576 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



Alured Clarke on that occasion, 

 we shall lay the following extract 

 from it before our readers, ex- 

 pressing at the same time our 

 admiration of the determined 

 firmness and cool intrepidity with 

 which, in his individual capacity, 

 lie opposed a band of ruthless 

 assassins. 



Extract of a Letter to His Ex- 

 cellency Sir Alured Clarke, 

 Vice-Resident. 



Benares, City Court, 15th Jan. 

 1799. — " Followed by a numerous 

 train of armed dependants, as 

 constantly has been his custom, 

 Vizier Ally about eight o'clock 

 yestesday morning made a sud- 

 den attempt to massacre the 

 Europeans residing here. He 

 succeeded in regard to Mr. 

 Cherry and Captain Conway, and 

 also with Mr. Robert Graham, 

 whom he met on the road be- 

 tween Mr. Cherry's and my 

 house, where was his next visit. 

 The mode of their approach 

 apprized me of their intentions, 

 and I had the good fortune 

 to repel every attempt made 

 by the assassins to gain the 

 terrace where I had retired, 

 though opposed to them singly 

 at the top of the stairs leading 

 thereto ; and I have the satisfac- 

 tion to think that the time spent 

 in this fruitless attack contributed 

 to enable the other Europeans 

 either to conceal themselves or 

 take refuge in General Erskine's 

 camp. The General immediately 

 hastened to our relief and pro- 

 ceeded at once to seize Mahdo 

 Doss's garden, the ordinary re- 

 sidence of the assassin, to which 



Register to 

 lut. This 

 depositions 

 implicating 



with his followers he had at this 

 time retired. It was found that 

 Vizier Ally had fled, and in the 

 evening accounts came of his 

 having been seen accompanied 

 by no more that forty or fifty 

 horsemen making his retreat to- 

 wards Etzeen-Ghur." 



Besides the letter from 

 which we have made the above 

 extract, the obliging courtesy of 

 Mr. Davis has allowed us to see 

 the cop)'^ of another which he 

 addressed on the same subject to 

 J. T. Harrington, Esq. then 

 the Nizamut Adaw- 

 letter contains the 

 of several witnesses 

 the baboos of the 

 Rajah's family in the projects of 

 Vizier Ally, whose object was to 

 excite in the pergunnahs a general 

 insurrection against the Com- 

 pany. On the discomfiture, 

 however, of the assassin, he 

 sought refuge with the Rajah of 

 Berar, a powerful and independ- 

 ant chief, who refused to give him 

 up unless under a stipulation of 

 his life being spared. To this it 

 was thought prudent to accede, 

 and being accordingly delivered 

 into our hands, he was brought 

 down to Calcutta, and confined 

 at Fort William in a sort of iron 

 cage, where he died at the age of 

 thirty six years, after an impri- 

 sonment of seventeen years and 

 some odd months. The expenses 

 of his marriage in 1794 amounted 

 to thirty lacks of rupees, while 

 seventy rupees were sufficient to 

 defray all the cost of his funeral 

 in 1817; a strange reverse of 

 fortune, but one which no good 

 man can regret. ' 



MISCELLANIES. 



