APPENDIX. 
467 
relating to this country. I hope your Majesty will be pleased to 
hear him. I beg leave to observe, that owing to the imbecility of 
the House of Timour, and the contempt into which it has fallen of 
late years, the powerful have been weakened, and the weak become 
powerful; worthless unbelievers and ambitious villains have start- 
ed up from every corner, boldly conquered all these countries, and 
established themselves here : as the poet observes, " When the lions 
leave the plain the jackals become bold." For these reasons, religion, 
which should be so highly prized, is here lost, and of no value; 
nothing of Islamism remains but the mere name. They have so 
stripped and reduced the principal Mussulmauns, that they have no 
resource, and are obliged implicitly to obey their orders. The Mus- 
sulmauns are become vile and wretched ; the honour of the great 
men is gone; Christians seize and keep by force the daughters of 
Syeds and Mussulmans. Under these circumstances, when we can 
no longer act openly, it behoves us to exert ourselves secretly in 
the cause of religion. If your Majesty's victorious standards shall 
be directed towards these parts for the estabhshment of rel igion, and 
destruction of its enemies, by God's assistance your Majesty will in 
a short time, and without any difficulty, conquer this country, and 
annihilate your enemies. Sheik Ally will state all these things par- 
ticularly. I hope your Majesty will be graciously pleased to num- 
ber me among your attached slaves. 
