On the 9th of Rabíulawwal orders were received from

State prisoners sent to Bombay and thence to Poona.

the Governor-General to the effect that the State prisoners be sent to Bombay. The Mírs were accordingly informed and asked to prepare and give a list of the followers whom they wished to accompany them. They were also asked to arrange for the removal of their families from the fort to any place outside. Within two days all the harams or derahs of the Mírs were taken away by the Mírs’ men to the Tandah of Yúsif, on the western bank of the Phulelí. Three days after that, i.e., on the evening of 14th, Captain Brown with 20 soldiers of the 9th Bengal Cavalry took away the young Mírs, Hasan Alí Khán and Abbás Alí Khán, the sons of Mír Nasír Khán. Soon after that, Mírs Fateh Alí Khán and Muhammad Alí Khán, the sons of Mír Sóbdár Khán were also taken away to the English camp as prisoners. And the next morning they with their elderly relatives Mírs Nasir Khán, Mír Muhammad Khán, Sóbdar Khán and Shahdéd Khán were sent to Bombay by a steamer.* On 23rd Rabíulawwal 1259 A.H. (April 1843 A.D.) Mír Husain Alí Khán son of Mír Núr Muhammad Khán and Mírs Muhammad Khán and Yár Muhammad Khán sons of Mír Murád Alí Khán, who had been left behind, were also taken away under the orders of Sir Charles Napier, who had now become the Governor of Bombay, by Captain Brown with 10 men of the 9th Bengal Cavalry, from the fort to the river and thence by a steamer to the mouth of the Indus and thence to Bengal, where they arrived on the 2nd of Rabíussání. All the Mírs were lodged in a bungalow on the Malabár Hill. Captain Gordon was put in charge of them. They were visited by the Governor of Bombay. As the monsoon had com­menced, on the 2nd of Jamádilawwal of the same year, the Mírs were taken to the village of Sasúr, about 24 miles off Púnah (Poona.) After some 5 months, Mír Sháh Muhammad Khán was also brought and joined the other Mírs, at this place.

Up to this time the Mírs were entertained at the

The Mírs are taken to Calcutta and Hazáríbágh.

Government expense. But now each of them was given a monthly allow­ance to maintain himself. In Muharram 1260 A.H. (1844 A. D.) orders were received to send the Mírs to Calcutta. Mír Rustam Khán, who was considered unfit for such a journey owing to his weakness and old age, was allowed to stay at Poona, with his son Mir Alahbakhsh and his nephew Mír Nasír Khán. The rest of the Mírs were taken to Bombay first and thence by a steamer to Calcutta, where they arrived on 4th Rabíussání 1260 A.H. (1844 A.D.) Captain Gordon had come with the Mírs as Superintendent in charge, and he continued in that post hereto. The Mírs after being introduced to the Governor-General at Government House were lodged in a bungalow outside the town.

In the next month the Mírs were given the choice of going to live at Hazáríbágh or of remaining at Calcutta. Mírs Husain Alí Khán, Muhammad Khán, Hasan Alí Khán, Sháh Muhammad Khán and Yár Muhammad Khán preferred going to Hazáríbágh. Accordingly on 24th Jamá­dissání, they started by steamer to Murshidábád, thence to Azímábád (Pátná) and thence to Hazáríbágh, where they arrived in Rajjib. Here they remained for 8 years, some of them constantly going to Calcutta to visit the other Mírs and coming back.

In 1262 A.H. (1846 A.D.) Mír Muhammad Nasír Khán

Death of some Mírs and the return of others to Haidarábád.

died at Calcutta.* In 1263 A.H. (1847 A.D.) Mír Shahdád Khán, who, as noted above, had been charged by Sir Charles Napier with setting fire to the English camp at Haidarábád and with murdering Captain Ennis, and for that reason, had been kept separate from the other Mírs at Súrat, was after much enquiry declared not guilty by Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General and brought to Calcutta to live with the other Mírs. In the same year Mír Fateh Alí Khán son of Mír Sóbdár Khán died at Calcuttá.

In 1270 A.H. (1854 A.D.) at the representation of the Governor-General (Lord Dalhousie), the Court of the Directors of the East India Company permitted the Mírs to return to Sind if they liked to do so. Accordingly some of them prepared to return. In Rabíulawwal 1272 A.H. (November 1855 A.D.) Mír Muhammad Khán was the first to arrive in Haidarábád viâ Dehlí and the Panjab. His brother Mír Yár Muhammad Khán who had been left at Alahábád with their harams, left that place in Rabíus­sání 1273 A.H. (December 1856 A.D.) by the same route and reached Haidarábád in Rajjib of the same year. On the 7th of the same month, 4th March 1857 A.D., Mír Abbás Alí Khán died at Calcutta. On the 7th of Muhar­ram 1274 A.H. (28th August 1857 A.D.) Mír Shahdád Khán breathed his last. In the same year the coffins of all the Mírs, who had died there were brought to Haidar­ábád and their bodies buried in the Talpurs’ burial-ground to the north of the town. In Shuabán 1275 A.H. (March 1859 A.D.) Mír Husain Alí Khán returned to Haidarábád. The Commissioner in Sind gave a piece of land to the Mírs, along the bank of the river near Gidú Bandar to fix their residence there. Soon a pretty village grew up about the place, where the surviving Mírs with their children and followers have since lived.

In 1259 A.H. (1843 A.D.) when Sind was conquered by

The first Commissioners in Sind.

the English, Sir Charles Napier, who was the conqueror of Sind, was put in political charge of Sind as a Gov­ernor. In 1262 A.H. (1847 A.D.) General Napier was sent with an army against Múlráj, who had revolted at Multán, and Sind was annexed to the Bombay Presidency, Mr. Pringle being appointed as the Commissioner of Sind. Next came Mr. Frere* as the Commissioner of Sind (in December 1850). He became very popular. It was in his time and at his suggestion, that the Mírs were permitted to return to their native place. Mr. Frere became Governor of Bombay and left Sind in 1859 when he was succeeded by Mr. Inverarity.*