"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٢‎٢‎٧] (١٧٨٢/١٣٨٢)

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was driven to complain to the Pasha of Baghdad by letter of the and his
injustice, oppression and rapacity of his representative, and in particular
of his tyrannical treatment of the Armenians and other Christian
merchants.* At the same time he mentioned, as illustrations of the
Mutasallim's attitude towards the British, that within a week he had
allowed two of his attendants to strike with clubs the horse of a gentleman
who was at the time in the company of the Agent, and had caused the
porter of the British Factory to be imprisoned and beaten, for no reason
that could be ascertained unless that he was a Christian and a servant
of the Factory. Before the Pasha's answer, which merely stated that
the Mutasallim had been reprimanded and ordered to make reparation
for his conduct, reached Basrah, Sulaiman Agha himself had expressed a
wish for a reconciliation and had promised to comply with the following
conditions laid down by Mr. Moore, the two last of which throw an
interesting side-light on the question of consulage and customs and on
that of repayment of the debt due by the Turkish Government to the
Company :—
First.- —That the Mutasallim should send a deputation to the British
Agent to apologise for the insults to which he had subjected him,
especially in the imprisonment of the Factory porter, and to promise
amendment of his conduct in future.
Second. —That the Mutasallim should give the British Agent an
order for 20,000 Quriish on account of the duty on the goods landed by
native merchants from certain specified British ships, and that he should
agree to the Turkish customs on the goods landed by the British from the
same ships being retained by the East India Company in part payment
of the debt due to them by the Turkish Government.
Third. —That the customs on the cargoes of the other ships expected
during the season should be divided in the following manner, viz., " the
" 3 per cent, on all English property to be all paid to the Honourable
" Company,• ,, and " the 7 per cent, on all country property whatever,
" whether sold by the English or country merchants, to be equally
a ,divided between the Mussaleem and the Honourable Company, or 3^ per
ff cdnt. each.^
From these conditions it would appear that a number of the native
merchants were still in the habit of landing the goods which they impor-
* In fairness to Sulaiman it should be recalled that Mr. Moore, as proved
by his whole conduct at Basrah, was a peculiar and fligbty character; and that
Sulaiman, as we have seen already and shall see again hereafter, lived on excellent
terms with other British officials. In the text we have only Mr. Moore's version of
the case.