yet I find myself obliged to lay it aside, from the insinuations of the calumniating tongue of Lord Macartney, that takes every license to traduce every action of my life and that of my son.  I am informed that Lord Macartney, at this late moment, intends to write a letter:  I am ignorant of the subject, but fully perceive, that, by delaying to send it till the very eve of the dispatch, he means to deprive me of all possibility of communicating my reply, and forwarding it for the information of my friends in England.  Conscious of the weak ground on which he stands, he is obliged to have recourse to these artifices to mislead the judgment, and support for a time his unjustifiable measures by deceit and imposition.  I wish only to meet and combat his charges and allegations fairly and openly, and I have repeatedly and urgently demanded to be furnished with copies of those parts of his fabricated records relative to myself; but as he well knows I should refute his sophistry, I cannot be surprised at his refusal, though I lament that it prevents you, Gentlemen, from a clear investigation of his conduct towards me.

Inclosed you have a translation of an arzee from the Killidar of Vellore. I have thousands of the same kind; but this, just now received, will serve to give you some idea of the miseries brought upon this my devoted country, and the wretched inhabitants that remain in it, by the oppressive hand of Lord Macartney’s management:  nor will the embezzlements of collections thus obtained, when brought before you in proof, appear less extraordinary,—­which shall certainly be done in due time.

Translation of an Arzee, in the Persian Language, from Uzzim-ul-Doen Cawn, the Killidar of Vellore, to the Nabob, dated 1st September, 1783.  Inclosed in the Nabob’s Letter to the Court of Directors, September, 1783.

I have repeatedly represented to your Highness the violences and oppressions exercised by the present aumildar [collector of revenue], of Lord Macartney’s appointment, over the few remaining inhabitants of the districts of Vellore, Amboor, Saulguda, &c.

The outrages and violences now committed are of that astonishing nature as were never known or heard of during the administration of the Circar.  Hyder Naik, the cruellest of tyrants, used every kind of oppression in the Circar countries; but even his measures were not like those now pursued.  Such of the inhabitants as had escaped the sword and pillage of Hyder Naik, by taking refuge in the woods, and within the walls of Vellore, &c., on the arrival of Lord Macartney’s aumildar to Vellore, and in consequence of his cowle of protection and support, most cheerfully returned to the villages, set about the cultivation of the lands, and with great pains rebuilt their cottages.—­But now the aumildar has imprisoned the wives and children of the inhabitants, seized the few jewels that were on the bodies of the women, and then, before the faces