To the Seven SUPERINTENDANTS of the POST, at the Seven capital Cities of the SULTANUT (or Kingdom); dated 9th TÛLOOEY. (16th De­cember.)

WE have fixed the Coss at six thousand Guz, which distance [or space] must be travelled by the postmen in a ghurry and a half [or thirty-three minutes and forty-five seconds]. If the letters appertaining to your province [or department] are not delivered according to this rate, and any delay arises, you must flog the Hurkârehs belonging to you: and if the delay should proceed from the men of another division of the post, you must report the same to us, in writing. You are, moreover, to denote the hour, the day of the month, and day of the week, on the super­scription of all your dispatches. This order is to be strictly attended to.

A volume of the Sultan’s regulations, in my possession, contains the following notice respecting the Guz, as established by him:

“The number of letters, of which the Kulmah [or creed] consists being “twenty-four, it is therefore ordained, that twenty-four thumb-breadths shall “make half a legal Guz; a thumb-breadth being equal to the aggregate breadth “of ten grains of one kind of rice, and of seven of another kind.” The Kembâlûb* [or rope] used in measuring [roads] consists of thirty-two of these guz.

According to this rule, the Guz consisted of about forty-eight thumb-breadths: but the directions for ascertaining the thumb-breadth seem too vague to admit of any certain or precise calculation. Taking, however, the Guz, here described, at thirty inches, or two feet and a half (which gives five-eighths of an inch for each thumb-breadth) the coss will amount to fifteen thousand feet, or better than two miles and three-quarters; making the rate of proceeding appointed for the postmen rather more than five miles an hour. This, though certainly very practicable, when the relays of Hurkârehs, or postmen, are placed at short distances, considerably exceeds, I believe, the ordinary rate of the mail in British India; where, happily, however, the coercive means of accelerating its progress, so familiar to the Sultan, are unknown.

I am not able to specify, with any certainty, the seven capital cities intended by the title of the present letter: but there can be little or no doubt, that Seringapa­tam, Nugr, and Bangalore, were among the number; while it is not improbable, that the other four were Chittledoorg, Gooty, Gurramcoondah, and Sera.