Indian Antiquary Vol 47

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 36

32
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ FEBRUARY, 1918
Consultation at Fort William, September 1779.14 The following letter from the Deputy Collector of Government Customs having been read at the Revenue Board on Tuesday last, the Minutes which are entered after it were then taken and sent in. Honble. Sir,
A quantity of Redwood, the property of Mr Bolts imported on the Sanctissimo Sacramento ( a Portuguese ship ) and now laden un boats to be transported on board his vessel, is stopt by the Officers of the Customs in consequence your late orders. As the goods have not been landed but are removing froin one foreign vessel to another, I request your orders, whether the red wood is to pass for ME Bolts's ship? And if in future he may be at liberty to export whatever goods he may think proper. (ocernment Custom House, 318) August 177
I have the honour to be &c.
(Signed) Hy. SCOTT, Dy. Cr. G. Customs. Ordered that it lie for consideration, and in the mean time that the Collector be referred to the orders which he has already received respecting Mr. Bolts, and to tho regulations of his office, leaving him to act conformably to those authorities.
The Secretary now informs the Board that the only special orders sent to the Collector of Government Customs respecting Mr Bolts's ship was to forbid him from suffering any goods to be landed from them, but are silent with respect to the lading of other goods, and that the Collector in consequence is at a loss how to act.
Ordered that the Collector of Government Customs be informed that the Board expressly forbid him to pass any goods whatsoever belonging to Mr Bolts, that if he has reason to suspest that the goods in question have been procured in Calcutta, the Board desire he will endeavor to trace and report the persons who furnished them to the Board, but if they have been purchased at either of the foreign settlements, it does not der end inmediately upon him to collect the duties, the Fouzdar being in this case the proper officer who will take cognizance of the matter upon his representation,
Consultation at Fort William, 6 September 1779.75 The following letter from Mr Bolts was circulated on Saturday last, and the Minutes which are entered after it were returned. Honble. Sir and Gentlemen,
In the month of July last I purchased and loaded on freight at Madras, upon a Portuguese vessel called the Sanctissimo Sacramento for Bengal, a quantity of redwood, the property of such of the subjects of Her Imperial Majesty, my sovereign, as are interested in the Asiatic Company of Trieste. Finding that at this Presidency all subjects of the British Government were publickly prohibited from having any intercourse with the subjects of Her said Majesty, on the arrival of the Portuguese vessel I did not attempt to land this redwood at Calcutta, but had it laden on four boats, in order to be conducted on board of one of the said Company's vessels now under my command in this river; I am now informed that the officers of your Custom House have stopped the said redwood on the river, and taken possession thereof; and as I am ignorant of the reasons which have occasioned this seizure I take the-liberty of informing you that I have paid the English Company's
4 Bengal Public Consultations, (1779), XXXII. 317-319. * Bengal Public Consultations, (1779), XXXII, 356-359.