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CHAPTER V.
Runaway Slaves at Gwadur and claims of the Rinds of Mand for
their restoration. Disturbances created by the Rinds.
84. One great source of disturbance on the Mekran coast has been the raids
and robberies of the unruly tribe of the Rinds of Mand, which have mainly been
due to the action taken in liberating their slaves escaping to Gwadur. We shall
trace here the history of the Rind troubles though in doing this we have to
touch on other incidental matters, which have little to do with 6lave question,
but which being inseparably intermixed with it, cannot be left aside.
85. The Slave Trade Treaty signed in 1873 by the Sultan of Maskat
provides—
“ And all persons hereafter entering the Sultan’s dominions and dependencies shall be
free.
“ The Sultan engages to protect to the utmost of his power ail liberated slaves and to
punish severely any attempt to molest them or reduce them again into slavery.”
S6. The treaty applied to Gwadur, a port belonging to the Sultan of Maskat
on the coast of Mekran. The difficulty of enforcing the treaty here arose not so
much from the importation of African slaves from over the coast, but from the fugi­
tive slaves from Baluchistan taking refuge at Gwadur: slavery had taken deep
roots in Baluchistan, both British and Persian. The treaty of 1873 prohibits
natives of Indian States under British protection from possessing and acquiring
fresh slaves. The principal order issued to give effect to this engagement in respect
of the Kelat state and Baluchi tribes subordinate to the Khan of Khelat, is Her
Majesty's Order in Council, dated 30th
• Hertslet’s Treaties, Volume XIV, page 1005.
Aprial 1877,* applying, among other places,
to Khalat the Slave Trade Act of 1876 (providing for punishment of offences
under sections 367, 370 and 371, Indian Penal Code, committed by subjects of
Her Majesty or Indian States under British protection upon the high seas or
on any part of Asia or Africa as may be specified in an Order in Council).
86. But neither this order nor any other seems to have been enforced in such
a way as to check the possession or acquisition of slaves by the Rinds of Mand and
other Baluchi tribes in subordination to the Khan of Khelat, who almost surround
Gwadur. On the other hand, correspondence from 1875 to 18S4 contains several
references to slavery in a modified form as being a recognized institution amongst
the Rinds and other Baluchi tribes of Mekran (Mr. J. A. Crawford to the
Foreign Department, No. 171, dated 18th
External A., January 1894, Nos. 313-337.
September 1893).
87. The Sultan loyally enforced the treaty of 1873 at Gwadur. In 1876 one
Wad Mahomed, a Rind, lost three slaves, who escaped'to Gwadur. Wad
Mahomed demanded his slaves, and when they were refused he cut the telegraph
wire, burnt the guard-houses, and went off vowing vengeance. The naib of
Nedj was appealed to in vain to punish the Khan’s subjects, Wad Mahomed, and
the telegraph subsidy was thereupon stopped. Outrages upon British traders,
Gwadur subjects, and on telegraph property or persons were periodically
reported. Butin July 1879 occurred the great case which is generally called the
blood-feud case.
88. The facts were as follows, as collected from the statement of the Rinds
made before Sir Robert on February 23rd, 1884, and from the evidence of Sakina
and other sources. Sakina, a Khoja woman, and a British subject, resident of
Gwadur, was in the middle of 1879 returning from the Baho district to Gwadur.
Her party was joined by a party of Bumpuris ; w'hen near Taleri a party of Rinds
fell on them and robbed Sakina of some bracelets which she was taking for the
wife of the Governor of Geh and of other property worth in all Rs. 52S-14; and
also compelled her to pay Rs. 25 for her release. Three days after this occurrence
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