LETTER CCCLXX.
To RUNMUST KHÂN BEHÂDÛR, Chief of KURNOOL; same Date.
(21st September.)

IN conformity with your wishes, orders have been sent to the Foujdâr of Adoni,* desiring him to give particular instructions to the persons employed by him in collecting horsemen [for our service, within your territories], to proceed in the business with all possible secrecy. Be you, Sir, likewise aiding and assisting on this occasion.*

OBSERVATIONS.

It appears by this letter, that though the chief of Kurnool had found himself under the necessity of permitting the Sultan’s officers to recruit within his terri­tories, he was not without apprehensions of incurring thereby the displeasure of the court of Hyderabad, whose vassal he was. While, however, Tippoo seem­ingly concurs in the reasonableness of the Patan’s desire to guard against any suspicion of acting collusively in this affair, he, in the same instant, calls upon that chieftain to promote its success, by his personal authority and influence; which, with whatever secrecy it might be employed, could not fail to expose him, still more, to the imputation which he was so anxious to escape. Whether this was merely one of those inconsistencies, or contradictions, which so often marked the conduct of the Sultan, and so frequently occur in his writings; or whether it proceeded from a latent design of embroiling Runmust Khân with the Nizâm, and, by that means, compelling the former to throw himself upon his (the Sultan’s) protection, is a point, which it is now, perhaps, impossible to determine.