certain of the princes, his brethren, the children of Sujah ul Dowlah,
the late sovereign of the country, were put upon pensions unsuitable to
their birth and rank, and by the mismanagement of the minister
aforesaid, (appointed by the said Warren Hastings,) for two years
together no considerable part of the said inadequate pension was paid;
and not being able to maintain the attendants necessary for their
protection in a city in which all magistracy and justice was abolished,
they were not only liable to suffer the greatest extremities of penury,
but their lives were exposed to the attempts of assassins: the condition
of one of the said princes, called the Nabob Bahadur, being by himself
strongly expressed in three letters to the said Resident Bristow,--the
first dated the 28th of December, 1783; the second, the 7th of January,
1784; and the third, the 15th of January, 1784,--which letters were
duly transmitted, in the dispatch of the 29th of the same month, to
Warren Hastings, Esquire, and are as follow.

"Your own servant carried you the account of what he himself was an
eye-witness to, after the affair of last night. These are the
particulars. About midnight my aunt received twelve wounds from a
ruffian, of which she died. I also received six successive stabs, which
alarmed the people of the house, who set up a shouting: whereupon the
assassin run off. Besides being _without food or the means of providing
any_, this misfortune has befallen me. _I am desirous of sending the
coffin to your door_. It is your duty, both for the sake of God and of
Christ, to execute justice, and to inquire what harm I have done to the
murderer sufficient to deserve assassination, or even injury. _You now
stand in the place of his Excellency the Vizier_. I request you will do
me justice. What more can I say?

"P.S. I am also desirous to show you my wounds."

* * * * *

_From the same, 29th [7th?] January, 1784._

"You have been duly informed of all the circumstances relative both to
the murder of the innocent, and of my being wounded, as well by my
former letter, as by the messenger whom you sent to inquire into the
state of my health; and I have every reason to hope, from your known
kindness, that you will not be deficient in seeking out the assassin. _I
am at this moment overwhelmed in misfortune. Whilst the blood is flowing
from my wounds, neither I nor my children nor my servants have
wherewithal t