"I have talked with Sayeed Cossim Ali Khan as far as necessary, and half engaged his consent. As you judge most effectual, do you bring him entirely over to our design. What was agreed upon between us, you may be assured shall be fully complied with: of this you may rest perfectly satisfied. By the means of Mr. Watts and Mr. Scrafton I have communicated the whole affair to Sabut Jung, and have gained his concurrence in it. Sabut Jung's tunkaw money, and the sepoys' arrears, I have taken upon myself.
"Let these particulars entirely satisfy you in this affair, which I desire you will bring to a speedy conclusion."
Mr. Hastings, in the letter to Clive which accompanies this document, observes, "Whether the letter is genuine or forged, I shall leave to yourself to judge, and time to determine. I own I cannot help making one obvious remark,--that if Roy Dullub was really the author of the letter, it will be a matter of some difficulty to find out what his intent could have been in writing it; as it appears of very little consequence towards the design in hand, and rather calculated to discover the whole affair, and put himself entirely in Cajah Haddee's power, than to answer any other purpose, at least that I can discover."
[232] To the Council of Fort William, 5th December, 1758.
[233] Private letter to Mr. Drake, sen., 30th December, 1758.
[234] Shah Zada means "King's son;" but, in India, has latterly been always applied, by way of distinction, to the princes of the family of Delhi. Indeed, before the assumption of the title of Sultan by Tippoo, and of that of Shah by the present Vizier of Oude, no Indian Mahommedan prince or chief, in recent times, ever styled himself Sovereign.
[235] Mr. Hastings, in his letter to Clive of the 8th July, 1759, observes, "The Nabob suspects Ram Narrain to have taken the part of the King's son; which I do not wonder at, as the Nabob has never been thoroughly reconciled to Ram Narrain."
[236] Aurungzebe died at Ahmednagar, in the Deckan, on the 21st February, 1707.
[237] The name of this chief was Meer Shah-u-Deen. He took the title of his father, Ghazee-u-Deen, or, "The Champion of the Faith."
[238] This prince is often called Ali Gohur; but the title of Shah Alum (or, "King of the World") is that by which he designates himself in all his letters written at this period. The Vizier, in his letters to Clive, gives the Prince this title; and it is also that by which he has since become so well known, as titular Emperor of Delhi, throughout a long life of vicissitude and misfortune.