'Report on Sur. By Major G. P. Murphy, I.A., Indian Political Department, Political Agent, Muscat' [‎90r] (13/20)

71. In 1925 Sheikh Mansur bin Naser, of Masirah Island, proceeded to
Sur and informed the Hindu community that there was no Sultan’s
Government in Sur, and that they were to look to him for justice. He
tried to form a committee of leading men for the administration of justice
as the local Wali had been found incapable. The Wali told the Hindus
that he was powerless and that they should inform the British Government.
< 2 . In 1927 Sheikh Mansur bin Naser of Masirah, accompanied by
Hamdan bin Naser and Salim bin Naser, brothers of Mahomed bin Naser of
the Bani Bu Ali, stayed at Mecca for three months as the guests of His
Majesty Ibn Saud. Mansur bin Naser died of smallpox on the return
journey.
IY.—The Slave Trade at Sur.
/3. British efforts lor the suppression of the slave trade first took shape
in 1822 by a treaty concluded with Saiyid Said of Muscat, the object being
the extinction of the slave trade between Africa and India. This treaty
was amplified in 1838-9. Another agreement was made in 1845. Again
in 1873 a new treaty was made.
74. The Resident in the Gulf, writing in 1844, says, “ Muscat and Sur
are the principal primary ports to which slaves from whencesoever shipped,
whether from Zanzibar or the Red Sea, are brought.” In the ’sixties 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. in Muscat estimated that about 4,000 out of 15,000 slaves
passing up the Gulf were landed either at Ras el Hadd or the adjacent
port of Sur.
75. In 1852 the steam vessel Tigris was placed on special duty at the
•entrance to the Gulf, but it soon became evident that surveillance would be
more effective if instituted on the African coast.
70. In the ’seventies somewhat greater success attended the efforts of
H.M.S. Magpie and Vulture, sent to cruise off Ras el Hadd. The latter
•captured a large dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. , in which were 169 slaves, mostly women and
children. The Nakhoda of the vessel was imprisoned by the Sultan of
Muscat, and the vessel destroyed. From a description in the Times of India
(October 1872) of a slave vessel captured by the Vulture, the methods of
the exporters appear to have been characterised by great barbarity. “The
number of slaves it was impossible at the time to estimate ; so crowded on
deck and in the hold below was the dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. , that it seemed, but for the
aspect of misery, a very nest of ants. The hold, from which an intolerable
stench proceeded, was several inches deep in the most foul bilge water and
refuse. Down below, there were numbers of children in the most loathsome
stages of smallpox and scrofula of every description. A more disgusting
and degrading spectacle of hum mity could not be seen, w'hile the foulness
of the dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. was such that the sailors could hardly endure it. When the
slaves were transferred to the Vulture the poor wretched creatures were
so dreadfully emaciated and weak that many had to be carried on board
and lifted for every movement. How it was that so many survived such
hardships was a wonder to all. . . . But perhaps the most atrocious piece
of cruelty of the Arabs was heard afterwards from the slaves themselves,
viz., that at the first discovery of smallpox among them by the Arabs all
the affected slaves were at once thrown overboard, and this ivas continued
day by day until, they said, 40 had perished in this manner.”
77. In 1873 H.M.S. London was stationed at Zanzibar for 10 years and
during that period the wholesale traffic was for the time being suppressed.
But slaves still arrived in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. in small lots and dealers had
begun to conceal their operations by use of the Fiench flag, which secured
them against search by British vessels. In the ’eighties there was a
recrudescence of the trade owing to the withdrawal of H.M.S. London from
Zanzibar.
78. Inquiry showed that slaves were brought to Sur in vessels belongincr
to that port, most of which flew French colours. The slaves were
ordinarily landed at Sur itself, but the owners of the vessels had accomplices
.at Ras el Hadd and other places, and when British cruisers appeared they