Measures for the Suppression of the Trade in Enslaved Persons

Content

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay From c. 1668-1858, the East India Company’s administration in the city of Bombay [Mumbai] and western India. From 1858-1947, a subdivision of the British Raj. It was responsible for British relations with the Gulf and Red Sea regions. Secret Department to the Secret Committee Pre-1784, the Committee responsible for protecting East India Company shipping. Post-1784, its main role was to transmit communications between the Board of Control and the Company's Indian governments on matters requiring secrecy. , Number 59 of 1856, dated 12 August 1856. The enclosures are dated 6 July-8 August 1856.

The enclosures comprise communications between Brigadier William Marcus Coghlan, Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in Aden, and the Government of Bombay From c. 1668-1858, the East India Company’s administration in the city of Bombay [Mumbai] and western India. From 1858-1947, a subdivision of the British Raj. It was responsible for British relations with the Gulf and Red Sea regions. , regarding their efforts to suppress the trade in enslaved persons in the Red and Arabian seas and Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. regions, notably the following:

• The desire to clearly define the powers of British vessels with regard to seizing ships sailing under the Ottoman flag, given the inability of Indian Navy officers to cite the Secret Treaty between Britain and the Ottoman Sultan as justification for any acts of seizure
• The question of how to proceed regarding the seizure of vessels sailing under the flag of independent Arab ‘chiefs’ who do not have agreements with Britain, such as the rulers of Maculla and Shuhr [Mukalla and Ash Shihr], or those who may be vassals of the Imam of Muscat and who may therefore come under the provisions of Britain’s treaty with the Imam
• The Government of Bombay’s intention to refer to the Secret Committee Pre-1784, the Committee responsible for protecting East India Company shipping. Post-1784, its main role was to transmit communications between the Board of Control and the Company's Indian governments on matters requiring secrecy. and the Home Authorities the question of obtaining a more effective instrument from the Sublime Porte [Ottoman or Turkish Government] and a clearer definitions regarding the powers of the Indian Navy
• Coghlan’s correspondence with Captain John James Frushard, Senior Naval Officer, Aden, and Senior Lieutenant G N Adams, Officiating Senior Naval Officer, Aden, regarding the searching of vessels for enslaved persons within Turkish ports, including: notification to Frushard of the Secret Treaty and suggestion that a vessel of war be kept in the harbour of Perim Island to watch the Straits of Bebel-Mandeb [Bab el-Mandeb] for ‘slave vessels’; a report from Lieutenant Walker, Indian Navy, Commanding the HC [Honourable Company’s] schooner Mahi asserting that in his experience most of the strait cannot be seen from a ship’s mast head at Perim, relating his searches of ships at Mocha, Mussowah [Massawa] and Hodeida [Al Hudaydah], and reporting the objections of the Governor of Mussowah to a foreign ship searching vessels under his jurisdiction; the desire of Raffaello Barroni, Agent to Walter Chichele Plowden, HM Consul in Abyssinia [now Ethiopia], to have a vessel stationed at Massowah and Adam’s view that this is probably because Barroni ‘imagines the political horizon about there rather dark’ (f 491); and Coghlan’s request to Adams that Walker should not search Turkish [Ottoman] vessels in Turkish ports as it is likely to give offence, and to wait for a clear code of instructions from the authorities in England and Bombay.

Extent and format

1 item (12 folios)

It is part of

'ENCLOSURES TO SECRET LETTERS FROM BOMBAY', Vol 125

998 images

Ref: IOR/L/PS/5/487

Written in

English in Latin script

Type

Archival item

Access & Reference

Original held at

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.

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

IOR/L/PS/5/487, ff 484-495

Former external reference(s)

No. 59 of 1856

History of this record

Date(s)

12 Aug 1856 (CE, Gregorian)

Subjects

JurisdictionTreatiesNaval operationsSlave trade

Places

Red SeaPersian Gulf

People & organisations

Senior Naval Officer at AdenGovernment of BombayGovernment of the Ottoman EmpirePolitical Agent

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Measures for the Suppression of the Trade in Enslaved Persons, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/5/487, ff 484-495, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157091557.0x00001e> [accessed 3 August 2026]

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