ADVERTISEMENT.

IT is already generally known, that upon the reduction of Seringapatam, in the year 1799, all the public records of the then existing Government of Mysore passed into the possession of the captors. It is also, however, but too certain, that many of these precious documents were accidentally burnt, or otherwise destroyed, in the confusion and disorder which unavoidably ensued upon the assault of the fort: nor is it improbable, that some portion of them has disap­peared, in consequence of falling, on the same occasion, into the hands of private persons, ignorant of the value, and indifferent to the preservation of their prize. But whatever loss may have arisen from the last mentioned cause, it is, never­theless, owing to the active care, and intelligent research, of an individual, that several of the most important of the Mysore papers, now remaining, have been rescued from oblivion; and, among the rest, the very Register of public Letters, from which the correspondence, contained in the present volume, has been extracted. The gentleman here alluded to is Lieutenant-Colonel Ogg, of the East-India Company’s Madras Establishment,* to whose kindness the Translator is indebted for the chief part of the interesting materials relative to Tippoo Sultan, of which he is in possession.

Of the state papers discovered at Seringapatam, immediately after the capture of that place, many have been already communicated to the Public, through official and other channels.* Those, in particular, which served to develope the more recent intrigues of Tippoo Sultan with the enemies of Great-Britain, were published, soon after his overthrow, by authority of the Supreme Government of India, and subsequently in this country. A report of the general nature of these documents was drawn up, at an early period, in pursuance of directions from Marquis Wellesley, by the present writer, who had been employed to examine them, and who suggested, at the time, the expediency of having the whole trans­lated, preparatory to a proper selection being made from them, for the information of the public.* The great pressure of business in the Persian Department, prevented, however, the adoption of this recommendation, when first submitted to the Governor General; and the same cause has probably continued to operate, to the disappointment of the expectation which may be presumed to have been excited on the occasion. By none can this disappointment be more severely felt or regret­ted, than by the compiler of these sheets, who is too well acquainted with the eminent talents of the gentleman* then at the head of the Persian Office in Bengal, not to appreciate duly the heavy loss sustained by the literary world at large, but more especially by such as are fond of enquiries into the Modern History of India, in consequence of his having been precluded, by his official avocations, from under­taking the task alluded to.

But it may still, perhaps, be permitted us to hope, that this object has not been absolutely relinquished; and that some portion, at least, of the extensive and valuable documents, enumerated in the report just referred to, may at no distant period, be submitted to the public eye, which, in the mean while, may possibly view with indulgence, the present specimen of the less copious, but equally curious and interesting materials, discovered subsequently to the date of that report. Of those materials, (or, rather, such of them as have reached the Translator’s hands) the following sheets constitute only a part. The remaining letters of Tippoo Sultan, to say nothing of other documents in the writer’s possession, would, after due selection, furnish abundant matter for another volume: but enough, probably, is here done, for the immediate gratification of the public curiosity. It must rest on the reception given to the present work, and on the state of the Translator’s health, whether he shall hereafter attempt a continuation of it. However this may be, as the other materials, alluded to, have no necessary dependence, either upon those employed in the ensuing pages, or upon one another, no inconvenience can result to the reader or purchaser from their separate publication.

The Translator will probably have reason to regret, that he has allowed so long a period to intervene, between the publication of the present volume and his acqui­sition of the materials which principally compose it. It would, no doubt, have excited a stronger interest than it can now be hoped to do, if it had appeared, while the public curiosity, with regard to whatever related to Tippoo Sultan, was still eager, and while the memory of the events connected with his name was yet recent. But various circumstances, with which it is unnecessary to trouble the Reader, combined to prevent the Translator, till within the last twelvemonth, from undertaking to arrange the documents in his possession for the press. He will only mention one; which is, that during the whole of the intermediate time, he was constantly in expectation that the work in his contemplation (for he con­fesses to have always had it in view) would be anticipated from some other quarter. Notwithstanding, however, the unfavourable effect, but too likely to be produced by the delay which has occurred, the Translator is willing to flatter himself, that, even at this late period, the attempt to illustrate a character, so conspicuous in modern days as that of Tippoo Sultan, and to throw light on transactions, so closely connected, as those of his reign are, with the history of the British Empire in India, is in little danger of being deemed entirely destitute, either of interest or utility. In this humble confidence are the following sheets now presented to the Public, whose judgment concerning them will be awaited by the Translator with no inconsiderable anxiety.