LETTER XCII.
To BÛRHÂNÛDDEEN; dated 9th DÂRÂEY. (22d July.)

IT has been reported to us, that the besieged are desirous of capitu­lating, and have opened a negociation for the purpose: it is therefore written, that if they will surrender on terms, there is no use in an assault. You and Kumrûddeen must jointly treat with the besieged on the occasion, and, by every practicable means, induce them to deliver up the place. Failing in this, you will, with the concurrence of all the Sipahdârs and commanders* of the army, (after having ascertained from what point the attempt can be made with the least loss of men) seize the proper moment for proceeding to the capture of the place by open assault.

We are here likewise prepared to move at the head of our forces,* and shall shortly arrive in that quarter. In the mean while, you must temporize, and employ every means, fair or foul,* which may induce the besieged to surrender the fort: because, in an assault, many lives would be lost; while a long detention before the place would also prove extremely destructive to the army. It is, moreover, in our blessed con­templation, to engage, after the rainy season, in a certain weighty enter­prize: you must, therefore, try every means of effecting the [early] evacuation of the place; acting at the same time, in all our affairs, in [perfect] concert with each other.

OBSERVATIONS.

The fluctuating orders of the Sultan, respecting Nergûnd, as well as his impa­tience to obtain speedy possession of the place, have appeared in several of the foregoing letters. It has also been seen, that his solicitude, on this occasion, led him, more than once, to authorize, and even to direct, in sufficiently explicit terms, the adoption of the most unjustifiable measures for the attainment of his object. But it was reserved for the present dispatch, to display, in the most glaring colours, his unprincipled and profligate policy. He is no longer satisfied with vague and distant intimations of his wishes; but here, throwing off all reserve and disguise, openly and boldly declares, that there is no act of treachery, decep­tion, or perjury, by means whereof the conquest of Nergûnd could be achieved, to which he was not ready to give an unqualified sanction.

The weighty enterprize, alluded to in this letter, can, at this time, only be guessed. It could hardly be the surprize of Adoni; which, though it might possi­bly be in his contemplation at this juncture, he did not attempt till the month of May of the following year (1786).* Neither could he well mean a sudden attack of the Mahrattah army, to be conducted in person by himself; as this was not carried into effect till a still later period: and, consequently, both events were considerably posterior to the “close of the raing season.” There remains, there­fore, no other known occurrence, to which the expression in question can be so well referred, as to his short expedition against the Koorgs, in the following month of November; when he marched suddenly and rapidly to Zuferâbâd, in which quarter the Koorgs had recently appeared in open revolt; and owing to the inca­pacity of the officer whom he had left in charge of that ever turbulent and never completely settled portion of his territories,* had obtained some advantages over the Sultan’s troops.