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 not a difficult task, for as the property which had belonged to Brijlall was easily saleable, we soon found purchasers among the numerous goldsmiths and sahoukars of the city.

In one of his dealings with a sahoukar, my father casually stated, that he was proceeding to Hyderabad with some men he had brought from his village, and for whom he was in hope of procuring employment under, as he said, his brother, who was in the service of the then reigning prince Sikundur Jah. The Sahoukar at once proposed to accompany us, and to give my father and his men a handsome remuneration if he would protect him on the road; as he had, he said, been for some time on the look out for an opportunity to put himself under the escort of a respectable man who might be travelling there with a number of followers.

At that time, Sahib, in consequence of the unsettled state of the country, and the many rumours there were of wars, any man of respectability, who was idle in his village, and could persuade a few companions to accompany him as their leader, was sure of employment as a soldier, if he presented himself at any of the courts of Hindostan or the Dukhun. Sindea,