Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/215

Rh or even petty trading. He pronounced decided opinions on science, medicine, commerce, religious observances, engineering, military establishments, and a host of abstruse matters with equal facility, but with little real knowledge. He seems to have written Persian with tolerable readiness, signing his name generally in a device or cryptogram, meaning 'Nabbi Málik,' or 'the Prophet is Master .' He was assiduous in his correspondence, and had little leisure for pastimes. He wrote to a certain Tarbíyat Alí Khán, 'That great person' (used here contemptuously for the correspondent addressed) 'eats two or three times a day, sits at his ease, and amuses himself with talk, whereas we are occupied from morning to night with business.' There can be no doubt about his business habits, and his