Three Kulgies,* three Surpaishes,* and three Puduks,* of the value of thirty-six thousand two hundred and thirty rupees,* have been dispatched to you in a casket, to which our private seal [or signet] has been affixed. You must open this casket, and having examined its contents, seal the whole up again, and keep the same [carefully] by you.
The three Kulgies, three Surpaishes, and three Puduks, originally mentioned [or referred to] in our instructions [to you], being afterwards considered by us of insufficient value, have, on that account, been changed for the more valuable set now sent, and of which a memorandum is enclosed. Of this memorandum a copy must be entered in our book of instructions.
The book of instructions, here mentioned, was among the papers found at Seringapatam; as was also the journal of this very embassy. I regret that I did not take copies of these curious documents, which would, no doubt, explain many points, on which we must be content, for the present, to remain ignorant.
It is a well established fact,* that this embassy, though ostensibly dispatched to the Grand Seignor alone, was ultimately to have proceeded, not only to the court of Louis XVI, but likewise to that of London; the mission to the latter being expressly designed to veil the secret negociations proposed to be opened with France. If, therefore, the jewels enumerated in the foregoing letter comprized the whole of what was destined for all the three courts mentioned, it must be allowed, that the meditated presents were not formed on such a scale of magnificence, as might have been expected from an eastern prince, desirous of impressing three of the principal sovereigns of Europe with a high idea of his power and resources. It is possible, however, that the casket, specified in this dispatch, may have constituted only a part of the jewels intended to have been presented.
The embassy was finally composed of four persons, as appears by the next letter.