YOUR letter has passed under our view, and its contents are duly understood.
We notice what you state, respecting the mortality prevailing among the Jyshe,* in consequence of the unhealthiness* of your position, and approve of your having dispatched the commanders of companies* into the adjacent districts, in search of recruits to fill up the vacancies [which have occurred]. You must, furthermore, order additional levies, for the purpose of completing your own Kushoon, as well as to enable you to send a supply to the Presence.
There are physicians attached to your Kushoon: let them be strictly enjoined to attend diligently to the care of your sick. The officers, also, of the said Kushoon, must be peremptorily directed to prevent desertion among their men. The horses and cattle belonging to your baggage should be dispatched to some place abounding in forage, and the Risâladârs, having charge of them, must be instructed accordingly.
Agreeably to our former directions, let a capitulation be granted to the besieged, allowing them to depart with their arms and accoutrements. Kâlâ Pundit, with his family and kindred, and the principal bankers, must also be induced, by engagements,* to descend from the fort, upon doing which they are to be placed under a guard, and ten lacks of pagodas to be demanded of them, for the ravages committed in our territories. If they pay this sum, it will be well; otherwise they must be kept in confinement. In short, you are, by finesse, to get the aforesaid Pundit, together with his kindred and the bankers, out of the fort, and then to secure their persons.
[A few lines, containing other directions of no consequence, are here omitted.]
When your batteries are erected close to the walls of the fort, and the ditch is completely filled, you will, if the measure be approved of by the Sipahdârs, advance to the assault: otherwise the attempt will not be proper, inasmuch as this is a hill-fort affair.*
N.B. A letter, of the same tenor and date, but less in detail, was dispatched to Bûrhânûddeen.