OP NADIR SHAH, &C 520 



War, that be should consider and punish as infidels all 

 those that refused tlieir concurrence and aid in the 

 sacred cause to which he professed himself devoted. 



The second letter is from Delk'i^ and must have been 

 written immediately after the arrival of Nadir Shah 

 in that city, in the month of February 1738. It com- 

 mences with a clear statement of the causes of his in- 

 vasion of Hindustan ; which is followed by a concise 

 relation of his military operations, and a particular ac- 

 count of the celebrated battle of Karnal, in which he 

 defeated the emperor of Jndid. The account of oc- 

 currences before the action, the action itself, the sub- 

 sequent visit which Nadir received from Muhammed 

 Shah, and his resolution to replace that monarch upon 

 the throne of his ancestors, are stated with equal 

 perspicuity and force, and the whole of this letter is 

 written in a less inflated stile than any oriental compo- 

 sition of a similar nature which has fallen under mv 

 observation. It records events of almost unparalleled 

 magnitude, and the expression is (as far as I can judge) 

 never more warm than what the subject justifies, and 

 indeed requires. 



These letters are perhaps calculated to give the 

 reader a more favourable impression of the character of 

 Nadir Shah, than any thing before published relating 

 to that great and successful conqueror ; who is chiefly 

 known in Europe by the report of his tyranny and 

 cruelties, and above all by the massacre of Delhi, which 

 reached European narrators through the exaggerated 

 statements of the surviving inhabitants of that unfor- 

 tunate city. It is far from my intention to trouble 

 you with what the Persian advocates of Nadir Shah 

 state in vindication of his conduct upon that memorable 

 occasion ; nor do I mean to enter in this place into 



Vol. X. M m 



