Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c55.s8.3

v4.c55.s8.3

† It is now possible to reconstruct the story of George Thomas's life in Northern India with accuracy of details and dates and to correct the narratives of W. Francklin and Louis Ferdinand Smith, who depended on the faded memory of an unlettered soldier--and may we add, his Irish brag?--or the romance woven a generation after his death by the Eurasian family of Skinner. L. F. Smith, though a contemporary and a practised writer, belonged to his enemy's camp and knew only the events of the last years of Thomas. A correspondent's letters from Lucknow, published in the *Asiatic Annual Register* for 1802, (Characters, pp. 55-57) probably written by L. F. Smith, are useful on a few points. But we now possess contemporary evidence of unimpeachable authenticity, namely, (i) the despatches of the Maratha Resident at Delhi, (ii) the news-letters written to the British Resident with Sindhia by his agents in the camps of Thomas and his opponents and incorporated in the Resident's letters to the Governor General, and (iii) weekly (sometimes daily) reports of occurrences in the Delhi Emperor's Court and the news from various places that came to that capital. These last are found in Persian manuscripts called *ākhbārāt*. It is therefore necessary to make heavy corrections in Francklin and