[AFTER compliments].......... A long period has elapsed, during which I have not had the happiness of hearing the glad tidings of the health and welfare of the Nabob, Nizâm ûd Dowlah, and of that exalted [person]. May the cause which has prevented it be no other than good.

It is a [just] ground of wonder and amazement,* that at this time, the above described* Nabob should unite himself to the rulers at Poonah, and without any cause proceed to the infraction of the treaties and friend­ship subsisting between us, and determine upon committing hostilities against me. Some time ago I dispatched Mahommed Iftikhâr Khân, after personally explaining to him various particulars, calculated to pro­mote and preserve the mutual friendship and interests of both our states, as well as that of Poonah. If the aforesaid Khân had faithfully detailed these particulars, there can be no doubt that the above described Nabob, who is a great lord* [or nobleman] and a profound statesman,* would have acquiesced therein;* and have applied himself to reconcile the dif­ferences which have arisen at this time between me and the people of Poonah,* to strengthening the foundations of union between the three states, and to promoting their joint prosperity and splendor.

The case, with regard to Adoni, is briefly this. How much soever I made pacific propositions founded in reason and sincerity, the ministers on that side [or the court of Hydrabad] constantly returned harsh an­swers, calculated [only] to embroil* [matters further]. The business would require a long explanation, and is beyond the limits of a letter. All the particulars will be made known to you verbally, by the Mûtusuddy, Luchman Râo, who is a man of understanding, and a person possessing my confidence. You will be pleased to make him acquainted with the views and wishes of the above described Nabob, and send him [back] speedily hither.

A Mehtâby dress is herewith sent, in token of our abundant regard. For the rest, may joy and happiness be yours!

Mûsheerûl Mûlk was, at this period, and continued to be till his death, in the year 1805, the principal minister at the court of Hydrabad; having been con­firmed in that office by the present Nizâm, Secunder Jâh, on the accession of the latter to the Musnud, in 1804. During the whole of his long administration, which though in the main prosperous, was, nevertheless, considerably checquered by untoward events, he steadily and successfully cultivated a good understanding with the British Government in India; between whom and his own court he had finally the credit and satisfaction of establishing the strict alliance now happily subsisting between them, and which is the more likely to prove permanent, inasmuch as it is erected upon the basis of reciprocal advantage and security.

It is not pretended, that the views of Mûsheer ûl Mûlk, in this instance, were influenced by any feelings arising out of private partiality for the English; though there wants not ground for believing, that this minister not only duly appreciated the character of our nation, but also entertained sentiments of personal regard for many individuals of it. But, on the occasion at present under consideration, he was guided solely by the suggestions of his political sagacity, which taught him that, placed as the state of Hyderabad was, between two powerful and encroaching neighbours,* both of them watchful for the opportunity of acquiring a predomi­nancy in its councils, or, in other words, of rendering it entirely subservient to their interests, there was no security, either for the integrity of its dominions, or the independence of its sovereignty, but in the protection of the British govern­ment. This, then, was the object of his constant solicitude: an object of which he never appears to have lost sight, though repeatedly disappointed in his endeavours to attain it; and to which, it is probable, that the events of the war in which his master was engaged, at the date of the foregoing letter, more than ever disposed him.

Of that letter it may be remarked, that it seems to indicate a desire in the writer to open a negociation for a separate peace with the court of Hyderabad; for which purpose it is also not improbable, that Luchman Râo was charged with some specific propositions. If such, however, was the object of the Sultan, in the mis­sion of that agent, it certainly failed; since the Nizâm, though, perhaps, now become rather lukewarm in the common cause, did not absolutely abandon it, or make peace with the Sultan, but in conjunction with the Mahrattahs.

The Mahommed Iftikhâr Khân, mentioned in the foregoing letter, was the Vakeel, or minister, of the court of Hyderabad, residing with Tippoo, at the period of the negociations at Mangalore in 1784. The Sultan, in his Memoirs, calls him Mûftukhir Khân; and on occasion of his dismission (which took place at the same time that the majority of the English prisoners were released, in consequence of the treaty of Mangalore) speaks of him in the following terms:

“At this period Mûftukhir Khân, the Vakeel of Hujjâm Nully, solicited an “audience of leave. Sending, in consequence, for the aforesaid, I presented him “with a Khilaat and five thousand rupees in money, and gave him his dismission. “On this occasion I demanded of him what Hujjâm Nully Khân* was at that “time employed about? To this Mûftukhir Khân replied, that as it was then “the season of the No-roze,* his master was most probably seated at that “moment [in Durbar]. Hereupon I rejoined: ‘does your master, on occasion “of the No-roze, sit, all standing, or is there any elevated structure upon which “he is seated during nine days? State every particular at large.’* The afore­said not comprehending what I said, repeated his former answer. In this man­ner we two or three times bandied the subject about: when, at length, the “Vakeel perceiving my drift, and being covered with shame and confusion, said, “that he wished for an answer to the propositions which he had delivered to me “from his master, on his first arrival in my Presence at Mangalore. To this I “replied, by desiring him to state again what his master had proposed. Here­upon he said, that his master was ready, on learning my wishes, to give me the “most satisfactory proofs of his pacific [or amicable] disposition, and to bind “himself to the performance of his engagements by oaths: in return for which “he entertained the hope, that I would join with him in chastising the Mahrat­tahs. As soon as I heard this, I said, ‘I give you full power to decide for me “on this occasion, and to say how I am to trust to the pacific professions of your “master, who has in so many instances violated his solemn engagements with “others.’ To this Mûftukhir Khân, who was a man of strict veracity and pure-breasted,*

l replied, ‘that [there was no doubt] his master was an established “liar,* and evil-minded [person], who, though he should give one or two of “his sons as hostages [for his good faith], would not be restrained [by that “consideration] from acting ill. Never should you pay the least regard to, or “put the smallest confidence in, any of his words or actions.’ Upon this I “demanded, ‘how, when such was the estimation in which his master was held “by all the world, I could place any faith in him?’ Finally, having had this “conversation with Mûftukhir Khân, I dismissed him.”

However, difficult it may be to believe that Iftikhâr Khân should have so far betrayed the trust reposed in him, as to have expressed himself, regarding his master, in the gross terms ascribed to him by the Sultan, it must, on the other hand, be owned, that it would not be easy to assign any satisfactory reason for the latter’s absolute fabrication of so extraordinary a story, which somewhat resembles the account he has been seen to give on another occasion, of the declarations of the Mahrattah Vakeel with respect to the rulers of the state. However this may be, it does not appear probable, from what is here related, that Iftikhâr Khân should have been charged with any communications to the court of Hyderabad, of a tendency much calculated to conciliate its good will, or “to promote and “preserve the mutual friendship and interests of the two states.”