ABANDON your vain idea of proceeding [on a pilgrimage] to the Holy Temple, and apply yourself, according to custom, to the affairs of the Sircar. This is the most advisable thing you can do.

This officer appears, from other parts of the correspondence, to have formed some improper female connection, which the Sultan had insisted upon his renounc­ing. The lover resented this interference, by announcing his resolution to proceed on a pilgrimage to Mecca. This sort of declaration is often made under the in­fluence of temporary chagrin or disappointment, and sometimes without any serious intention of fulfilling it, and with no other view than that of intimidation. Whatever the case might be with regard to Urshud Baig Khân, he ultimately relinquished his purpose (whether real or pretended), although the object of his irregular attachment had, by order of his sovereign, been publicly banished from the town of Calicut. The following letter will show in what manner the Sultan was accustomed to proceed on occasions of this kind.