Page 9 - Gulf Precis (I-A)_Neat

PREFACE.

A connected and authoritative history of the East India Company’s con­
nection with the Persian Gulf is still a desideratum, which this
Summary and Selections arc intended to meet to some extent. The period
covered by them isexaotly two hundred years beginning with the enterprises
of the pioneers of the East India Company in Porsia and closing with the
Embassies of Mehdi Ali Khan and Captain John Malcolm to Maskat and
Persia, with which there dawns a new era in our dealings with the Persian
Shah and the Arab Chiefs of Eastern Arabia, a political as well as a commercial
policy superseding a purely commercial policy that had been pursued
previously.
The Summary of Events from 1600 to 1800 is taken from the following
materials: —
(1) Purchas His Pilgritnes.—[Purchas, the first histriographer of the
East India Company, brought out the materials supplied to him
in this work, out of which we have utilized the journals of
Monox and the Company’s other Agents in connection with
Persian affairs.]
(2) Bruce's Annals of the Post India Company, three volumes (1600
—1708).
(3) Calendar of State Papers (East Indies)—Eive Volumes from 1513
to 1634.

(4) Letters received by the East India Company.—Volumes I to VI.
(5) The First Letter Book of the Fast India Company.—By Messrs.
Birdwood and Poster.
(6) The Embassy of Sir Thomas Poe to India.—By Mr. Foster (Hakluyt
Society Edition).
(7) Selections from State Papers, Bombay (Home Series).—By
Forrest, 2 volumes.
(8) Precis of information regarding the East India Company's con­
nection with Turkish Arabia, 1646—1846.—Prepared by the
Bombay Government and printed at the Government Central
Press in Calcutta.
(9) Report of the India Office Records relating to Persia and the
Persian-Gulf—By Mr. F. C. Danvers.
(10) The Selections.—Now printed in this volume.
The Prdcis of the Bombay Government (No. 7) is an official print not
available to the publio.
2578 F. D.