Dangos 1063 canlyniad

The last time Munir al-Daulah came to see me from Calcutta he, without my consent and unnecessarily, dismissed seven thousand five hundred horsemen and eleven thousand foot soldiers from my army. This time again he is coming to us from Azimabad after agreeing with Shuja al-Daulah he intends to disband half of our forces. His actions are extremely annoying to us and I regard them as gross interference in the affairs of my state. As he does not pay any attention to what I say to him but listens to and acts on your advice I therefore ask my favourite servant that you send him an urgent shuqqa asking him to take his hands off these annoying activities and leave the remaining army intact. If he does not act on your advice I suggest that you write a letter in English to Captain Dokaral? asking him not to obey any orders of Munir al-Daulah.

I have already sent a shuqqah along with my letter to you; I hope it has reached you safely. Meanwhile, Huzur-i pur-nur has sent another shuqqah addressed to you with instructions that I should send him a reply as soon as possible. This is enclosed with this letter. I would be grateful if you could instruct your officials to send me the appropriate replies to these shuqqas so that I could forward them without any further delay.

We have, by the 28th Jamadi al-Avval, San 8, exhausted all the money which was advanced to us. Out of this sum we had to pay the money we owed to the bankers and at the same time we have not been able to pay the salaries of our army for the past six or seven months. I am therefore asking you to send me five or six Lac rupees as a bankers draft through Maharajah Shitab Rae so that we can satisfy the needs of our army.

I would like to assure you that I am constantly busy in carrying out your wishes. Akbar Ali Khan, Saif al-Din Muhammad Khan, Bahadur Ali Khan, Beram Khan, Darogha of the royal artillery, and Rajah Ram Nath have all become my enemies and have poisoned the ears of the Emperor making him extremely angry with us and thus making it extremely difficult for me to perform my duties. They have all joined together and are sending secret letters in my name to Raghunath Rao. They are similarly conducting secret correspondence with the friends of Raghunath including Aithul Rao, Naro Shankar, etc. Whatever they do they keep it a secret from me. -- Nilu Pandit is still with me; the elephants and other gifts you sent for him have now crossed the river. As soon as they arrive here I will pass these gifts on to him so that he can take them to the Marhatta sirdar. The above-mentioned people have sent a petition to His Majesty that you [Clive] were becoming very friendly with the Marhattas and that you were sending gifts of jewels and elephants to them. They have advised His Majesty that he should send a trusted friend who could accompany the Marhatta vakil, Aithal Rao, with gifts and meet the Mahatta Sirdar. Ali Quli Khan, as a representative of Malhar Rao, was also present there at that time. It was suggested that he should be sent to Raghunath Rao to convince him to become his ally. They have also advised him not to listen to the advice of Munir al-Daulah Bahadur as he has secretly joined hands with Shuja al-Daulah Bahadur and wants to turn His Majesty into his puppet and, ultimately, a prisoner. Personally, I was not in favour of you sending any gifts and a robe of honour to Raghunath Rao. I am at present busy in suppressing the rebellion of Afzal Haq and his associates.

Thank you for your letter received here on the 11th of Jamadi al-Avval, San 8, informing me that you had sent a request from Nawab Siraj al-Daulah Bahadur that the present status enjoyed by his sons may be improved and that they should be awarded new honours, testimonials, khillats and mansabs. As it was not necessary for you to be informed about the outcome of this request and you were busy in your campaigns in Deccan there was a delay in sending this request to me. As the Nawab has not received any response to his request he is rather upset about it. -- I had put forward this request to the King at Jhatrah? with the remarks that the Nawab was in the habit of making such requests. As a consequence of this request I was told that it would be approved. I have therefore, prepared all the necessary documents and have sent them to the King for his approval. As I have not received his approval I am unable to send these documents to you. However, the King has now been advised that we should have nothing to do with the Nawab as whenever he wants to increase his status and honours he does it without the permission of the King. Therefore we should have nothing to do with the grant of awards of honours to him.

I have already sent you replies to your letters as well as an enclosed letter from Nawab Sabitjang Bahadur with my letter. After applying for ten days leave from the Nawab I came to Bareilly from Pelibhat and came to know the strength of the cavalry and foot soldiers of Nawab Qasim Ali Khan in the city.

It is sad that all means of communications between us were closed and that Pandit Sahib, the Prime Minister of Peshwa, and Navab Nizam al-Daulah Bahadur were facing each other in Berar with large armies and heavy artilleries and were ready to shed blood and destroy each other. Afterwards a treaty of peace was agreed and Raghunath Rao kindly agreed to pay twenty Lac rupees from the Province of Malva and seventeen Lac rupees for the maintenance of the army. In addition, he also agreed to pay the amount of chauth he received from Bengal. As the above terms were not acceptable he went back to Nagpore and sent his able and intelligent diplomat as his envoy to negotiate the new terms of the treaty of friendship.

After the death of Nawab Mahbub Ali Khan his wife had petitioned you for her son to succeed the late Nawab. It was fortunate that he was installed as the next Nawab and he was able to allocate an allowance of five thousand rupees for the upkeep of the dependants of the late Nasir al-Mulk Bahadur. Until recently I was living on that amount. The late Nawab had four wives. I am the first wife, and the mother of Mir Sayyido is the fourth wife. During the life of Begam Sahibah I was given the authority to manage this amount but now this authority has been given to the mother of Mir Sayyido. For the last four months I and an unmarried daughter of the late Nasir al-Mulk who lives with me have not received a penny. I would be grateful if you could enquire about the situation from Sahib Ram Diwan, who for a long time used to manage the estate of the Begam Sahibah, and then divide the amount of the above stipend amongst the dependants of the late Nasir al-Mulk Bahadur in a just manner.

Thank you for your letter informing me that Mr. Middleton had complained to you that Mr.[Roger?] Drake and Mr Khatnak [?] were trading in Azimabad without the permission of the Company. As I imprison anyone who conducts unauthorized trade in this province and transport them to Calcutta I should not have made an exception in this case. Before Mr [Samuel?] Middleton wrote to you he had already mentioned this matter to me and accordingly I had sent my men to Hajipore to get hold of these two persons and they have now been put in prison. In future I will not delay in implementing any order given to me by Mr. Middleton.

I hope that you have seen the reports which I have been sending regularly about this region through our messengers based at Benares and Allahabad. The latest report is that after taking my leave from the King on the 14th of Jamadi al-Avval, San 7, I set out to see the Maharajah Sahib. You have advised me to discuss with him terms and conditions of an agreement between you and him in such a way that there is not only any differences left between us but also that it would promote better relations. I have no other interest in mind except to endeavour for friendship and understanding between you and the Maharajah. As soon as I receive details of your terms and conditions I will pass them on to the Maharajah. Whatever questions you have to put to him it would be better that the Major Sahib provides you with a literal English translation. I hope he has conveyed all the information he had received from me.

I reached Hoogli at mid-day on Friday the 12th of Jamadi al-Sani. The next day, Saturday, the director of the Dutch East India Company came to see me and in the evening I entertained the French director. On Sunday I went to see the Director of the Dutch Company and yesterday I went to see the French director again and discussed with them the issue of duties. I am enclosing details of the discussions which took place and the proposals which were put forward. Please let me know if you agree with these terms. I left Hoogli on Sunday to reach Murshidabad. -- Enclosure 1: Details of an agreement reached regarding the duties paid by the Dutch and French companies on their goods.

Please let me know the quantity of timber you require and ask the chief accountant to send me the money accordingly. Meanwhile, I have written to the administrators of the relevant district to supply twelve thousands pieces of timber. -- Enclosure: [Gold-sprinkled]. -- Whatever timber is required I am trying to arrange for its delivery; however, I do not have enough boats to carry this load to Calcutta. I have written to various amils to provide fifty large ships and sixty or seventy small boats to carry this load but so far I have not been able to get enough boats to carry the required amount of timber. This may result in some delay in the supply of this timber.

I hope you have received my earlier letters in Bengali as I have not received any in reply. In my letters I had pointed out the discrepancy in the revenue levied on the District of Balya which comes under the administration of the government. The tax on this land has been assigned at fifteen or sixteen thousand rupees whereas papers for the previous years show that it should not be evaluated more than five pr [sic] six thousand rupees. I have compared these papers with those of the previous years and prepared new papers showing the correct amount of revenues. I have sent a copy of this account to you as well as to the Bara Sahib [Nawab Sahib] but did not receive any response. I would be grateful if you could help in expediting this matter.

Shuja al-Daulah Bahadur has written informing me about the mischievious activities of Mir Qasim against the British which he is carrying on with the help of Afghan hosts and that you are sending an army towards Allahabad under the command of Colonel Barker. From the news I have received from Qasim Ali Khan it appears that he is a prisoner of Rohilla Sardars. They keep a very strict eye on him in case he tries to escape. Only if some disaster happens to the Rohillas will he be able to escape and create trouble for the British.

Because of the disorder created by the Telangas and Jholdarans and the devastation they have created in the region, the people of Hajli ? have not been able to pay their dues. It is requested therefore that you issue a parvanah that until peace and tranquillity and normal business returns any revenue collection from this district may be postponed.

I was going through our previous correspondence and found that I have not received any news of your well-being for some time. I hope you will be able to write and inform me of your good fortunes.

I am sure you are very well acquainted with the true character of Khadim Husain Khan. For reasons which are connected with you it is advisable that he comes to Murshidabad. As you will soon be travelling from Murshidabad towards this side it may be a good idea that he come and see you when you are staying near Bhagalpur and Kundiyah. Navab Nasir al-Mulk and Amir Beg Khan should also be briefed about this meeting. Please let me know if you agree with these proposals.

I have come to know that you will be passing through Hoogly soon. For this purpose I had arranged a welcome party to receive you. I am very disappointed at the cancellation of your visit, however, I intend to visit the capital in a few days time and would be able to come and pay you a visit.

I had written a letter of warning to Rajah Tilok Chand and later sent my men to ask him that he, along with his officials, should attend to the state affairs as soon as possible. Rajah Ram Singh who is coming to see you will be able to give you further details. -- P.S. I will be coming to see you on Friday.

The darogha of my fort, Mr Breere, had written to you emphasising the need to send some bilahadaran/soldiers/oarsmen. They have not arrived here as yet. I would be grateful if the matter could be expedited as we notice the enemey building up its cavalry here. So far, they have not created any disturbances.