2J: MEEK ALI MOOliAD, 



tion by the Govcrumcnt was postponed until 

 April, 1850, wlien the circumstances hereinafter 

 mentioned took j)lace. During the whole of 

 this period, from 1843 to 1850, Meer Ali Moorad 

 was treated as an independent sovereign, and 

 our ally, and in 1850 His Highness received 

 a visit in state from the Governor-general of 

 India, who was accompanied by Mr Pringle, 

 the Chief Commissioner of Sindh. This func- 

 tionary was, as is now known, collecting evi- 

 dence at that very time for the purpose of impli- 

 cating Meer Ali Moorad in a charge of having 

 fraudulently introduced a page into the Koran, 

 containing the treaty of Nownahar, in which he 

 had, it is alleged, substituted the word ''Pur- 

 gunnali^'' meaning district, for " Deh^^'' meaning 

 village or town, whereby he added to the 

 possessions then ceded to him the districts of 

 Meerpore Matihla, and Meherkee, before re- 

 ferred to, as having been conferred by grant of 

 Sir Charles Napier. An accusation to this 

 effect had been secretly made three years pre- 

 viously to the Commissioner, by a man named 

 Shaikh Ali Husseyn, formerly Minister to Meer 

 Ali Moorad, w^ho had fled his dominions to 

 avoid punishment for embezzlement, lii^ estate 



