"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٢‎٦‎٨] (١٧٨٢/١٤٢٣)

126S
Accident to
the desert
Mail, 1778.
Murder of
Mr. Hare.
The French
Consulate at
Basrah.
in 1778 it was expected even to fall short of that sum. Mr. Latouche
in view of the exceptional circumstances, requested the Government of
Bombay at the end of 1 778 to be so g-ood as to remit the customs, at the
rate of 3 per cent,, which were levied by the Company at Basrah on
goods privately imported by him. To strengthen his case, he reminded
them that he had to pay an import duty at the rate * of 8 per cent, to
the Persians on all goods brought to Basrah, as well as an export
duty of 6 per cent, to the C ompany in the case of merchandise from
Surat; and he added that, as native merchants were able by some
means to land their goods at Basrah on payment of less than 8
per cent, as customs, they could afford to undersell him in the local
market. Ihe result of this application is not recorded. Towards the
end of the Persian occupation some not unsatisfactory business is said
to have been done at Basrah in imported cloth, but the continued absence
of mam of the merchants and scarcity of specie due to the proceedings
of the Persians prevented large operations.
During the Persian occupation of Basrah the British overland mail
to Aleppo was for a time despatched from Kuwait instead of from Zubair
as formerly. r J he new arrangement was not altogether satisfactory, as
it was not possible to exercise so strict a control over the messengers as
when they were Turkish subjects and began or ended their journeys at
a Turkish town , and the difficulties of the Resident were increased by
unrest which prevailed in the desert at the end of 1778. On one occa-
sion, about December 17 78 or January 1779, the messengers were attack
ed by Bedouins on their way and reported at Baghdad that they had
been lobbed of the mails, of their camels, and even of their clothes; but
a duplicate set of the correspondence, which followed 19 days later,
leached Aleppo in safety; and i<r was stated at Basrah that the lost
packet of originals had meanwhile come into the hands of other Arabs,
who had conveyed it to its destination.
It piobahh at this same period, while the prestige of the Turkish
\ernment with the Arabs was low, that Mr. Hare, an English gentle-
om Bengal, ^as robbed and murdered near Lamlum upon the
Euphrates.
e French Consul at Basrah about this time was a M. Rousseau
m ered chiefly on account of his negligence in not assisting a young
renc ^ o cer, M . Bore] du Bourg, who in travelling to the Kast with
a year and a half ' i I p ^ ^ 8 peV Cent ' is not: clear » f or Karim Khan had,
British i:5over " or no ' '» take Customs from the
1266 ante. " f0rC ' ! 3 Per rent. Sre p.g.