We directed that you should pay no regard to the article of the
treaty of 1771 which respected the alienation of part of the Rajah's
dominions; and we declared, that, if the Nabob had not a just title to
those territories before the conclusion of the treaty, we denied that he
obtained any right thereby, except such temporary sovereignty, for
securing the payment of his expenses, as is therein mentioned.
These instructions appear to have been executed in the month of April,
1776; and by your letter of the 14th May following you certified to us
that the Rajah had been put into the possession of the whole country his
father held in 1762, when the treaty was concluded with the Nabob; but
we do not find that you came to any resolution, either antecedent or
subsequent to this advice, either for questioning or impeaching the
right of the Nabob to the sovereignty of Arnee, or expressive of any
doubt of his title to it. Nevertheless, we find, that, although the
Board passed no such resolution, yet your President, in his letter to
the Nabob of the 30th July and 24th August, called upon his Highness to
give up the possession of Arnee to the Rajah; and the Rajah himself, in
several letters to us, particularly in those of 21st October, 1776, and
the 7th of June, 1777, expressed his expectation of our orders for
delivering up that fort and district to him; and so recently as the 15th
of October, 1783, he reminds us of his former application, and states,
that the country of Arnee being guarantied to him by the Company, it of
course is his right, but that it has not been given up to him, and he
therefore earnestly entreats our orders for putting him into the
possession of it.
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