YOUR letter, conveying the account of your welfare, and containing certain particulars, together with two other papers [which accompanied it], has adorned the face of arrival, and afforded me delight.

Forasmuch as the requisites* [or reciprocal duties] of union and concord are firmly established between us, how is it possible that our mutual regard should give way to estrangement and misunderstanding? That friend must, in all respects, keep his mind at perfect ease: nor imagine that, in any shape whatsover, the least diminution can take place in our friendship. With the blessing of God, your friend will presently arrive in that quarter, and apply himself to the chastisement of the enemy.*

This is, perhaps, the most civil of all the letters addressed to the Patan chieftain by the Sultan; who, however, as there is reason to believe, was at this very time firmly resolved upon his destruction.