"ملخّص يحتوي على معلومات بشأن الاتصال الأول لشركة الهند الشرقية مع الجزيرة العربية التركية، طالما أمكن تتبع ذلك من سجلات حكومة بومباي، بالإضافة إلى أسماء العديد من المقيمين البريطانيين والوكلاء السياسيين الذين عُينوا في بغداد والبصرة في الفترة بين ١٦٤٦ و ١٨٤٦ ميلادي، وبمرافقة معلومات أخرى" [ظ‎‎٢‎٨] (٢٢٦/٥٨)

2G PRECIS OF INFORMATION REGARDING CONNECTION OF E. I. COMPY,
was informed that the Agent in Council at Gombroon could on no
account consent to his leaving Bussorah ; that of late years the desert had,
on several occasions, been overflowed, but that this circumstance had
never been considered a sufficient cause " for a step of that nature."
On the 10th June 1747 Mr. Grendon addressed a further letter to the
Agent in Council at Gombroon on the subject of this inundation, from
which the following is an extract:—
" These three days past the north-west winds have blown exceeding hard, which have
increased the waters around the city to that height, as to raise fears of this Government
for the safety of the walls, to secure which they yesterday caused public notice to be
given to all the inhabitants of all degrees (except the Europeans) to give their attend
ance and help for three successive days, conformable to which the whole town is now
out; yet notwithstanding this early precaution, the walls in several places are sapped by
the weight of waters, and three bastions are fallen in; however, I believe no further ill-
consequences will ensue to the city; but when the waters are almost all dried up, what
may then happen to the inhabitants God only knows, but already the poorer part
begin to grow sickly, as they are obliged to drink the water running off the desert, the
Shatal Arab being at too great a distance, besides there is little difference between
the one and the other, both being very bad."
65. The following extracts from the Gombroon factory diary for
the 1st February 1748, being the substance of a letter received from the
Resident at Bussorah, dated the 7th of the preceding month, contain an
account of the Dutch at Bussorah having returned to their settlement at
Bouehier,* of the French having withdrawn their factory from Bussorah,
and contain several items of intelligence from Turkish Arabia:—
" The Dutch at Bussorah having received an invitation from Sanlah Caun Sardar
to return to their settlement at Bouchier, Mynr. Belvelt was gone again to reside
there, and carried with him a quantity of sugar, sugar-candy, camphire, and some
spices. Advises the departure of two large Moor's ships for Surat, and a freight ship
belonging to the Portuguese for Bengal, upon whom the French Resident withdrew
their concerns, and himself from Bussorah, not having received any allowance from
Pondicherry these two years past. Mentions a report there was of a Bashaw's coming
over the great desert which occasioned much confusion, and Solyman Kias tampering
with the Arabs, who wants to carry on affairs in the same manner that his father-in-law
Achmet Bashaw formerly did, and as opening the banks of the river is always pursued
on these occasions, is apprehensive of another pestilential disease, which, he fears, will be
attended with the utmost bad consequence. In a postscript he advises of having
received letters from Bagdad, and that the Grand Seignior had appointed Hadjee
Achmet Bashaw Governor of Bussorah. Cour Vizier is to have Bagdad, and
Solyman Kia, Audeen. Their Bashaw was expected in a few days, having been detained
some months at Bagdad on account of the death of Nadir Shaw, to whom he was going
Ambassador. He has appointed the Captain Bashaw his deputy till his arrival, which
has given the greatest content to the Arabs, who have suffered so long under the
arbitrary measures of Achmet Bashaw and his son-in-law, so there is no doubt but
the country will soon be in tranquillity."
66. The following extract from the same diary gives from a
letter from the Resident at Bussorah, dated the 13th March 1748, an
account of "an emeute which a short time before had taken place at
Bagdad:—
" There has lately been great disturbances at Bagdad, occasioned by the new Bashaw
Cour Vizier's cutting off the heads of twelve of the principal zanysarees, and ordering
their bodies to be exposed in the public streets, which so incensed the several Chambers
of them that they immediately rose in arms, and seized the principal magazine, out
of which they took ten field-pieces, and planted them against the Serai, and began to
fire warmly at it, which soon obliged the Bashaw to retire on the other side the
* Bushire.