He Promised To Acquaint The Viceroy Of Goa With My Offer, And So
Departed.
The 15th I received accounts from Masulipatan that Captain
Keeling had taken a Portuguese ship and two barks; one on the coast of
Cochin, laden with tin, and the other freighted from Bengal, both of
which were carried to Bantam.
I was also informed that Sir Robert
Shirley had been dismissed with disgrace from Goa, and was on his way
overland to Masulipatan, to procure a passage; but am apt to believe
this intelligence is untrue.
The 16th, being with the prince's secretary about the dispatch of our
affairs, he proposed to me, by his master's orders, to procure him two
gunners from our fleet to serve him in the Deccan war, offering good pay
and good usage. This I undertook to perform, knowing that indifferent
artists might serve there. While at the prince's palace, Abdala Khan
came to visit him, so magnificently attended, that I have not before
seen the like. He was preceded by about twenty drums, and other martial
music, on horseback, who made abundant noise. After them followed fifty
persons bearing white flags, and two hundred well-mounted soldiers, all
richly clothed in cloth of gold, velvet, and rich silks, who all entered
the gate with him in regular array. Next his person were forty
targeteers, in the richest liveries. After making his humble reverence,
he presented a black Arabian horse, splendidly caparisoned, all his
furniture being studded with flowers of enamelled gold, and set with
small precious stones. According to custom, the prince returned a
turban, a vest, and a girdle.
Still persisting in his purpose of personally finishing the war in the
Deccan, he would give no answer to the ambassadors from that country,
but detained them till he should come to the frontiers. Being now about
to depart, he and his party thought themselves not secure if Sultan
Cuserou remained under the safeguard of Anna-Rah, lest, during the
absence of Churrum, the king might be reconciled to Cuserou, by whose
liberty all the hopes and power of their faction would be overthrown, in
which case their ambition and the injuries they had done could hardly
escape punishment. In this view they continued to urge the king to
deliver Sultan Cuserou into the custody of Asaph Khan, as deputy on that
occasion to Churrum, under pretence that this measure would intimidate
Khan-Khannan and the Deccan princes, when they shall learn that Sultan
Churrum is so favoured that the king has delivered his eldest son into
his keeping, giving him as it were present possession of the kingdom,
and the certain prospect of succession. Accordingly, on the 17th of
October, Sultan Cuserou was delivered up as they desired, the soldiers
of Anna-rah were discharged, and those of Asaph Khan placed over him,
assisted by 200 horse belonging to the prince. The sister of Sultan
Cuserou, and several other women in the seraglio, have put themselves in
mourning, refuse to take their food, and openly exclaim against the
dotage and cruelty of the king; declaring, if Cuserou should die, that
an hundred of his kindred would devote themselves to the flames, in
memory of the king's cruely to the worthiest of his sons.
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