"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٤‎٩‎٣] (١٢٦٢/١٠١٠)

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feiiil In 1855 Captain Kemball was replaced by Captain Felix Jones, Operations
11 iJ who quickly came to the conclusion that slaves for the Persian Gulf t^he
^Id were chiefly landed in southern ■'Oman and who recommended^
as his predecessor had done^ that cruising against slavers should be con- y e ii x Jones,
ducted outside, rather than within^ the limits of the Gulf ; he suggested 1855-62.
the formation of a slave squadron of specially equipped steam vessels, to
patrol chiefly in the neighbourhood of Maslrah Island and of Zanzibar ;
iJI j|j and he pointed out that serious political difficulties in the Persian Gulf
would be avoided if the traffic could be dealt with at a distance and
prevented from reaching the Gulf. The virtual legalisation^ by the
Agreement of 1845 with the ruler of Masqat and Zanzibar, of the slave
trade upon a section of the East African Coast was now found to afford
nwi P rac ^ ce g^at facilities for a trade in slaves between those shores
and the Persian Gulf. In the summer of 1856 the corvette " Falkland 33
cruised against slavers in the outer Gulf between Jashk and Sohar^ with
moderate success, but slaves continued to reach the Persian coast higher
up in large numbers. In Trucial "'Oman, under the Engagement of
1856 by which the Shaikhs undertook to surrender imported slaves after
landing, something was at length achieved in the liberation of a number
of slaves. In 1859 the "Tigris''' and " Falkland ^ were employed to
intercept, if possible, slavers known to be returning from East Africa to
Trucial ^Oman; but only one considerable seizure was effected. The
number of slaves captured at sea in 1856 and 1857 was 15, while the
total number manumitted by British officers in the Gulf during the
same two years was 96. No slaves at all were liberated in 1855 and, the
figures for 1858 to 1862 are not ascertainable. In 1860 Captain Joneses
proposals of 1855 were adopted, almost in their entirety, by Brigadier
General Coghlan in reporting upon the East African slave trade.
There is a deficiency of information in regard to the slave trade in I 862
the Persian Gulf during the years 186^ to 1873; but it would appear
that, in the beginning at least, the trade was almost as active as ever.
In 1834 Mr. Blane, the British Resident at Bushehr, placed the number
of slaves exported in the preceding season from the East African coast
in the direction of the Persian Gulf at about 12,000; but this number,
depending on native statements only, must be regarded as conjectural.
Calculations and observations made about ten years later showed the
number imported by sea into the countries surrounding the Persian Gulf—
exclusive, apparently, of the ^Oman Sultanate, Persian Makran, Qatar
and Hasa—to be about 3,500 annually. In 1860 it was estimated by
Brigadier General Coghlan that about 4,000 slaves were carried away
every year from Africa to Arabia and the Persian Gulf; but in the
following year Colonel Pigby, the Political Agent at Zanzibar^ was
inclined to place the annual exportation from Fast Africa northwards
at a figure so high as 10,000. In the circumstances it cannot be doubted,
especially as British preventive action had not yet been made effective,
that in the years immediately following 1862 the slave trade to the
Persian Gulf still flourished with almost unabated vigour. Towards the
end of the period under consideration however, the cruises against slavers
making for the Persian Gulf began to yield better results. In June 1871
H,M.S. a Magpie ^ captured three slave ships off Ilas-al-Hadd ; 62
m