It is not improper to observe on Hyaliram’s subject, that Strange and yet valuable character of Hyaliram, with an affect­ing little story, that does him a great deal of honour. although he is so determined a liar, that there is no trusting to his word, yet such as he is, he must be endowed, and he is really endowed with so many laudable qualifications, that it would be difficult to find his equal in this present time, as characters go now; nor would I be surprised at all to see him turn better than he is, and improve his character essentially, on being favoured with an accession of power, and a more extensive office; nor would it be at all improbable, but that in such a case, the people of this province should come to better their unhappy condition, and to enjoy a release from the pains and miseries they endure; for there are some particulars in that man’s odd character, that do him an infinite deal of honour.

A few days before our writing these lines, there came from Bengal to Azim-abad a venerable gentleman, with a flowing white beard. He was a Persian-born, and a stranger. The day of his arrival, after having fatigued himself in setting his little things in his new lodgings, he was suddenly taken ill, and died about midnight. At day-break the officers of the Fodjdary-office rushed headlong into his lodgings, with an intention to take possession of his effects. He had four small children, all motherless. The poor fellows waking suddenly at the noise, and seeing their father motionless, and so many strange faces in the house, took fright, and clinging as close as they could to the dead body, as if for protection, they fell a-weeping and atrembling. The man’s servant waking at last, and being at once overwhelmed by a number of questions and by the threats of those oppressors, wanted to part the children from the corpse; and these auguring nothing but ill from that violence, fell a-screaming all together with all their might, so as to fill the whole quarter with an uproar, which people compared to that of the Day of Judgment. Radja Hyaliarm came to hear of this matter; but his chairmen not being at hand, he ran on foot out of his house; and going into the lodging in question, he exerted himself in soothing and pacifying the affrighted children. Sending at the same time for a Minister of the Mussulman religion, and for a winding sheet, with some other necessaries, he ordered the prayers directed by law to be pro­nounced over the deceased, his body to be washed according to those rites, and then to be buried in a particular spot, which he had bought a few days before for his own burial, and which he from that moment bequeathed as a burying ground for poor faithful travellers*. This done, he took by the hand those children, who were now orphans indeed, and carried them to his house, where he desired his consort to bring them up as his own, with no difference at all in the treatment; and that very day, he settled a pension upon them, appointed a servant to their service, and found out a tutor to teach them their letters, and to bring them up in their father’s religion. Lastly, he appointed a retired part of his lodgings for their habitation; and now they are carefully educated, until some relation or other, comes over to claim them; otherwise, he intends to adopt them himself, and to marry them amongst the Mussulmen. May the Most High God, by His favour and grace, augment that man’s inclination to perform such meritorious actions, and may He turn other people’s hearts towards pactices of benevolence and charity! Amen.

It is to be wished we could speak with as much fulness of the affairs and campaigns in Decan; but the detail of the battles and transactions in that country cannot be well known to any, but to those Commanders, who having been in battle against one another, have made trials of each other’s valour and strength. As for me, I know only as much of them as has been published by common report, or has been written by Indians constituted in power and dignity; and it is these reports and relations which I am putting in order throughout these sheets. I was at Azim-abad, when I heard of the expedition and achievements of Colonel Godard’s. That Commander being arrived at Ilah-abad, heard that the army in which he had been appointed to serve, was gone to Calpy; on which he made haste, and soon joined it at that spot, where he found that the English Com­mander had opened a correspondence, and a commerce of friend­ship with some Zemindars of those parts, and with some of the enemies of the Princes and Radjahs of the Bundul-cund, with whom he had concluded treaties, with a view to open a passage through their countries, and to conciliate their good will to the expedition. But on advancing a little beyond Calpy, Lesley who commanded in chief, and to whom Godard obeyed against his inclination, had the imprudence and thoughtlessness to Colonel Les­ley engages his army in a tract destitute of water, where he suffers a loss for want of that refresh­ment. engage himself in a parched country, where for some leagues together in every direction, no water at all was to be found, and no habitation to be seen; and this too at a season of the year, when the heats are intolerable, as it is always the case in India, just before the setting in of the rains; so that this imprudence cost him in that single day, three or four English officers, ten or twelve or even more English soldiers, and above a hundred of those native soldiers that go by the name of Talingas; all which dropped dead for want of water to quench their thirst. The remaining officers shocked at this enormous thoughtlessness of Colonel Lesley’s, as well as at the covetous­ness of his temper, and the supineness of his conduct, became discontented against him, and wrote an infinity of complaints to the Committee of Calcutta. Colonel Godard himself wrote in the same style. He exposed his reasons of discontent; and observed, that as no union and concert could take place between Lesley and him, he requested either to be excused from so disagreeable a service, or that some other officer should be appointed to the supreme command. The other officers did not fall short of such a style in their letters; and even some of them wrote in common, “That if the Committee intended the safety of this army, and to see it victorious, they must appoint Colonel Godard to the command of it.” The Governor and Council, on these universal complaints, thought proper to repri­mand Lesley, and then to recall him from the army; and having raised Colonel Godard’s station and rank, they appointed him to the sole command of that army. A brevet, drawn up in very honorable terms, was sent him at the same time. But by a singular good luck it happened that, before the order could come up, the ministers of destiny and fate had dismissed Lesley’s spirit from the command and government of his body, and had forbidden the latter to obey any more the directions of the other; so that Godard was already in the full command of the army, Death of Colonel Les­ley, by which accident the command devolves on Col. Godard. when the order arrived. This officer, who in good manners and in the art of commanding has not his equal in the world, gained so much upon the hearts of his soldiers, and even of those of the Zemindars on his passage; and he kept so strict a discipline over his people, that he made great progresses in his journey. Having given two shameful defeats to the troops of Bundul-cund, which at two different times attempted to oppose his passage, he marched on boldly through an enemy’s country, and over an unknown tract of land; and with no more than five or six thousand men, and ten or eleven pieces of cannon and mortars, he cut his way with great vigour and conduct for three months together, until he arrived very near to the spot destined for the junction of his troops with the other English army that had set out from Bombay; but here he found matters Colonel Godard cuts his way with great vigour for three months together, and is on the point of effecting a junction with the army of Bombay, when the latter is totally defeated. very much altered. General Carnac, Commander of the army from Bombay, proud of his command, and anxious to acquire a great name before Godard’s arrival, had hastened forward; and with an army under his command, which both in numbers and in artillery, was superior to Colonel Godard’s*, he attacked the Marhattas, and was completely vanquished. He was even besieged and enclosed in such a manner, as to suffer a total defeat, and to bring a complete disgrace upon the English arms. Those that survived that defeat, joined General Carnac, and were obliged to enter into some shameful articles with the victorious; and after having exchanged some stipulations, they returned to their fortress and homes at Bombay. Colonel Godard being apprised of that event, concluded that as his army had greatly suffered from the length of his march, and from the very numerous engagements in which he had been victorious, his troops to all appearance would prove unequal to the task of facing an enemy flushed with victory. He therefore thought it expedient to strike to the right, and to march on to Surat, which was a city and port in the power of the English. As soon as he arrived, and he had put his troops into quarters of refreshment, he wrote to the Council of Calcutta, which of late had been invested with a Dicta­torial power over all the English factories on the Indian coast, and with the absolute direcion of all the English armies and officers in India. The Governor and Council, together with the Council of Bombay, refused to ratify the treaty made by General Carnac, and they commanded General Godard to fight the Marhattas.