YOUR letter, with the newspapers which accompanied it, has passed under our view, and the contents thereof are understood.

A bag, enclosing an address [from us] to the resplendent Presence,* together with a hundred and twenty-one gold Mohrs of a new coinage, [designed] in the way of Nuzr, as likewise a separate bag, to the address of Munzoor Ali Khân, and twenty-five of the same kind of gold Mohrs, as a token of [our] friendship [for the said Khân], are sent herewith. For the greater security, the gold Mohrs have been sewed up in the garments* of the messengers. You will, therefore, on their arrival, take the gold Mohrs from their garments, and, through the medium of Munzoor Ali Khân, present a hundred and twenty-one of them, with our Urz-dâsht [or humble address], to his Majesty, delivering the remaining twenty-five to the aforesaid Khân.

A bill of exchange for one thousand rupees is sent herewith. Out of the amount [when realized] you are to take for yourselves sixteen months` arrears of wages, at thirty rupees per month, making four hun­dred and eighty rupees; and a twelvemonth`s wages, at the same rate, in advance, being three hundred and sixty rupees; or, together, eight hundred and forty rupees. Eighteen rupees, which are to be paid to the Hurkârehs [or messengers, on their arrival at Dehli] being added to this sum, there will remain one hundred and forty-two rupees, which you will apply to the payment of the [regular] wages of our Hurkârehs. Of the two pair now dispatched, one of them, named Tolârâm and Mhâdâjee, are to receive, the first ten, the other nine rupees per month. The second pair, named Kishnajee and Suntajee, are to receive each nine rupees per month. Both sets have received from us their wages, at the above rate, for three months; namely, from the beginning of Rujub to the end of Rumuzân 1199 (A.H.). While they continue with you, they are to be paid at the specified rate, commencing from the month of Shuvwâl. When they are dispatched, two months` wages are to be advanced to each pair.

You must [from time to time] faithfully and accurately communicate [to us] the intelligence of that quarter.

You wrote, that you had dispatched to us, by a pair of hired Hur­kârehs, two baskets of Bai-dâneh pomegranates,* together with a letter from yourselves. The said Hurkârehs, with the letter and baskets, have not [hitherto] arrived.

According to your desire, seventy-two rupees have been paid here to the last pair of hired Hurkârehs dispatched by you. Further particulars will be communicated to you by Râo Bâl Mukn Doss.

These two agents would seem to have been natives of Hindostan, and personally unknown to the Sultan; by whom they were probably employed, on the recom­mendation of the Bâl Mukn Doss, mentioned in this and the preceding letter.*

This letter furnishes another instance of the minuteness to which the Sultan was accustomed to descend in all matters of disbursement. Another sovereign, in his situation, would have left such details to one of his secretaries, or to the proper officers of the department to which they naturally belonged. But either this was a degree of confidence, which it was foreign to the character of Tippoo to repose in any of his servants, or he was ambitious of appearing to be equally attentive to the most trivial, as well as to the most important affairs of his government: nor can it be denied, that a general impression, to this effect, would tend, in some degree, to secure the fidelity and diligence of those whom he employed.