Page 732 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

686 SLAVE TRADE.

property of Persian subjects,—with those Government vessels there is
to be no interference whatever. The Persian Government agrees that
in no manner whatever shall any Negro slaves be imported in the ves­
sels of the Persian Government.
The Agreement is this :—
I. That in giving this permission to search mercantile vessels, and
those of subjects, the search shall from the first to the last be effected
with the co-operation, intervention, and knowledge of Persian officers,
who are to be on board vessels of the English Government.
II. The merchant vessels shall not be detained longer than is neces­
sary to effect the search for slaves. If slaves should be found in any of
those vessels, the British authorities are to take possession of them, and
to carry them away, without detaining or causing them (that is the
people of the ship importing slaves) any other damage besides that of
depriving them of the slaves. The vessel itself in which the slaves
have been imported shall, by the co-operation and knowledge of the
officers of the Persian Government, who are on board of the British
cruisers, be delivered to the authorities of the Persian ports, who are
there on the part of the Persian Government; and the authorities of this
(the Persian) Government are to punish and fine, in a manner suitable
to the crime he has committed, the owner of that slaving vessel who has
acted in contravention of the commands of His Majesty the King of
Persia, by importing slaves.
The British ships of war are not in any manner to interfere with the
Persian trading vessels without the co-operation of the Persian Govern­
ment officers; but the Persian Government officers must not on their
part be remiss in the duty committed to them.
This Convention is to be in force for a period of eleven years, and
after these eleven years have expired, and the stipulated period has
elapsed, if the Persian vessels shall be interfered with, for even a single
day beyond the eleven years, it will be opposed to the course of friend­
ship with the Persian Government, and to the maintenance of her rights,
and this Government will make a demand for satisfaction.
If the slaves who have been heretofore in Persia, and are now there,
should, from the present date, and henceforward, wish to proceed by
sea on a pilgrimage to Mecca, or to India, or travel by sea, they must,
with the knowledge of the British Resident in Bushire, procure a pass­
port from the officer at the head of the Persian Passport Office in Bushire,
and no exception shall hereafter be taken to any slave holding a pass­
port. The passport (regulation) obtained with the knowledge of the
British Resident at Bushire is, like the other stipulations written above,
to be for a period of eleven years.
This agreement of the right of search, and the appointment of the