"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٨‎٩] (١٧٨٢/٢٣٢)

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of African soldiers for equipping a Persian ketch upon which, at the
insistence of the A-dmiral, the British flag was hoisted. The operations
of the Admiral against the mutineers ended in a fiasco, and the
Company's servants at Bandar 'Abbas, apprehending the issue of
" some strange and severe ordersby the Shah, requested that the
guard of the Agency might be strengthened ; but it does not appear that
Nadir Shah took any steps to express resentment.
In 1743 the British Factory at Isfahan was re-opened, but the up- 1743
country trade was crushed by * " inland duties, " and the endeavours of
the Company's employes to obtain a Raqam for exemption from
these were not immediately successful. The Shah's minister at first
asked that the question might be dropped ; but, when hopes of a gratuity
were held out to him, he promised to use his best endeavours, adding
however that his efforts might fail, and that in such a case a public
application to the Shah at a cost of about Rs. 30,000 would become
necessary. It was apparently considered by the Agent that a sum of
700 or 800 Tumans would be well laid out in securing the desired
exemption.
In 1744i the question of inland duties at Isfahan was settled by the
Shah, who decided that in future they should be paid by the British at
the same rates as by his own subjects. The Shah's officers took upon
themselves, besides bringing this order into force, to demand arrears of
inland duties, and the Company's representatives were compelled to pay
up under this name about 2,800 Tumans, of 'which it does not appear
that any portion was ever refunded.
Nadir Shah, whose capital after 1741 was at Mashhad, visited 1740
Isfahan early in 1746 ; and during his stay there, according to the Chief
and Council of Bandar 'Abbas, a he treated our Resident as civilly
" as could be expected from the tyrannical disposition he was in the
a time he was there, but we believe it was owing to the help of a
"present, amounting to shahees 70,169-9, which could not be avoided
" without running the risk of his resentment." Before leaving Isfahan
on an expedition—apparently his last—to Sistan, where a revolt had
broken out. Nadir Shah wrote to the Company's Agent at Bandar 'Abbas
requesting that a European physician might be sent to him; and the
Agent, learning that there was already a capable practitioner at or near
Isfahan, instructed the Resident there to make the necessary arrange-
* The nature of these duties is not clear ; if they were either Rahdari, Sad-yak or
Havoy, " they ought not, under the former privileges confinned by Nadir Shah, to
ha ve been demanded.