LETTER XI.
To MEER KUMRUDDEEN ALI KHÂN; dated 11th Extra AHMEDY,
(28th March.)

YOUR letter, informing us of your arrival at Chekry,* and applying for a supply of gun-flints, powder, &c., has been received, and its contents are duly understood. Send to Bûrhânûddeen for gun-flints, powder, and whatever else you may want. The Sipahdâr* Mahommed Ali, has no doubt joined you by this time with the troops under his command, orders for this purpose having been repeatedly dispatched to him. That part of your forces which was at Kurpah* has also marched from thence, and will soon join your army. What more?

OBSERVATIONS.

Meer Kumrûddeen Ali Khân was the son of Meer Ali Rizâ Sâheb, commonly called Meer Sâheb, who fell at the battle of Porto Novo, in the year 1781. Hyder Ali Khân, who was married to his sister (the mother of Tippoo Sultan), is reported to have immediately conferred all the honors and appointments enjoyed by his brother-in-law upon his son, Kumrûddeen, then a young man, whom he, at the same time, committed in a very public manner to the especial care and favor of his cousin, Tippoo Sultan. The latter, however, would not appear to have had much confidence in him at any period of his reign. He was sometimes, indeed, ostensibly placed at the head of an army; but he was always under the direction of some more experienced person. Upon the death of the Sultan, the British Government, in conjunction with the Nizâm, provided for Kumrûddeen Khân in the most liberal manner. He did not, however, long survive his cousin and master, dying very soon after he had taken possession of the Jagire bestowed upon him.