But notwithstanding the qualified terms of the Governor-general’s reply, it appears to have been regarded by the Bombay government as equivalent to a full permission [44] for the prosecution of the object on which they had fixed their views:  for by the despatch of Captain Haines from Aden, (dated Jan. 20, 1838,) we find that no sooner had he “completed the first duty on which he was sent,” (the recovery of the cargo of the Derya-Dowlet,) than he addressed a letter (Jan. 11) to the Sultan, to the effect that “he was empowered by Government to form a treaty with the Sultan for the purchase of Aden, with the land and points surrounding it,” &c. &c.—­that he felt assured that the Sultan “would, in his wisdom, readily foresee the advantages which would accrue to his country from having such an intimate connecting link with the British”—­and enclosing a rough draft of the terms on which it was proposed that the transfer should be effected.  The Sultan appears to have been considerably taken aback at this unexpected proposition, which, it should be observed, was not put forward as part of the atonement required for the affair of the Derya-Dowlut—­as for this, (in the words of Captain Haines,) “satisfaction has been given by you, and our friendship is as before.”  A lengthened correspondence ensued, at the rate of a letter or two daily, till the end of January—­in which the Sultan, with all the tortuous tact of an Asiatic, endeavoured, without expressly pledging himself on the main point, to stipulate in the first instance for assistance, in the shape of artillery and ammunition, against the hostile tribes in the neighbourhood, and other advantages for himself and his family, particularly for the retention of their jurisdiction over the Arab residents in Aden:  and he at last quitted Aden for Lahedj, without absolutely concluding any thing, but having authorized a merchant of the former place, named Reshid-Ebn-Abdallah, to act as his agent.

[Footnote 44:  “The Government of India did not, indeed, in express words authorize us to negotiate with the Sultan for a cession to us of the post and harbour:  but they desired us to obtain the occupation of the port as a coal depot, and that of the harbour as a place of shelter.  These words far exceed the mere establishment of a coal depot under the auspices of the Sultan, and in fact, could not in any practical sense, or to any beneficial purpose, be fulfilled, except by our obtaining the occupation of that port and harbour as a matter not of sufferance but of right.”—­Minute by the Governor of Bombay, No. 49.]