'Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf. Vol I. Historical. Part IA & IB. J G Lorimer. 1915' [‎1397] (1552/1782)

<iar,h.
rf 1 beg to embrace this opportunity to bring 1 this prompt notice of
Mr. Taylor's to Y our Excellency's notice, and to suggest that, if the
separate Pashalick of Bussorah be rendered a permanent measure,
Mr. J aylor may receive such a commission as will enable him to com-
" municate directly with Your Excellency/'
In April 1854 a reference occurs, in official corrsepondence, to " the
individual who officiates as British Agent at Nejef" This may have
been an unofficial native correspondent only, though it was open to Major
Kawlinson as Consul-General to appoint a Vice-Consul, for no mention is
made of recognition, by the Turks of any British representative at Najaf.
His appointment was probably due, in any case, to the influx of Indian
settlers into the Holy Cities, to which reference has been already made,
and to the dangers to which the Indian immigrants were exposed in the
course of the local revolts of 1852 and 1854.
In 1839 the East India Company despatched from England in frame
work, via the Cape of Good Hope, three additional iron steamers, the
" Assyria/' " Nimrod " and " Nitocris," which, with the " Euphrates "
already maintained by the Company in Mesopotamia, were to form a
flotilla of four armed vessels for service on the Euphrates and Tigris. The
component parts, which were shipped on the " Urania " in June, arrived
at Basrah on the 22nd December 1839; and by the end of April 1840 the
steamers had been successfully put together. Each new steamer was divided
into three compartments internally, and carried six swivels guns, besides
two large guns fore and aft. The fuel used by them was tamarisk wood
supplied by Arabs, on contract, at fixed stations.
Lieutenant* H. B. Lynch was appointed to command the flotilla, in
which capacity he was to act under the advice of the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. ; and
it was laid down that the Superintendent of the Indian Navy, to which
the vessels were attached, should not " originate any orders as to the parti
cular duties " on which they were to be employed.
It is not stated that the East India Company had other objects in
view besides the promotion of trade by opening up and civilising the
country; but it must be supposedf that the carriage of mails between
India and Europe at first formed part of their plan.
British
representa
tion at
Naiaf,
1854.
* An account of Xjieutenant H. B. Lynch s career will be found in Law's I£istoTy of
Indian JS/avy, Vol. II, pages 33-34, and page 289. fie lost oue brother in the
accident to the " Tigris ' on the Chesney Expedition and another by an illness contract
ed while commanding one of the vessels of the Mesopotamian flotilla.
The traveller Mitford, however, remarks : " I imagine this flotilla is here more
with a political object than for any service it may render either in forwarding mails or
merchandise ; for the latter it is useless, and, for despatches to India, it is touch too
dilatory : should the buez line ever be interfered with there is a land route across the
desert to Beyrout: and another by courier, through Trukey in Asia to Constantinople,
Formation
and work of
a British
armed flotilla
in Mesopota
mian Waters.
1839-40.
I