Item CR9/21/8 - Letter from Rajah Shitab Rae to Clive.

I hope you have read the various letters I have sent you in the past. I am enclosing a letter from His Majesty addressed to you which I received recently; please let me have a reply. A news report regarding Navab Najib al-Daulah Bahadur, Ahmad Shah Durrani, the Sikhs and the Marhattas which I received is also enclosed for your information. Nawab Ahmad Khan Bahadur has also written to His Majesty that the Prince is asking him to come and see you. -- Enlosure 1: [gold cubes] From Maharajah Shitab Rae to Lord Clive. -- I send you news reports of Radhu Nath Rao based on the reports that I receive. The real intentions of Rao Bahadur are to wage war against Maharajah Javahir Singh; that is why the Maharajah has sent Rao Bahadur Singh, son of Thakur Mall, to see Navab Najib al-Daulah. He wants the Navab to join forces with him and the Sikhs against the Marhattas. As the Navab is not well he has not been able to see him as yet. -- Enclosure 2: Akhbar-i Nawab Najib al-Daulah Bahadur. -- Navab Najib al-Daulah has not been well for some days. Rao Bahadur Singh, son of Rajah Thakur Mall, was sent by Jawahir Singh to see the Nawab and to conduct negotiations with him but has not been able to see him because of the Nawab's illness. Jawahir Singh has proposed that if the Nawab agrees he could call the Sikh Sirdars and they could join together to fight against the Marhatts. Meanwhile, the Rohilas are creating a lot of mischief at Shahjahanabad and people are complaining. -- Enclosure 3: News report fom the army of Raghu Nath Rao Marhatta dated the 16th of Rabi al-Avval, San 7. -- The army is stationed at a distance of two karohs from the the village of Kobad. After offering his prayers Raghu Nath went on an elephant to examine the trenches. When he reuturned he went back to his tent and appointed Mahaji Sindhia to safeguard the batteries and in charge of the artillery at Garhi Kohad. The letter-bag brought by the vakil of Javahir Singh was shown to him and a reply was sent. -- Enclosure 4: News report from Shahjahanabad. -- Navab Najib al-Daulah left Shahjahanabad on the 22nd of Rabi al-Avval, San 7, to go to Najib Garh. He has left his younger brother Afzal Khan with a force of seven thousand at Shahjahanabad. He has also left Bahadur Singh, the son of Thakur Mall, who had come to conduct negotiations on behalf of Javahir Singh Jat at Shahjahanabad with Afzal Khan. He has called Rajah Daler Singh so that he could reply to him after consulting his brothers. -- News was received that Ahmad Shah Abdali had left Qandhar on the 23rd of Muharram to go to Kabul. He has reached Peshawar to collect requisitions levied on his enemies. The Sikhs are ready to face him in their territory. Raghu Nath Rao is in Gwaliyar and is waging war in the surrounding countryside -- Enclosure 5: From Shah Alam Badshah to Lord Clive. -- Date received: 9 July, 1766; 8 Muharram, San 7 -- I have issued a firman appointing Maharajah Shitab Rae as our vakil to receive money from the English as payments from the province of Bengal and to transmit it to us. Please consider him as our permanent vakil and send every month all payments from Murshidabad through him. This will please as most. -- Note: As we have appointed him as our permanent vakil we have sent him a seal of his office to be used by him.