Excerpt from A Translation of the Sëir Mutaqherin, or View of Modern Times: Being an History of India, From the Year 1118, to the Year 1194, of the Hedjrah, Containing, in General, the Reigns of the Seven Last Emperors of Hindostan, and in Particular, an Account of the English Wars in Bengal That the man who has not the honor to be born an English man, and is far from being a Persian who never has seen England, and never had any other master in either language but himself, should attempt to translate from the Persian into English, and moreover to appear in print, is such a strange proceeding, and borders so much upon impudence and temerity, that the least I owe to an indulgent public, and to my own character, is to submit to their pleasure some account of so unusual a transaction, that they may see themselves by what a chain of strange circumstances I have been insensibly drawn into so adventurous an undertaking. And here I am conscious that I am going to fall, (through contagion probably) into a course of irksome egotisms but as my story is likely to give many an insight into the customs and characters of Hindostan and I have no other way of accounting for the temerity of my translation, I humbly conceive that, on that sole account, it may find grace with many of my readers, if ever I shall have any.