Burnes, Alexander: Travels into Bokhara: containing the narrative of a voyage on the Indus from the sea to Lahore, ... and an account of a journey from India to Cabool, Tartary and Persia ; performed by order of the supreme government of India, in the years 1831, 32, and 33 (Band 1) (London, 1835)

CHAP. VI.

eetter from the king.

131

the wish to gratify your Highness in this matter,
has commanded me to select for your Highness
some horses of the gigantic breed which is peculiar
to England.

These horses, selected with care, requiring much
time, I now send to your Highness ; and as their
great weight makes it inexpedient that they should
undergo the fatigue of a long march in a hot climate,
I have directed that they shall be conveyed to your
Highness by the Indus, and such river of the Pun-
jab as may be most easy of navigation.

The King has given me his most special commands
to intimate to your Highness the sincere satisfaction
with which his Majesty has witnessed the good un-
derstanding which has for so many years subsisted,
and which may God ever preserve, between the
British Government and your Highness.

His Majesty relies with confidence on the con-
tinuance of a state of peace so beneficial to the
subjects of both powers ; and his Majesty earnestly
desires that your Highness may live long in health
and honour, extending the blessings of beneficent
government to the nations under your Highness's
rule.

By the King's command,

(Signed) Ellenborough.

As the contents of the document were unfolded,
the Maharaja gave evident symptoms of his satis-
faction ; and when the letter was half read, he said
that he would greet its arrival by a salute; and a
peal of artillery from sixty guns, each firing twenty-

k 2