Page 286 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence
P. 286
244 MUSK AT.
granted, on the requisition of Captain Moresby, permission for the
ships of war of His Majesty the King of England to seize Arab vessels
with slaves on board to the eastward of Cape Delgado, passing sixtv
miles to the eastward of Socotra, on to Din Head, the western point of
the Gulf of Cambay, unless driven by stress of weather. This permis
sion granted to His Majesty’s ships only, and not to the cruisers of the
Honorable Company. On the 17lh December 1839, the Imaum
consented to three additional articles being added to the Treaty con
cluded by Captain Moresby on the 7th and 10th September 1822, in
which the following stipulations were agreed to :—
In the event of the Government cruisers meeting thelmaum’s vessels,
or those of his subjects, in a line drawn from Cape Delgado, two degrees
eastward of Socotra, ending at Pussem, suspected of being engaged in
the slave trade, the cruisers to be permitted to detain and search them, and
if found carrying on the slave trade beyond these limits, the cruisers to
be allowed to seize and confiscate such vessels and their cargo, unless
such vessels were driven by stress of weather beyond the line, in which
case they were not to be seized; the sale of all Somalecs (a free
people) to be considered as piracy, and all persons convicted of selling
Somalees to be punished as pirates.
These additional concessions were granted by the Imaum on the
requisition of Lieutenant Colonel Hennell, Resident in the Persian
Gulf.
On the 18th August 1845, in a letter to Captain Hamerton, Her Bri
tannic Majesty’s Consul, and Honorable Company’s Agent, His High-
ness the Imaum consented to rectify an omission in Article IV. of the
Arabic version of the Treaty of the 7th September 1822, when His
Highness'declared it incumbent on himself, his heirs, fcc. to assist to
apprehend British subjects engaged in the slave trade, on a requisition
from the accredited Agent of Government.
On the 31st May 1839, a Commercial Treaty was concluded at Zanzi
bar, between Her Britannic Majesty and His Highness the Imaum of
Muskat, by Captain Robert Cogan, of the Honorable Company’s naval
service, in which is provided for as follows:—
Reciprocal liberty of intercourse, trade, and residence; commercia
privileges of the most favoured nations; purchase, sale, or hire o
houses in the Imaum’s dominions; inviolability of houses an
warehouses; search of ditto in certain cases; appointment an pri
servants of British subjects;
vileges of Consuls ; protection of Natives,
punishment of ditto ; settlement of disputes between British su jec s,
and between them and other subjects ; disposal of property o .
persons, and of the property of British bankrupts ; recovery o e ’
duly on British goods; exemptiou of British ships entering 0 r ’