received from India
  • Abstracts of Secret Letters received from India
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar, Bushire [Bushehr] and Aden
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire and Aden
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire.

Each abstract contains summaries of one or more letters from the specified source, each with a title giving the subject of the letter. Letters from India are divided within each abstract by the branch or department of the Government of India they originated from. The correspondence covers issues including:

  • Arrangements for preserving the historical records of the Government of India
  • Judicial affairs, including the detention of Kooka [Namdhari/Kuka Sikh] insurgents as political prisoners and the question of jurisdiction over British subjects in Persia [Iran] and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
  • Land issues, including plantations of tea, cinchona, and opium poppy, exploration for coal deposits, and land revenue settlements
  • Revenue, expenditure, and taxation
  • Pay, pensions, recruitment, and other personnel issues in the Indian Civil and Military establishments
  • Public works, including railways, canals and irrigation
  • Education
  • Telegraphy, including international telegraphic links with India
  • Affairs concerning Princely States, including issues of succession, internal administration, the education of heirs, debts, and railways
  • Anticipated famine in Bengal
  • Issues concerning emigration from India to British, French, and Dutch colonies, including the proposed emigration of Indian labourers to Fiji
  • Military affairs, including the organisation and supply of military units
  • Military operations, including an expedition in the Garo Hills and counter-insurgency operations against the Moplahs [Mappilas] in Malabar
  • Affairs in Persia, including: requests from the Persian Government for seconded Prussian and French army officers; frontier disputes between Persia and Turkey; the arbitration of the Mekran [Makran] and Seistan [Sistan] borders; a proposed railway from the Caspian Sea to Teheran [Tehran]
  • Affairs in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and Arabian Peninsula, including: conflict in Nejd [Emirate of Najd] between Saood [Sa’ūd bin Fayṣal Al Sa’ūd] and Abdullah [‘Abdullāh bin Fayṣal Al Sa’ūd]; the Turkish [Ottoman] occupation of Lahsa [Al Hasa] and suspected Turkish designs on the Gulf coast; and the slave trade
  • Affairs in and around Aden Settlement, in particular Turkish activity in the region
  • Affairs in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, in particular the consolidation of and challenges to the rule of the Sultan Syud Toorkee [Sayyid Turkī bin Sa’īd Āl Bū Sa’īd]
  • Affairs in Zanzibar, including the slave trade, the Zanzibar Subsidy to Muscat, and contact with the mission of Dr David Livingstone in Central Africa
  • Affairs in the Red Sea, including the illegal destruction of dhows by the British ship Thetis and suspected Egyptian designs on Berbera,
  • Sir Bartle Frere’s mission to investigate the slave trade in East Africa, negotiations with the Sultans of Zanzibar and Muscat for treaties to suppress the slave trade, and recommendations for other anti-slavery measures
  • Affairs in Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. [Ottoman Iraq], including the administration of Reouf Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. [Muḥammad Ra'ūf Pāshā], a steamer service operated by the British India Steam Navigation Company between Bussora [Basra] and Bagdad [Baghdad], and a prohibition on the export of Arab horses
  • Affairs in Central Asia, including: arbitration of the northern border of Affghanistan [Afghanistan]; discussions with Russia concerning spheres of influence in the region; affairs in Eastern Turkestan [Xinjiang] and the proposed expedition of Thomas Forsyth to Yarkund [Yarkant]; a Russian expedition against Khiva; the visit to India of envoys from Affghanistan and Bokhara [Bukhara]
  • Affairs in Burmah [Burma/Myanmar]
  • Affairs in Siam [Thailand], Nipal [Nepal], and Thibet [Tibet]
  • The Panthay Rebellion in China.

The primary correspondents are:

Extent and format
1 volume (332 folios)
Arrangement

The abstracts are arranged in roughly chronological order. A detailed index of subjects, places and people mentioned in the correspondence is included on folios 323-329.

Physical characteristics

​Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 332; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.

Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1873' [‎87v] (181/670), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100138597906.0x0000b6> [accessed 30 June 2026]

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