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and offering his best services. The sickness of the garrison, the 

 late threatening combination, the debility of the Europeans, the 

 treachery of the sultaun in the capture of Fortified Island, and 

 beyond all, the general despondency which now prevailed, and 

 would no doubt greatly increase when the general sailed, induced 

 the commanding officer to wish for an honourable termination to 

 his difficulties; he therefore resolved to profit by an opportunity 

 so critically presented to convey a soldier's feelings, and accord- 

 ingly sent a copy of the letter previously written to general M'Leod, 

 and already inserted. 



A draft of this letter having been explained to Mirza by Mr. 

 Cruso, he assented with much apparent satisfaction to its being- 

 sent off to the Chesterfield, but he took especial care it never 

 should be delivered to the general; or if delivered and answered, 

 he suppressed the answer. Deceitful as had been his conduct 

 respecting the capture of Fortified Island, his behaviour with re- 

 gard to the letter sent to general M'Leod exceeded it in folly, 

 cruelty, and duplicity. The falsehoods he permitted to be told 

 in his durbar, by boatmen and messengers tutored for the purpose, 

 who were supposed to have been employed in the delivery of the 

 letter, and intrusted with a cool indifferent verbal answer, instead 

 of a written reply to its interesting contents, were uttered before 

 Mr. Cruso in the gravest manner possible. The stories fabricated 

 on this occasion by Mirza and his colleagues, to answer their own 

 wretched purpose, would astonish and disgust a generous Briton, 

 unused to such chicanery. They occupy many pages in the 

 journal, but the detail would now have little interest; it will suffice 



