Captain Outram was again sent forward to Hyderabad on a mission to the Ameers of Scinde, but they received him in the haughtiest manner and refused to come to any sort of terms. The Captain found them fortifying the hills round the city, under the superintendence of an European officer, and he observed a battery of twenty pieces of cannon, posted on the banks of the river. Twenty thousand Belochees armed with talwar, shield, and matchlock, and two thirds of whom were dismounted, occupied a position on the right bank, so as to protect the battery. Half of this force subsequently moved across the river and took up a strong position on the western bank, where we lay. The city was reported to be full of armed men, and the idea of attacking it previous to our junction with the Bengal army was regarded as worse than folly, the river being eighteen hundred feet wide and our pontoons of insufficient length to traverse it. The enemy, triumphing in our seeming inaction, sent vaunting and threatening messages to us. The Commander-in-Chief took no notice of their bravadoes, but silently made all the necessary preparations for attacking the city as soon as he was joined by the Bengal army. Strong cavalry pickets were thrown out on the hills to the right, which commanded an extensive view of the surrounding country, and the sound of drums and other military instruments was strictly prohibited in camp. On the 25th, Sir Henry Pottinger came into camp from Hyderabad, the Ameers not only refusing to pay the arrears of tribute that were due, but treating the Envoy with every sort of indignity. The Bengal army having come through the Punjaub, and crossed the Indus at Roree was now ready to act in conjunction with us on the right bank of the river, and the Commander-in-Chief resolved to lose no further time in investing the city. He accordingly commenced operations by planting a battery on some heights which commanded its walls, but which were at too great a distance for the guns to do much damage. To the great disappointment of both officers and men, who already revelled in the anticipation of prize money, the Ameers became alarmed at these demonstrations and came to terms. An envoy, whose appearance created no small amusement in the camp, was despatched from Hyderabad to adjust the necessary preliminaries. He was a short, thick set old fellow, with a merry twinkling eye, and as little as possible of what is called official dignity about him. He brought with him from twenty to thirty lacs of rupees, but the reception which he met with from Sir John Keane was not calculated to elevate the worthy functionary in his own estimation.