“When he was about twenty-one years of age, he came with his father to Lukhnow, in quest of employment; and after some time, became moonshee, first to an English merchant, and then to an officer in the East India Company’s service. At this time Abdool was so zealous a Mussulman, that he induced a Hindoo servant of the above officer to become a Mohammedan. The master finding some fault with him for his officiousness, he was so offended as to leave his employ, and return to Lukhnow, with a determination of having no more communication with the British. After this he engaged in a variety of pursuits, and visited different parts of the country, being always very attentive, and endeavouring to render others so, to the Mohammedan observances. “At length, after having been about a year in some situation under the Nabob of Lukhnow, he went into the Mahratta country, and engaged as a trooper in the service of Ibrahim Ali Khan, one of the chieftains of the Javudpore Rajah. While under the command of this chief, Meer Khan, another chieftain, at that time in the service of the same Rajah, was sent to murder Rao Scivac Sing, the rival of the Javudpore Rajah. This transaction is well known in India. Meer Khan swore on the Koran, that he came to mediate a peace between his employer and the Rao, whom he no sooner decoyed into his tent, than, having gone out on some pretence, he caused the cords of it to be cut, and ordered his attendants to stab the visiters involved in its folds. The ill-fated Rao cut his way through the folds of the tent with a dagger, and bravely defended himself until overpowered by numbers; his head was severed from his body, and after being carried about in triumph, was sent to the Rajah. This Scivac Sing, Abdool relates, was a young man of very interesting appearance; and pity for his untimely death, with the horror excited by the sight of his head, exposed as a spectacle, raised a feeling of disgust at the perfidy of mankind. Abdool had hitherto been a stranger to such treachery; and considering, as he says, that he himself was liable to be made the executioner of equally inhuman measures, he resolved on quitting the army, and earning his bread in some peaceful way, by any labour, however degrading. This determination he put in practice; and returning to Lukhnow, supported himself by preparing green paint.