Page 187 - Arabian Studies (II)

THE FIRST DAYS OF BRITISH ADEN:

THE DIARY OF JOHN STUDDY LEIGH
by JAMES KIRKMAN and BRIAN DOE

Introduction

At the end of December 1838, a young Englishman aged twenty four, John
Studdy Leigh, arrived at Aden. He was supercargo of a trading vessel, the Kite,
owned by an English company Newman Hunt and Christopher which had been
trading on the East African coast since the early 1830s. He had come from
Zanzibar and had spent a month on the Somali coast of Alula and Berbera,
I buying gum arabic and myrrh. He was of an enquiring as well as a sociable
disposition, and his diary, in the well-known collection of Mr Quentin Keynes,
suggests that he was as much interested in seeing the world as in making money
out of it. He arrived at the moment when the operations were in hand which
resulted in the British occupation of Aden.
The British occupation of Aden in 1839 has been well described by Gordon
Waterfield in Sultans of Aden (London 1968). The primary object was to obtain
a secure coaling station for the steamers which were running a regular service
between Suez and Bombay. The East India Company was also aware of the
commercial possibilities and an improved facility for protecting the Indian
traders who were numerous at Mocha and other ports of the Yemen. However
Britain was not the only Power interested in acquiring control of the decayed
port. Muhammad Ali, the ruler of Egypt, was also interested in extending his
domains not only in Nejd, where he was already established, but all over the
i
Arabian peninsula. Aden was under the rule of the ‘AbdalT Sultan of Lahej,
Muhsin b. Fadl. Negotiations were commenced with the object on the British
side of a complete hand-over of authority over the town and all its inhabitants.
The Sultan was reluctant to surrender authority over the Arabs whom he
considered his subjects, though in exchange for British protection he was ready
to grant jurisdiction over all non-Arabs; however, he feared that he might lose
Aden in any case to the Egyptians without any financial compensation. The
British representative was Commander (later Captain) Stafford Bettesworth
Haines of the Indian Navy who had been surveying the harbours on the
Arabian coast. In January 1839 the negotiations were concluded and an
agreement was signed for the handing-over of the town for an annual payment of
$8 700. However, this was merely the beginning; the Sultan’s sons refused to
recognise the treaty, the Sultan changed his mind, shots were fired and it was
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