Letter from Major Gilpin to John Bristow, Esq., Resident at the Court of Lucknow; 30th October, 1782.
"Last night, about eight o'clock, the women in the Khord Mohul Zenanah, under the charge of Letafit Ali Khân, assembled on the tops of the buildings, crying in a most lamentable manner for food,—that for the last four days they had got but a very scanty allowance, and that yesterday they had got none. The melancholy cries of famine are more easily imagined than described; and from their representations, I fear that the Nabob's agents for that business are very inattentive. I therefore think it requisite to make you acquainted with the circumstance, that his Excellency the Nabob may cause his agents to be more circumspect in their conduct to these poor, unhappy women."
Letter from Mr. Bristow to Major Gilpin; Fyzabad, 4th November, 1782.
"Sir,—I have received your letters of the 12th, 19th, 27th, and 30th ultimo. I communicated the contents of that of the 30th to the minister, who promised me to issue orders for the payment of a sum of money to relieve the distress of the Khord Mohul. I shall also forward a bill for 10,000 rupees to you in the course of three or four days; and if in the mean time you may find means to supply to the amount of that sum, I will become personally responsible to you for the repayment."
Letter from Major Gilpin to John Bristow, Esq., at the Court of Lucknow; Fyzabad, 15th November, 1782.
"Sir,—The repeated cries of the women in the Khord Mohul Zenanah for subsistence have been truly melancholy. They beg most piteously for liberty, that they may earn their daily bread by laborious servitude, or be relieved from their misery by immediate death. In consequence of their unhappy situation, I have this day taken the liberty of drawing on you in favor of Ramnarain at ten days' sight, for twenty son Kerah rupees, ten thousand of which I have paid to Cojah Letafit Ali Khân, under whose charge that zenanah is."
These, my Lords, are the state of the distresses in the year 1782, and your Lordships will see that they continued almost, with only occasional reliefs, during the period of that whole year. Now we enter into the year 1783, to show you that it continued during the whole time; and then I shall make a very few remarks upon it.
I will now read to your Lordships a part of Mr. Holt's evidence, by which it is proved that Mr. Hastings was duly advertised of all these miserable and calamitous circumstances.
"Q. Whether you saw a letter of intelligence from Fyzabad containing a relation of the treatment of the women in the Khord Mohul?—A. Yes, I did, and translated it.—Q. From whom did it come?—A. Hoolas Roy.—Q. Who was he?—A. An agent of the Resident at Fyzabad, employed for the purpose of transmitting information to the Resident.—Q. Was that paper transmitted to Mr. Hastings?—A. To the best of my recollection, it was transmitted to the Board, after I had attested it.—Q. Do you remember at what distance of time after the receipt of the intelligence respecting the distresses of the Khord Mohul that paper was transmitted to Calcutta?—A. I cannot say.—Q. Do you believe it was transmitted within ten months after the time it was received?—A. I understood it to be a letter received just before it was transmitted.—Q. Then you understand it was transmitted as soon as received?—A. Yes, in the course of three days.—Q. Can you bring to your mind the time at which the translation was made?—A. To the best of my recollection, it was in January, 1784.—Q. Whether the distresses that had been complained of had ceased for above a twelvemonth before the distresses of the Khord Mohul?—A. I understood they were new distresses.—Q. Then you state that that account transmitted in 1784 was, as you understand, an account of new distresses?—A. Yes."
I shall now refer your Lordships to page 899 of your printed Minutes.