NOBLE-MINDED and elevated in rank,* of powerful and exalted de­gree,* chief* of the sovereigns of the realms of Europe, and eminent among rulers, the peace of Almighty God be with you!

After presenting the customary compliments of regard and affection, and [after tendering] the due observances of friendship and union, it is made known to your odoriferous [or noble] mind.*

Some time since two letters, with Khilaats [or dresses], were forwarded [to you], by [the hands of] Monsieur Souriac,* which, no doubt, have been received. After that, Ghûlâm Ali Khân, Lûtf Ali Khân, and other Sirdars [or commanders] of the Sircar,* were dispatched in the ship..........,* with letters and rarities, by the way of Bussorah, to that [personage] of noble rank, [at whose court] they will [in due time] safely arrive.

At this time I have learned, from the communication of Monsieur Cossigny,* the Governor of Pondicherry, that that kind friend has writ­ten to him, directing him to settle the accounts of the advances of money made by the Sircar [i. e. me], for defraying the expences of the troops belonging to you, which were under the command of Messieurs Du Chemin and Souffrein, and of Monsieur Bussy; and [having done so] to repay the amount to the Sircar [or to me]. This circumstance has occasioned me the utmost surprise.* It was purely from motives of regard, and a desire to improve the friendship subsisting of old between us, that I sent to the Mauritius for the troops of that friend, and expended crores [of money], and sacrificed lacks of my people, in the course of five years that I was engaged in chastising the English; whom, at last, I was on the point of expelling from this country [or India]. During this period, the English repeatedly made overtures of peace to me; to which, how­ever, I would not agree, returning [always] for answer, that I would make no peace, excepting in concert with the French, and never sepa­rately. Notwithstanding this,* Monsieur Bussy, the commander of the forces of that [personage of] noble rank, did, without my knowledge, conclude a peace [with the enemy]. The fact is known to every French­man in this country [i. e. India]. Thus I incurred all these expences, and made all these exertions, for the purpose of increasing our mutual friendship and renown;* and if such be still the desire of that friend, his enemy shall [again], if it please God the most high, be signally chastised.

A double-barrelled gun, made in the arsenal* of the Sircar, together with an embroidered dress, is sent for that [personage of] noble rank, and will arrive* [in due season].

I* frequently indulge an inclination for the arts,* and am fond of collecting artists together [or about me]: if [therefore] that friend, out of his ancient regard, would dispatch [to me] some persons skilled in every art, I should esteem it as [a proof of] the most perfect friendship.

Ghûlâm Ali Khân, and the other Sirdars, will arrive [at your court] in due season;* and it is in my mind to dispatch another confidential per­son, on one of that friend’s ships. If, therefore, you will write orders on this subject [or to this effect], to your [different] governors,* another confidential person shall be deputed on one of that friend’s ships.

Exclusively of the gross impropriety of designating the King of France by the title of Râjah (on which I have already had occasion to animadvert) it may be observed of the present letter, that it is extremely deficient in the forms of respect and complimentary phraseology, invariably observed in the correspondence between Eastern princes. Of the justice of this remark, the Oriental reader will be suf­ficiently satisfied by its general style and contexture, as preserved in the transla­tion, which I have made as literal as I could. The expression of <Arabic> “that “friend,” is, in particular, extremely exceptionable in an address to a crowned head, as being too familiar and common. Neither is the “Ulkâb,” or address, free from objection, since the phrases of <Arabic> “of noble rank,” <Arabic> “of powerful degree,” &c. are very usually applied, not only to dependent or subordinate chieftains and rulers, but even to distinguished servants of a certain class. Thus Tippoo himself occasionally addresses one of his Sirdars by the style of <Arabic> “of pompous or magnificent degree;” another, by that of <Arabic> “of powerful degree,” &c.

These deficiencies cannot, I think, be reasonably attributed to ignorance; since it would be difficult to believe, that there was not a Mûnshy, or secretary, or other literary person, at the court of the Sultan, of sufficient learning to frame a letter, in a proper style, to a monarch of the rank and consideration of Louis XVIth. It is much more probable, that the Sultan himself dictated, or drafted, this epistle; and that, in doing so, he permitted the same spirit of animosity and aversion towards all the professors of Christianity, which led him to bestow the degrading title of Râjah on his royal correspondent, to regulate its general con­struction. It is also possible, that he might, on the present occasion, have been actuated, in some degree, by the notion, that his own importance was raised, in proportion as that of the French monarch was lowered: a notion which, in fact, has given rise to the well-known practice at Eastern courts, of taking every oppor­tunity of assuming what may be called a technical superiority, in their epistolary intercourse with each other. But it is not in the style of their letters, alone, that they exercise this sort of address, and labor to obtain this paltry species of advan­tage, though the nice and numerous distinctions of language, depending on the gradations of rank, are more particularly favorable to the attempt. It is pursued, with equal industry and perseverance, in the presentation of complimentary gifts, and in the performance of visits of ceremony.

It may appear strange, that the Sultan should, for the gratificationof his spleen or his pride, have run the hazard of giving offence, by this proceeding, to a prince with whom, if it was not his real interest, it was, at least, his apparent wish, to establish an intimate political connection. But Tippoo was not accustomed to look deeply into any subject; he was content to view things superficially: and hence it is probable, that it never occurred to him, that there was any danger of the disparaging style of the letter being detected in France; and that, even if any exception had been made to it, he would not have found it difficult to satisfy his royal correspondent, that no slight, or disrespect, to him, had been intended. In the meanwhile, his importance would be magnified in the eyes of those, among his own subjects, who should be admitted to a knowledge of the letter in question.

Judging by the context of the fourth paragraph, and especially by the words, “this circumstance has occasioned me the utmost surprize,” it might almost be inferred, that the proposal of the French King, to reimburse Tippoo for the advances which the latter had made, for the use of the French forces, during the second war in the Carnatic, proved offensive to the Sultan, and that the payment, thus honourably tendered, was actually declined. What the fact was, I do not possess the means of ascertaining, for none of the documents found at Seringa­patam (at least to my knowledge) throw any light upon the subject. I incline to believe, however, that the offer of the French government to liquidate its debt was not accepted, and that the Sultan was led to the adoption of this liberal proceed­ing, by the hope that it might conduce, with other motives, to make the French monarch consent the more readily to the renewal of hostilities against the English in India; an object which, as is abundantly shown by the foregoing letter, the writer had very much at heart at this time. His wishes on the subject were, no doubt, more fully stated through Ghûlâm Ali Khân and the other embassadors, dispatched to France by the way of Constantinople, as well as by those whom he sent thither by sea, subsequently to the date of the present letter; towards the close of which he intimates his having the latter deputation in contemplation. Fortunately, perhaps, for the British interests in India, these invitations to a new effort for their destruction arrived in France, when that nation was no longer able, however willing it might have been, to enter into the Sultan’s views.

It must be acknowledged, that the Sultan complains, in this letter, of his desertion by the French, in the year 1783, in terms sufficiently moderate. He, however, indulges his natural resentment, on the occasion, more freely in his Memoirs; where, in his account of the siege of Mangalore, he thus expresses himself on the subject:

“Carrying on a mine by a double shaft to the foot of the wall, I only waited “the proper moment for springing it. I had also erected a battery opposite to “the gate, and on the edge of the ditch, in so elevated a situation, that not being “able to stand the fire of musquetry and cannon, which was kept up from it, not “a single Nazarene dared to appear on the walls or bastions of the fort. Thus “circumstanced, the Nazarenes demanded a capitulation, and were disputing “respecting the article of delivering up their arms, when letters reached me from “Cuddalore, written by the worthless commander* of the French, and by Meer “Moaayenûddeen, whom I had left at the head of a division of my army to assist “the aforesaid worthless commander. These dispatches purported, ‘that in a single “[or in the only] action* which had taken place between the French and English “before the fort of Cuddalore, the former, to the amount of five thousand men, “had been defeated, with the loss of fifty guns; in consequence of which they “had been compelled to flee, and shut themselves up within the fort: that the “army of the Sircar, though placed at the disposal of the French for their “assistance, had not been required to join them upon this occasion, but were “left standing* four or five coss in the rear of the English: that the second “day following this defeat, the English had sent into the fort of Cuddalore a “letter of peace* from the French Râjah: that Bussy, the worthless commander “of the French, who was very old (being eighty or ninety years of age), “and being in his dotage, had lost his wits (at least, two-thirds of them),* “‘immediately at sight of his Rajah’s letter of peace complied with its contents: “and that, finally, the two accursed ones had discontinued hostilities, and “concluded an accommodation.’

“These advices were accompanied by an order from the worthless French com­mander to Cossigny,* who was, at this time, at the head of three-hundred “French Fringies, serving immediately with myself, directing him and his party “to leave me, and repair to [Cuddalore]. At the same time, several Nazarenes, “who had served during twenty years with the Usud-Ilhye army, quitting me “without any notice, at the instigation [or hint] of the accursed and worthless “commander, set out with the rest. It was to no purpose that I remonstrated on “the occasion with Cossigny, and the faithless set so long in the employ of the “Sircar. Nay, they were ripe for sedition [or treachery].* No doubt, there “would have been but little difficulty in putting Cossigny and his companions to “death; but, inasmuch as they had eaten [my] salt, I did not think proper to “act by them* in that manner.

“Two days after this, the aforesaid Nazarenes, procuring passports from the “English, and supplying themselves with some few necessaries, set out from “Kûriâl [Mangalore] for Mahe, a sea-port belonging to the French, which they “reached in five or six days. They left behind them in their camp about a “hundred sick, whom I furnished with provisions, and embarked on a ship, which “conveyed them to the place of those accursed ones (i. e. Mahe).”

The Sultan then proceeds to state, that disregarding the ungrateful and per­fidious conduct of the French, he determined to add to the obligations they already owed him, by consenting, at the instance of their worthless commander, Bussy, to make peace with the English: and that, in consequence hereof, he discontinued the war in the Carnatic, and relinquished his design upon Mangalore, at the moment that he was about to reduce the place; contrary to the advice of his Sirdars, who strongly urged him [to prosecute the siege and] to put the garrison to the sword.

The circumstance of the Sultan’s sending a double-barrelled gun in a present to Louis XVI is worthy of notice; because it strongly marks his desire to impress the French monarch with a high opinion of the military establishments and resources of his country.

This letter, it will be observed, places, beyond all doubt, the fact of the ostensible mission of Ghûlâm Ali Khân to Constantinople having been actually destined for the court of France: and it may hence be safely inferred, that the preceding deputation of Othman Khân to the Sublime Porte was, in like manner, originally intended to proceed to Paris, whatever was the reason of that object’s being afterwards relinquished. The same Othman Khân made one of the sub­sequent embassy announced in the present letter, and finally sent to France, in 1787