ENCLOSED is a letter which has been received from Othmân Khân, &c. reporting their arrival at Bussorah, and subsequent departure from thence for the presence of the King.* You will learn [further] from its perusal. The Governor of Bussorah has likewise written an answer to our letter to him, saying that he had sent forward the aforesaid Khân and the others [i. e. his colleagues] to the Court of the King.
Such being the case, that eminent person* must use the utmost expedition, agreeably to our former orders, in docking the ship Fukhurûlmûbâruk, and giving it such repairs as may be required.
The embassy, here alluded to, was that which the Sultan dispatched to Constantinople, some time in the year 1784. At the head of it was Mahommed Othmân Khân, who had formerly filled the station of Hyder Ali Khân’s Vakeel at Madras, and was afterwards associated with Mahommed Durwaish Khân, and the other ambassadors, sent in the year 1787, by sea, to France. What was the object of his mission to Constantinople, I am not able to state, having met with no documents regarding it. On the return, or recall, of Othmân Khân, Ghûlâm Ali Khân, together with Shah Noorûllah, was dispatched ostensibly to supply his place; but, in fact, with instructions to proceed from Constantinople to France. This design, however, was subsequently relinquished by the Sultan, who substituted, in its stead, the more direct mission by sea, noticed above.*