"مذكرة تتعلق بالملاحة في نهري دجلة والفرات". [ظ‎‎١‎٢] (٢٨٤/٢٥)

10
interests of Great Britain, and might add to
the facilities for a speedy and -regular trans
mission of mails between the Persian Gulf and
the coast of Syria.
He was also instructed to complete the surveys Malet, pp. 133,
1 rr* • 134.
of the Eivers Euphrates and iigns.
The bead-quarters of the 44 Euphrates ,, were at
Bussorah, and she was employed in navigating
and surveying the Tigris as well as the Euphrates
without any objection being raised tbeieto,
although the firman of 1831 only applied to the
latter river. In 1837 and in 1838 she ascended Consul Werrj,
the Tigris to Bagdad and Mosul, the Euphrates ^ y \ 0) 18 3 7
for about 500 miles as far as Hit, and she Low's« History of
traversed the Saklawiya Canal connecting the ^ avy "
Tigris and Euphrates above Bagdad.
In 1838 the East India Company, at the instance India Board to
of Colonel Taylor, decided to send out three more leptember^fsss'
steamers to the Mesopotamian rivers. The
latter suggested the expediency of stationing
two or three small steamers, well manned, armed,
and equipped," on the Euphrates and Tigris in
aid of the general services expected of the larger
vessel, the " Euphrates."
The matter was regarded as secret, and no
papers exist in the Foreign Office archives or can
be found at the India Office to explain in more
detail the reasons for dispatching these vessels, or
whether any permission was obtained from the
Turkish Government for stationing them in the
rivers of Mesopotamia. But the fact remains that
the steamers arrived in pieces, were reconstructed,
and launched in 1810, and that they navigated Colonel Rose,
and surveyed the rivers and regularly carried jutyu, i84i.
mails up the Tigris without apparently any
protest on the part of the Turkish Govern
ment.
At this time the flotilla consisted of four Secret Committee
vessels, the "Euphrates," the ''Assyria," the t0 the East India
4 Nimrod," and the " Nitocris," and was under December 3, 1839.
the command of Lieutenant Lynch, subject to the p. 134.
orders of the political agent.
On the 19th August, 1841 (Appendix IV), a
firman was issued to the Pasha of Bagdad
instructing him to assist Captain Lenj (Lynch)
in the navigation of the Euphrates by two
steamers under his command. The purport of
this firman resembled that of the firman of 1834,
and referred only to vessels belonging to the
British Government on the Euphrates.
This firman was not sent to the Eoreign Office