'Papers Respecting the Slave Trade on the East Coast of Africa and the System Pursued for its Suppression' [‎54r] (47/72)

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honour to forward to you herein inclosed, I gather that Seyd Mahomed's mission has not
been very successful. The Envoy states, however, that after the letters above mentioned
were confided to him, he was received by Her Majesty in a most flattering manner, and
that he was told by his Grace the Duke of Argyll, with reference to the subsidy, that,
viewing the turn affairs had latterly taken in Oman, it was not likely that Her Majesty's
Government would press Seyd Majid to continue its payment, and that his Grace had
written in that sense to the Government of India.
His Highness the Sultan appears to have derived much gratification from the hope
that is thus thrown out to him of ridding himself and his successors of the payment of a
subsidy to Muscat, and I learn that he purposes sending an Envoy to Bombay, to the
Right Honourable Sir Seymour Fitzgerald to plead his case before his Excellency as well
as with reference to the cessation of the subsidy as to the usurpation of Throne of Muscat
by one who does not belong to the Bue-Facedi family, His Highness has expressed a wish
that 1 should see the Arabs who have latterly come from the shores of Arabia to invite
him to wrest the Throne of Muscat out of the hands of Azan, but I have refused to hear
them lest they should be led to believe that the undertaking might possibly be allowed by
Her Majesty's Government.
Indeed, I have expressed myself in strong terms against the very notion of an invasion
of Muscat from Zanzibar, but I must admit that the feeling is strong in favour of an
expedition to Muscat.
The Muscat refugees without exception—and they are not a few—assure the Sultan
that he has only to present himself in Oman to assure success; and mistaking the
Sultan's silent inclination to the scheme for his assent, they have spread the report that
after the aid of Kourhan, a month hence, he is to lead an expedition to Muscat, and
the scarcity of money in Zanzibar of late has given a colour to this extravagant notion,
I am assured that however much the scheme is popular and feasible in the mind of
Seyd Majidj His Highness would not think of embarking in so bold an undertaking
without the consent of the British Government, and I have taken great care to let him
understand that it would not be tolerated, and that if he made the attempt he might make
up his mind never to return to Zanzibar.
I do not believe His Highness would allow himself to be carried away on so perilous
an enterprise by the flattery with which he is surrounded, although he has at his disposal
three sailing ships of war, mounting seventy-four guns, besides two steamers, of which one
is the " Shenandoah," well known during the recent American war, and several sailing-
vessels which might be employed as transports. ( It will end, I presume, by his emptying
his packets of the superfluous gold into the greedy hands of his sycophants; but I am
thinking that if any step antagonistic to the policy of Her Majesty's Government were
really to be contemplated, I should, under present circumstances, without any vessel of war
at my disposal, be somewhat at a loss to check it, or even to communicate with Aden or
the Seychelles to give timely notice of its existence; and this is a state of helplessness that
I venture to bring strongly to the consideration of his Excellency the Governor in
Council.
I have, &c.
(Signed) HY. A. CHURCHILL.
No. 53.
Mr. Churchill to the Earl of Clarendon.—-{Received April 17.)
(No. 8.)
My Lord, Zanzibar, March 1, 1869.
I HAVE the honour to inclose a copy of my despatch No. 21 of the 1st March
addressed to the Acting Chief Secretary, Bombay, relative to a letter received by the Sultan
of Zanzibar from the Sheikh Ibrahim, of the Beni Yaa's tribe in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
I have, &c.
(Signed) HY. A. CHURCHILL.