- gested to him, and that he may be induced to devote the hours
spent in retirement at Khāsgunge, to the writing or the dictation of the incidents of his early life. In looking back upon past events, the Colonel occasionally expresses a regret that he should have been induced to quit the king's service, in which, in all probability, he would have attained the highest rank; but, eminently qualified for the situation in which he has been placed, and more than reconciled to the destiny which binds him to a foreign soil, the station he occupies leaves him little to desire; and he has it in his power to be still farther useful to society by unlocking the stores of a mind fraught with information of the highest interest."
1835, March 5th.—Two letters having appeared in the "Mofussul Akhbar," a provincial paper, Colonel Gardner published this answer:—
"To the Editor of the Mofussul Akhbar.
"Dear Sir,—In your paper of the 28th ultimo, just received, I find I have been unwillingly dragged from my obscurity by the author of 'Sketches of Living Remarkable Characters in India.' This I should not have noticed, but for a mistake or two that it is my duty to correct. In the first place, it was Colonel Casement who ordered me, and instructed me in his name, to attempt the negotiation for the surrender of the garrison of Komalmair. I obeyed his order successfully, only demurring at the sum demanded, 30,000 rupees, which, for so weak a garrison, I considered extravagant: but the resident Colonel Tod arrived at this stage of the business with superior diplomatic power. Colonel Casement was no longer consulted, and my poor rushlight was hidden under a bushel. But who can feel any thing against the author of such a splendid and correct work as 'Rajustan?' The writer of the extract has probably mistaken Komalmair for the Fort of Rampoora,—where, under the instructions of Colonel Vauzemen, the negotiation for the evacuation was entirely entrusted to me; and, for the sum of 7000 rupees, a siege was prevented at a very advanced season of the year,
