Page 206 - Arabian Studies (II)

198 Arabian Studies II
NOTES

1. The Honourable East India Company’s schooner-of-war Malii.
2. The Honourable East India Company’s 18-gun sloop Cootc.
3. The Ann Crichton.
4. Commander Denton of the Cootc and Commander (later Captain)
Stafford Bettesworth Haines, Political Agent. Haines was one of the brilliant
marine surveyors belong to the Indian Navy, whose records provide so much
information about the countries of the Indian Ocean in the early nineteenth
century. He was thirty-six when he began his career as virtual Governor of Aden
in 1839, which was to end in disgrace in 1852. There was a large deficit when,
after a period of thirteen years’ neglect, during which his repeated requests for
qualified staff had been ignored, his accounts were audited. Prosecuted for
embezzlement in Bombay, he was acquitted, but a civil action was then brought
against him by the Company which he lost, and he was committed to Mazagan
jail in Bombay as a civil debtor. After six years in jail he was released on grounds
of ill-health but died soon afterwards. Neither the audit nor the manner in which
the legal proceedings were conducted would be acceptable today.
5. This may be a reply to the letter sent by Haines on 29 December.
6. Captain Newbery, master of the Kite.
7. G. Newnham Wright and J. Watkins, The Life and Reign of William the
Fourth, London, 1837.
8. The Northern Gateway or Main Pass, sometimes called Bab al-Yaman.
9. QadT Zain al-‘Aidarus, called below the Xariffe (Sharif).
10. The Berenice, an armed steamer.
11. The important despatches may be the recall of the British troops in
Afghanistan after the Persian forces had abandoned the siege of Herat in 1838.
The Ambassador sent by the Imam was Ali bin Nasir, Governor of Mombasa,
who had been sent to London by Seyid Said of Muscat to present his
congratulations to Queen Victoria on her accession.
12. The Atalanta, an armed steam sloop.
13. Sir Charles Malcolm’s appointment was Superintendent of the Indian
Navy.
14. The actual figures in Commander Haines report were ‘on our side 15
killed and wounded ... The loss of the Arabs was 150 killed and wounded.’
15. Captain N. Smith, Senior Naval Officer Aden in charge of the naval
operations at the capture of Aden.
16. Lieutenant Evans of the First Bombay Regiment, subsequently the Royal
Dublin Fusiliers.
17. Either Mr Dawson, agent of the coaling company at Aden, or Mr Dent.
18. Captain Newbery of the Kite. Lieutenant Johnstone of the Coote, and
Mr Dawson or Mr Dent.
19. 6th Company of 4th Battalion of Bombay Artillery and Bombay Marine
Battalion, later 121st Pioneers.
20. Affonso d’Albuquerque attacked Aden in 1513 but was unable to take it.
He did not lose 2000 men.
21. Major Thomas Bailie, Officer Commanding the Military Forces at Aden.