DOCUMENTS EE LATINO TO EOYPT. 
183 
obscure official to Captain Wilson personally ; but seeing that they 
were made over by his two chief officers to Wilson/s Moonshie, the 
inevitable inference is that the Shereef was well aware of what was 
going on. He found himself in a dangerous position, and endeavoured 
to extricate himself from it by f running with the hare and barking 
with the hounds/ On one point, however, he spoke tho truth; the 
letters had certainly been cf confided to trusty messengers/" his first 
Vizier and his first Secretary. He thought it unnecessary to add, that 
it was for the purpose of sendiug them to a British Captain, not an 
Indian Prince. 
Captain Wilson"s note is an enigma. When did he receive these 
papers? We can only be certain that he received them after 21st 
February. Where did he receive these papers ? Hot in Mocha; 
unless we suppose tho Vizier and Secretary to have gone there, which 
is too wild a supposition to be entertained. In all probability Wilson 
and his Moonsliie came to Jedda in a war-ship. “ Several war-ships 
have been lately at Jedda/" wrote Poussielgue to Buonaparte, “ but 
the Shereef has not permitted the English to land. All communications 
between the ships and the shore have taken place through an inter¬ 
preter."" Perhaps so ; but the Moonshie was not English, and in all 
likelihood he got to shore and secured the papers. 
VX 
What were the documents forwarded to Bombay by Wilson, on 
which he wrote his lucid minute ? If they were the originals, why 
did he not say so, and why did he refer to the copies which were a 
matter of interest to no one ? If they were not the originals, were 
they mere copies of his copies ? I am unable to answer any of these 
questions, and can only venture the surmise that the Moonshie got 
possession of the copies first, and afterwards succeeded in obtaining 
the originals. However this may be, the originals somehow changed 
hands. Buonaparte"s letter is given in “ Copies and translations of 
official documents relative to Tippoo Sultan, Hawab/" 
published by the Indian Government at Madras, 1799, and it is marked 
f intercepted." Tippoo, therefore, never received Buonaparte"s letter. 
But even if the Shereef, after making over copies of it to Wilson, had 
forwarded the original to its destination, its contents would not have 
influenced the course of affairs in Mysore. Tippoo"s ruin had been 
already accomplished. Deceived by empty promises of help from the 
French authorities in Mauritius, and deluded by the lies of one Ripaud, 1 
the illiterate master of a French privateer, who made his way to 
Seringapatam, this unhappy Prince became embroiled a second time 
with the Anglo-Indian Government. War was made against him; 
1 One of Tippoo’s ministers, Mohammed Eezza (the Binki Nawabl thus speaks of Eipaud in a 
memorandum to Tippoo which is endorsed by remarks written by Tippoo himself“ From first 
to last the language of this man has been that of self-interest and falsehood. . . From the 
erroneous statements of this scoundrel the strongest doubts have arisen etc. etc.” See the official 
translations of Tippoo’s private papers in Appendix, Paper A, No. 8, of the “ Beview etc. of the 
late war in Mysore,” with an introduction by Col. M. Wood, M.P , late Chief Engineer, Bengal; 
London, 1800. The Nawab’s appreciation of this adventurer’s character is completely supported 
by facts. 
