Dangos 1063 canlyniad

Navab Saif al-Mulk Bahadur had deposited five Lac rupees in Calcutta. Out of this sum he is presenting three Lac rupees in exchange for receiving the warrant of Subahdari. He would like the other two Lac rupees to be brought back to Murshidabad. Could you please ask your officers concerned to expect my men who will be arriving there to collect this sum.

The Nawab regards it improper that the trade of opium is monopolised by only one person and that all other traders are excluded from this trade. He has decreed that from now onwards anyone should be able to buy and sell this commodity. The French and Dutch traders should be able to purchase this and pay duties to the government and that whatever is required by the Government and the English Company should be purchased from the government. As far as the revenue from Karnail Ganj is concerned the English, before taking up arms, should sit down with me to settle this issue. -- The above law will be enforced from the 14th of Rabi al-Avval, San 7. It is also wished that the Board of Governors of the Company in England should order its employees in India not to indulge in any internal trade and should confine their activities to shipping only. The Nawab has similarly issued another decree regarding the sale and purchase of salt but this law has not been enforced at present.

Thank you very much for your letter of the 4th of Rabi al-Avval received here on the 1st of Rabi al-Akhir complaining that you had no prior knowledge of the purpose of Sukha Ram's arrival at Azimabad as an envoy of Maharajah Januji. It is only now that you have come to know from a letter from Mubariz al-Mulk Bahadur and from my own letter that Sukha Ram will accompany Mir Zain al-Abidin to negotiate with Januji. It is hoped that through his endeavour and hard work we will be able to achieve our objectives. -- I can assure you that I am a fully committed well-wisher of the Company and would not take any decisions which could be harmful to the interests of the company. The decision to send Sukha Ram with Zain al Abidin was taken by Nawab Mubariz al-Mulk Bahadur. Kindly let me know your decision on this matter.

Today, the 27th of Bhadun, Mr Niston? left here on his journey and will reach Calcutta to be with you soon. I have given him one Lac and twenty five thousand rupees which is the revenue for the aforesaid month to be deposited in the treasury. Out of this sum one Lac is being paid in cash and twenty five thousand rupees remains as a loan. Mr Nixton will be able to brief you about the situation here in detail.

I have written three letters but have not received any reply. I have arrived at Diba Dorastah on the 8th of Rabi al-Sani and will be coming to see you soon.

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.

Thank you for your letter informing me about various matters. I was pleased to know that you have appointed a sardar to help Khvajah Muhammad Hadi Khan. As far as other matters are concerned, I will be able to discuss these when we meet in the near future. I left my capital on 22 Safar and am staying in my tent now. Here I will be able to wait for a few days until your arrival. Here we will be able to discus various issues, including the request of Zubdat al-Tajjar, Mr Scarfton to receive help. -- P.S. I pay a lot of respect to our friendship and whatever problem I face I always take action after consulting with you.

I have been informed that the boats which had gone to collect salt at Chaklah Nichli? have been confiscated by your staff and do not want to release them. As this is the season to collect salt and the main income of the area is from this commodity it is requested that you ask your officials to release these boats and their staff. Meanwhile, I have received a letter from the Nawab Sahib addressed to you and another one addressed to Mr Roger Drake. These are enclosed with this letter [missing]. -- Another, contemporary translation of the contents is CR8/1, entry no. 269.

A brief note, possibly separated from main letter,referring to Ram Narayan.

I had received a letter from Mr Watts Sahib that he was sending ten boxes containing one Lac rupees and that I should look after them and inform you about their arrival. These boxes sealed with the seal of Mr Watts have now arrived here and the letter, which accompanied these boxes, is being sent to you. Please let me know what action to take regarding this amount. Also please reply to Mr Watts's letter that I have received the amount. -- P.S. I had received a parvanah addressed to you from the Nawab. This is enclosed with this letter. Please send me a reply so that I could forward it to the Nawab. [Not included].