Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 25.9.3

25.9.3

It is to be wished we could speak with as much fulness of the affairs and campaigns in Decan; but the detail of the battles and transactions in that country cannot be well known to any, but to those Commanders, who having been in battle against one another, have made trials of each other's valour and strength. As for me, I know only as much of them as has been published by common report, or has been written by Indians constituted in power and dignity; and it is these reports and relations which I am putting in order throughout these sheets. I was, at Azim-abad, when I heard of the expedition and achievements of Colonel Godard's. That Commander being arrived at Ilah-abad, heard that the army in which he had been appointed to serve, was gone to Calpy; on which he made haste, and soon joined it at that spot, where he found that the English Commander had opened a correspondence, and a commerce of friendship with some Zemindars of those parts, and with some of the enemies of the Princes and Radjahs of the Bundul-cund, with whom he had concluded treaties, with a view to open a passage through their countries, and to conciliate their good will to the expedition. But on advancing a little beyond Calpy, Lesley who commanded in chief, and to whom Godard obeyed against his inclination, had the imprudence and thoughtlessness to engage himself in a parched country, where for some leagues together in every direction, no water at all was to be found, and no habitation to be seen;