From the news-letter of Machhli-bandar the Emperor learnt that Siddi Yaqut Khan, the thanahdar of Danda-Rajpuri, had inserted a petition under his own seal in the news-letter, stating that if the collectorship (mutasaddi-gari) of Danda-Rajpuri were conferred on him, he would render far better service than his predecessors in increasing the prosperity of the place and in sending the imperial customs revenue.

Across the sheet of the news-letter the Emperor wrote, “For a long time I have known of this aggressive and self-willed spirit of Siddi Yaqut Khan. [Here the MS. ends abruptly].

Text.—MS. N. 30b 6—12.

Notes.—All the Siddis (Abyssinians) holding charge of Danda-Rajpuri after 1660 bore the title of Yaqut Khan from the Mughal Government, and acted as the Mughal admirals on the Bombay coast. Khafi Khan often narrates their history. (ii. 225—228, 453—454). Danda-Rajpuri is a town on the Bombay coast, n. w. of Mahabaleshwar, and facing the island of Janjira which was the stronghold of the Abyssinians. Machhli-bandar is the modern Masulipatam, near the mouth of the Kistna river on the east coast. One Siddi Yaqut was collector of Danda-Rajpuri in 1702. (M. A. 455).