BATTLE OP SOBRAC 
 
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 CHARLES MAC FARIkNE 
 
 LONDON : 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & CO. FARRINGDON STREET. 
 
A 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 BRITISH INDIA, 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 EARLIEST ENGLISH INTERCOURSE 
 
 THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 CHARLES MACFARLANE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 .JAPAN, ETC." "LIFE OF THE DUKE OF WKLLINCTON," ETC. ETC. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 Kllustrateti ujitl) a2aooli=uts. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & CO., FARRINGDON STREET. 
 
 1853. 
 
6 '^ 
 
 
 C^vf 
 
 Um 
 
V 
 
 Vo^ 
 
 TO 
 
 SIR JAMES WEIR HOGG, BART., 
 
 Depidy- Chairman of the Tlonov.rahle East-India Compamj, Sfc. S(c. 
 
 IN ADMIRATION OF HIS PUBLIC CONDUCT, 
 
 ESPECIALLY OP THE EFFORTS BY HIM MADE TO PROMOTE 
 EDUCATION IN THE INDIAN SERVICE : 
 
 IN GRATITUDE FOR PRIVATK ACTS OF KINnVKSS, 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY 
 
 ITS AUTHOR. 
 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In this volume it has been my endeavour to give a clear 
 and concise sketch of the great events of our Indian history, 
 without embarrassing the reader with episodes or minor 
 facts, and without entering into political discussion or any 
 other species of controversy. I am assured that such a 
 book, if properly executed, is much wanted, not only by the 
 students at Haileybury and Addiscombe, and by young 
 officers and civil servants of the Company in India, but also 
 by the generality of readers, who may not find time for the 
 perusal of voluminous works. 
 
 Those who wish to pursue the subject, or any part of it, 
 into more detail, wiU find an index to the best books in 
 my numerous foot-notes, and in the notes at the ends of 
 the chapters. Our Anglo-Indian literature is so very ex- 
 tensive that I could not attempt anything like a complete 
 index ; but the young student will find the notes useful in 
 this way, and to the more experienced reader they will 
 show my sources of information, and serve to test the 
 accuracy or general fidelity with which I have followed my 
 authorities. 
 
 In order that the volume might be compact, and fit for 
 the portmanteau of the traveller, or the bullock-trunk of the 
 young Indian officer (who always finds it difficult to carry 
 large books about with him), I have tried to avoid the use 
 of a single superfluous word. It is for others to decide 
 whether I have succeeded in this endeavour. 
 
 In treating of recent events and certain very recent bat- 
 tles, which have been made the subjects of controversy and 
 
Vlll PllErACE. 
 
 violent excitement, I have studiously avoided going into any 
 details. The time is not yet come for such discussions, nor 
 are all the facts cleared up. 
 
 India still offers and long may it offer ! the best, the 
 widest, the noblest field for British exertion ; and in no 
 other service than in that of the Honourable Company has 
 a youth or young man so fair a chance of promotion. " In 
 India," said Sir James Hogg, " every possible encourage- 
 ment is held out to public servants to render themselves 
 fully competent to the discharge of their duties. There the 
 fittest man is always selected for the performance of any 
 duty, irrespective of all other considerations. In India, no 
 interest is required for advancement ; no political feeling 
 can interfere with the progress of merit ; and thence the 
 high character of our civil and military servants, which I 
 refer to with the highest pride." * 
 
 As a necessary part of his education, and as one of the 
 means of making himself competent to this full discharge 
 of his duties, every young civilian or cadet, before going to 
 the East, ought to make himself thoroughly acquainted with 
 at least the main facts of Anglo-Indian History. He ought 
 to know what has been done before him by men like Clive, 
 Warren Hastings, Mountstuart Elphinstone, Hardinge, and 
 the long array of distinguished men who have gained, or 
 have added to, their illustration and glory in India. 
 
 If this little book contribute to that desirable end, if it 
 excite a glow of admiration and enthusiasm by the recital of 
 past deeds and heroic actions, and encourage young men to 
 go and aspire to do likewise, its chief purpose will have 
 been gained. 
 
 C. M. E. 
 
 London, October, 1851. 
 
 * Address to the Gentlemen Cadets at Addiseombe, 184G. 
 
HISTORY OF INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Ikdia is bounded by the lofty Hemalaya, tbe river Indus, 
 and tbe sea. Its length from Cashmir to Cape Comorin is 
 about 1,900 English miles ; and its breadth from the mouth of 
 the Indus to the mountains eastward oftheBaramputra river 
 is considerably more than 1,500 English miles. It is tra- 
 versed from east to west by a chain of mountains the 
 Yindya which extends from the 23rd to the 25th parallel 
 of latitude, or nearly from the desert jST.W. of Guzerat to 
 the river Granges. The country to the north of the Vindya 
 chain is now called Hindustan, and that to the south of it, 
 the Deckan. Gruzerat and Bengal are regarded by the natives 
 as being included neither in Hindustan nor the Deckan ; 
 they differ greatly from each other, but each resembles the 
 part of Hindustan which is nearest to it. The superficial 
 extent of all India is estimated at 1,287,483 square miles. Its 
 population may be taken in round numbers at 140,500,000, 
 but it is believed to have been at one period of the old un- 
 conquered Hindu empire much greater. If we leave Eussia, 
 Sweden and jN^orway, out of the account, India is in square 
 miles nearly a third greater than Europe.* 
 
 Although some of its rich productions had found their 
 way into the regions of the west, and some vague and half- 
 fabulous reports of the vast extent, great wealth and popu- 
 lousness of the country had reached Europe at much earlier 
 periods, very little was known about India, until Alexander 
 the Grreat led his conquering army across the Punjaub to 
 
 * * The History of India, the Himlu and Mahometan Periods.' By 
 the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone. Major Rennell, Memoir of Map of 
 Hindostan. 
 
2 GREEi 'ACCOUNTS 
 
 tlie banks of the Hydaspes and the Hyphasis. I^o country 
 the Macedonian* had hitherto visited was so populous and 
 well cultivated, or so abounding in valuable productions of 
 nature and art, as that edge of India through which they 
 marched.* AVhen compelled by the impatient clamour of his 
 troops to commence his return towards Persia, Alexander 
 built or collected a numerous fleet, with which he descended 
 the rivers to the mouth of the Indus and the ocean, seeing in 
 this progress far more of the country than he had seen on his 
 preceding line of march. He had with him a few Grreek 
 scholars admirably qualified to observe and describe the 
 country. At the mouth of the Indus the army and the 
 fleet parted company : Alexander proceeded with the troops 
 by land, and Nearchus took charge of the ships, which made 
 for the Persian Grulf and the Euphrates. After these bril- 
 liant expeditions a flood of light was throTVTi on the great 
 countries of the East. It is true that the accounts of the 
 Macedonians are occasionally contradictory and inaccurate ; 
 but full credit may be given to the Grreek writers when they 
 describe manners and institutions which are still found to 
 exist in India, or which are recorded in ancient Hindu 
 books. " If," says Mr. Elphinstone, " we discard the fables 
 derived from the Grecian mythology, and those which are 
 contrary to the course of nature, we shall find more reason 
 to admire the accuracy of these early authors, than to won- 
 der at the mistakes into which they fell, in a country so new 
 and so diflferent from their own, and where they had every- 
 thing to learn by means of interpreters, generally through 
 the medium of more languages than one. Their accounts, 
 as far as they go, of the manners and habits of the people, 
 do in fact agree with our own accurate knowledge almost as 
 well as those of most modem travellers prior to the institu- 
 tion of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta." t 
 
 These early authors noticed the strict and remarkable 
 division of the people into castes, the peculiar life led by 
 the Bramins, the almost incredible feats of those religious 
 ascetics now called fakirs, the volimtary self-immolation of 
 widows by fire with the bodies of their husbands, the magni- 
 ficence of the Indian festivals, together with many other 
 particulars, which have not been changed by numerous 
 foreign conquests, or infusion of alien blood, or the wearing 
 
 * Dr. Robertson, * Historical Disquisition concerning Ancient India/ 
 |- History of India. 
 
OF AIS'CIEXT INDIA. 3 
 
 effects of twenty-two centuries. Most of the arts of life 
 are at present as they were at the time of those Grreeks. 
 The two annual harvests, and the kinds of grain reaped at 
 each of them, are now as they then w^ere : sugar, cotton, 
 apices, and perfumes, were abundantly produced as they now 
 are ; and the mode of forming the fields into small beds to 
 retain the irrigation has undergone no change. The bril- 
 liancy of the Indian dyes, as well as the skill of the people 
 in manufactures and in imitation of foreign objects, struck 
 the ancients even as they have done the moderns. The use 
 of copper vessels for aU purposes was as general as it is now. 
 The dress of the Indians as described by the Greeks is pre- 
 cisely that composed of two sheets of cotton cloth, which is 
 still worn by the people of Bengal, and, by strict Bramins, all 
 over India. Ear-rings and ornamented slippers were also 
 used, according to the fashion of our own day. Theirtclothes 
 were usually white cotton, though often mixed with bright 
 colours and flowered patterns. Frugal in most other things, 
 they were very expensive in their personal attire, the higher 
 classes wearing gold and jewels in profusion. The great, 
 when they went abroad, had umbrellas carried over them, as 
 now. They dyed their beards with henna and indigo, a 
 fashion as prevalent as ever. They took their meals sepa- 
 rately, according to their present unsociable practice ; they 
 drank little fermented liquor. The method of catching and 
 training elephants, with all its ingenious contrivances, was 
 related by the Grreeks, almost as exactly as it is in the account 
 of the modem practice in the ' Asiatic Besearches.' 
 
 During the splendid periods of the Commonwealth, and 
 until the last decline of the Empire, Borne, and her more pros- 
 perous and civilized provinces, were very familiar with the silks, 
 brocades, fine muslins, gems, spices, and many more of the ma- 
 nufactures and natural productions of the remote East; but, 
 judging from the works that remain to us, it cannot be said 
 that the Bomans added very much to our knowledge of India. 
 During the dark ages which followed the subversion of their 
 empire of the "West, the India trade was greatly diminished, 
 but it was never entirely stopped all over Europe. People 
 are tenacious of articles and luxuries to which they have 
 once been accustomed, and some of the productions of India 
 had been consecrated to the services of religion, and con- 
 tinued in request with Christian churches. Even in our 
 remote island of Great Britain, and in the poor semi-barba- 
 
 B 2 
 
4 EAELT INTEECOUESE. [1498. 
 
 rous Saxon period, the venerable Bede liad collected in liis 
 bleak northern monastery at Jarrow, some of the spices and 
 scented woods of the East. At the dawn of our civilization, 
 under Alfred the Grreat, English missionaries are said to have 
 found their way to the coast of Malabar. 
 
 But the great emporium of Eastern trade was Constan- 
 tinople, until the eleventh century, when Amalfi, Venice, 
 and other enterprising Italian republics, struck in for their 
 share, and commenced a system, which, in the course of a 
 century or two, gave them nearly the whole of that com- 
 merce in Europe. Some of the goods were conveyed over- 
 land by caravans from India to Persia and Asia Minor ; 
 others were brought by Arab navigators across the Indian 
 Ocean, and up the Persian Grulf, or the Eed Sea. The ad- 
 venturous Italians purchased them mostly in the seaports of 
 Eg>'pt*or Syria, and conveying them thence, in their ships, 
 across the Mediterranean, they distributed them over the 
 continent of Europe. But in the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries, a few Italian traders found their way to India. 
 It is to a Venetian trader the great traveller Marco Polo 
 that the nations of the West were indebted for much addi- 
 tional information concerning the regions which lie between 
 the Hemalaya mountains, the Indus, and the Indian Ocean, 
 and for the first information, of any substance, that we ever 
 obtained about China, and many regions and islands neigh- 
 bouring on the Celestial empire, or on India.* 
 
 The discovery by A^asco de Grama, in the year 1498, of 
 the way to India by the Cape of Good Hope, was almost 
 immediately the cause of a great commercial revolution. It 
 turned the trade of Hindustan and the Deckan into a new 
 channel, depriving the Venetians, the Grenoese, and other 
 states or peoples, of the advantages they had derived from 
 it, so long as it had been carried on by the Persian Gulf, the 
 Red Sea, across Persia and Asia Minor, or across Eg}^t and 
 the Isthmus of Suez, and thence by the Mediterranean to 
 the European shores. It placed all the valuable part of that 
 great commerce in the hands of the Portuguese discoverers 
 
 * It is not consistent with the limits and plan of this work to do more 
 than glance at India in her ancient or remote times. Those who would 
 pursue this part of the subject (and it is very interesting) may be referred 
 to Arrian and the other Greek writers, to Mr. Elphinstone's History of 
 India, Major Rennell's learned works, Dr. Robertson's ingenious Dis- 
 quisition, Dean Vincent's Periplus, and to the volumes of the Asiatic 
 Researches, and the journals of the Royal Asiatic Society. 
 
1591.] Om FIRST EXPEDITION. 5 
 
 and conquerors, ayIio, by their possession of Malacca, secured 
 tlie trade of the Indian Archipelago, and by their settlements 
 at Groa, Diu, and other ports of Malabar, monopolized the 
 commerce with Europe during the sixteenth century.* Trom 
 the day the Portuguese established this monopoly, the 
 Italians began to decline rapidly in wealth and prosperity ; 
 and as it was with the Portuguese and Italians, so will it be 
 with every people that gains or loses the control over the 
 trade of the golden East. 
 
 At the close of the sixteenth and in the early part of the 
 seventeenth century, the English, Dutch, and Erench, going 
 round by the Cape of Grood Hope, began to appear upon the 
 Indian field, and the Portuguese lost their influence almost 
 as rapidly as they had acquired it. 
 
 Thomas Cavendish one of the boldest circumnavigators 
 of Queen Elizabeth's days returned, in 1588, from a two 
 years' voyage, during which he had explored and visited the 
 isles of Molucca. He had been well treated by the people, 
 and affirmed that they would trade as freely with the English 
 as with the Portuguese. Cavendish and " divers merchants'* 
 applied for permission to send a small squadron to India, 
 but it appears that government did not attend to the appli- 
 cation. 
 
 The first English expedition destined for India was rather 
 warlike and buccaneering, than commercial, for it was des- 
 tined to cruise against the Portuguese : it was fitted out in 
 1591, under the command of a Captain Raymond ; but sick- 
 ness, shipwreck, and other disasters, attended the three ships. 
 Baymond was lost without seeing India, and Lancaster, his 
 second in command, returned home a ruined man. 
 
 The capture, by Sir Erancis Drake, of five Portuguese car- 
 racks laden with the products of India the enterprise of 
 some members of the Turkey or Levant Company, who con- 
 veyed their European merchandise to Aleppo and Bagdad, 
 and thence by the Persian Grulf to Goa, and afterwards 
 visited Agra, Lahore, Bengal, Pegu, and Malacca the 
 account given by one Stevens, who had been in India with 
 the Portuguese, and accumulating intelligence through other 
 channels, all contributed to keep alive the excitement, and to 
 increase the desire for a more intimate acquaintance with, 
 
 * For details, read Faria y Sousa, * Portuguese Asia, History of the 
 Conquest of India; translated by Captain J. Stevens.' 3 vols. 8vo. 
 Lond. 1695. 
 
6 OUR FIEST EAST-I>^DIA COMPANY. [1599. 
 
 and a more immediate participation in, the riches of the East. 
 But it was not until the Dutch, in 1595, had despatched 
 four ships to trade with India, that the jealousy and ambition 
 of the English were effectually roused. 
 
 At length, in 1599, a company was formed in London ; a 
 fund was raised by subscriptions of individuals, amounting 
 to 30,133. 6s. 8d., and a committee of fifteen was deputed 
 to manage it. Such was the humble origin of our great 
 East- India Company. To further the wishes of the com- 
 mittee. Sir John Mildenhall was sent by Constantinople 
 overland, on an embassy to the Grreat Mogul ; but this 
 mission was rendered of no effect by the intrigues of the 
 Portuguese. On the 31st of December, 1600, a Eoyal 
 Charter of Privileges was given to the infant Company, con- 
 ditionally, for fifteen years. On the 2nd of May, 1601, a 
 squadron sailed from Torbay ; it consisted of five ships, 
 placed under the command of James Lancaster, the survivor 
 of the unfortunate expedition of 1591. Lancaster was fur- 
 nished with letters from Queen Elizabeth to various eastern 
 sovereigns, who could scarcely have known of her majesty's 
 existence. The first place in India that Lancaster and his 
 crews visited was Acheen, in the island of Sumatra, where 
 they met with a favourable reception. In the Straits of 
 Malacca they captured a large Portuguese vessel, having on 
 board calicoes and spices enough to lade all their ships. 
 Thus suddenly and easily enriched, they bore away for Bantam, 
 in the island of Java, and left some agents there the very 
 first rudiments of the Company's factories ; and from Ban- 
 tam they made for England, which they reached in safety, 
 in September, 1603. 
 
 Between this date and 1612, the Company made eight 
 voyages to the islands of the Indian Ocean, realizing immense 
 profits thereby. Attempts were made in England to infringe 
 the Company's rights, but they were not successful. On 
 the 11th of January, 1612, a firman or decree of the Mogul 
 emperor was received, confirming certain privileges of the 
 English in the islands, and authorizing their first establish- 
 ment on the continent of India.* 
 
 Few great things have had a smaller beginning than that 
 stupendous anomaly, the British Empire in India. It was 
 in the course of the year 1612, in the reign of James I., that 
 
 * Mill, 'Hist, of British India.' Harris, 
 
1612.] MAHOMETAN CONQUESTS. 7 
 
 the agents of the Company timidly established their first 
 little factory at Surat. By degrees" other petty settlements 
 were formed along the western side of the peninsula, Surat 
 continuing to have the control over them all, till the cession 
 of Bombay to the Company, by Charles II., in 1668. At 
 this period the nominal sovereigns and masters of the whole 
 of India, and the real masters and tyrants of a good part of 
 it, were the Mahometanized Mogul Tartars, a people widely 
 different in origin, manners, laws, and religion, from the 
 Hindus, the aboriginal or very ancient inhabitants of the 
 country. 
 
 At the beginning of the tenth century of our sera, or 
 about seventy years before the conquest of England by the 
 N"ormans, Sultan Mahmoud of Ghuzni, who is universally 
 regarded as the first Mahometan conqueror of Hindustan, 
 acquired by the sword, and by many battles and massacres, 
 nearly the whole of the country from the Indus to the 
 Ganges. The dynasty of Ghuzni was subverted, in less 
 than two hundred years, by new Mahometan conquerors 
 from Gaur, in Khorasan, who, though at first defeated by 
 some of the Hindu rajahs then striving to restore the inde- 
 pendence and ancient religion of their race, conquered the 
 greater part of the provinces, took Delhi, and made it the 
 seat and centre of the government. In 1206, assassination 
 put an end to this new dynasty, and the dominions were 
 split into fractions. Here a Hindu rajah raised his head, 
 there an unknown adventurer established a precarious sway, 
 and there a Gaurian or a Mussulman, of some other tribe, 
 gave the law and collected the taxes. In 1289, the partial 
 dominion of India passed into the hands of the fierce 
 Afghans, who subdued the Eajpoots, a portion of the imfor- 
 tunate Hindu race who had hitherto preserved their inde- 
 pendence. But in India, no dynasty (constantly resident in 
 the country) long preserved the qualities which had made 
 them conquerors ; the Afghan princes became weak and 
 degenerate ; many of the Hindu rajahs in the Deckan, and 
 in Bengal recovered their independence ; and then, in the 
 last years of the fourteenth century, Timour the Mogul 
 Tartar, commonly called by our writers Tamerlane, over- 
 turned the Afghan dynasty altogether. As Timour did not 
 remain in the scene of liis victories and dreadful devasta- 
 tions, the countr)^ became divided into a number of small 
 independent states, some Mahometan and some Hindu. 
 
8 SIR T. eoe's embassy. [1612. 
 
 But in 1526, Baber, a descendant of Timour, and a truly 
 great prince, swept away by a new invasion these petty 
 principalities and powers, and extended one compact do- 
 minion as far as the Granges, and quietly re-erected the 
 Mogul throne in Delhi. The second prince in succession 
 from Baber, the great Akbar, who began to reign in 1556, 
 set the Mogul dominions upon a firm basis, chiefly by con- 
 sulting the interests and feelings of the Hindiis, who, count- 
 ing the whole of the extensive country, were a hundred-fold 
 more numerous than their conquerors. Under this reign 
 India enjoyed more internal tranquillity, more prosperity and 
 civilization, than she had ever known before. The great 
 Akbar had been dead only seven years, when the English 
 timidly made their first settlement atSurat. After his decease, 
 his dynasty was weakened by feuds, insurrections, disputed 
 successions, and frequent civil wars. Sons plotted against 
 their fathers, brothers against brothers, cousins against 
 cousins, and viziers and great khans against their sovereigns ; 
 and all these plots, insurrections, and wars, were attended 
 by foul assassinations, wholesale massacres, and an amount 
 of treachery and crime, revolting to the imagination. 
 
 As the Portuguese continued to intrigue against the 
 English, and very often succeeded in thwarting them, the 
 English seem to have made no scruple of attacking their 
 ships wherever they could find them ; and thus, even when 
 there was peace between the two mother countries in 
 Europe, there was seldom peace or truce between these rivals 
 in India. As the English were generally victorious in these 
 naval actions, their reputation was raised in the country, 
 and native princes, who had wars or quarrels on hand, 
 began to court their friendship and alliance. At the earnest 
 solicitation of the infant Company, King James, in 1614, 
 sent an embassy to Delhi, to settle their commerce and cul- 
 tivate a friendly connection. Sir Thomas Boe, the ambassa- 
 dor selected, was an observing and clever man. In Septem- 
 ber, 1615, he arrived at Surat, and landed there with no small 
 pomp, having in his train eighty men-at-arms. Travelling 
 across the country, he reached Ajmere, where the court was re- 
 siding, on the 23rd of December. The Mogul emperor received 
 him with unusual honours ; but Sir Thomas soon found that 
 his diplomacy was thwarted by the intrigues of Portuguese 
 missionaries, and by the suspicion, or the excessive caution, 
 of the emperor's favourite son and ministers. Some former 
 
1622.] MASSACRE AT AMBOyis'A. 9 
 
 territorial grants, and a few new privileges, worth very little, 
 were, however, confirmed or granted to him. Jehanghire, 
 who then occupied the Delhi mnsnud, had dethroned his 
 father in 1605 ; he was grandson to the great Akbar, but 
 he had few of the eminent qualities of that prince, and 
 although there remained an outward show of magnificence 
 and power, the empire was much distracted, and was evi- 
 dently declining under his sway. The country of the Raj- 
 poots, the greater part of the Deckan, Bengal, and many 
 other parts, were either independent, or in almost constant 
 insurrection. Matters grew rapidly worse under the rule of 
 his grandson and successor, Shah Jehan, who reigned from 
 1627 to 1658. 
 
 The Dutch, who were more on a par with us at sea, were 
 quite as jealous as the Portuguese ; and when the English 
 attempted to secure a share of the lucrative trade carried 
 on mth the Spice Islands, the detestable massacre of 
 Amboyna was the immediate consequence. In that island, 
 the largest in the Molucca group, and the richest in cloves, 
 the Dutch had a strong castle, garrisoned by 200 men, 
 while the English, only eighteen in number, occupied a 
 defenceless house in the town, being secured, as they con- 
 ceived, by agreements and treaties with the Dutch. Yet the 
 Dutch chose to suspect that these few Englishmen intended 
 to dispossess them of their castle ; and thereupon, inviting- 
 them, in a friendly manner, to pay a visit to their governor 
 in the castle, they there seized them, put them to rack and 
 torture, and in the end cut off" the heads of ten of the num- 
 ber. One Portuguese and nine natives of Japan were put 
 to death at the same time, as accomplices with the English, 
 solemnly protesting in dying that they knew nothing of the 
 imputed plot. 
 
 Erom the date of the Amboyna tragedy (in 1622), the 
 English abandoned the trade of the Spice Islands to their 
 Dutch rivals, and for some time their trade on the Indian 
 continent seemed to languish ; the Company becoming em- 
 barrassed and in great distress. Yet, through the good 
 offices of Mr. Boughton, a surgeon, in great favour with 
 Shah Jehan, they were authorized to make a new settlement 
 at Hooghly ; and the ground on which Madras, or Port St, 
 George, now stands, had been obtained from a native prince. 
 On that ground, Mr. Prancis Day at once erected a fortress, 
 which was gradually surrounded by a thriving and still in- 
 
10 OTJE riEST roETS. [166S. 
 
 creasing town, to which the natives flocked as to the best 
 place for pursuing trade, and putting in security the wealth 
 they derived from it wealth which had few safeguards in 
 the territories of their own princes and chiefs. 
 
 During the great civil war between Charles I. and the 
 ParUament, nearly all foreign trade was suspended, and the 
 East-India Company sank into comparative insignificance ; 
 but at the close of that disastrous period, OHver Cromwell 
 re-confirmed the privileges of the Company, and gave 
 encouragement to its trade. Shortly after the restoration of 
 monarchy, Charles II. granted the Company a new charter, 
 dated April, 1661, in which not only were all the old privi- 
 leges confirmed, but new and important ones added to them. 
 
 The Company were vested with a right of exercising full 
 civil jurisdiction and military authority, and with the power 
 of making war and of concluding peace with the " Infidels 
 of India." In 1668, Charles II. made over to the Company 
 the island of Bombay, which he had received from Portugal 
 as part dower of his queen, Catherine of Braganza ; and 
 soon after he made a similar grant of that convenient mid- 
 way resting-place, the island of St. Helena. In 1687, the 
 Company, enticed by the defensible nature of the island, and 
 its magnificent and convenient ports, transferred from Surat 
 to Bombay the presidency over all their settlements ; and 
 from that moment the town began to spread and increase 
 very rapidly.* 
 
 Our trade was now carried on with a great part of the 
 Indian empire, through establishments both on the eastern 
 and western coasts ; but it was liable to interruptions, and 
 our forts and factories were not unfrequently menaced by 
 native powers, urged on, in most cases, by the Portuguese, 
 or by the Dutch. The mad wars of the natives among 
 themselves, the daily increasing weakness of the empire 
 which was an empire in dissolution encouraged the English 
 to abandon the merely defensive and act on the ofiensive. 
 In 1686, a Captain Nicholson, with ten armed vessels and 
 six companies of soldiers, was sent to the Granges to levy war 
 against the Grreat Mogul, the descendant of Tamerlane, and 
 the nabob of Bengal. This force, the first employed in the 
 intent of establishing political and military power, was di- 
 minutive indeed ; but the unwarlike habits and undisciplined 
 
 * Bruce, * Annals of the East-India Company.' 
 
1686.] WAB WITH THE MOGUL. 11 
 
 condition of the natives were taken into account.* The object 
 of the expedition was to seize upon Chittagong; butNichol- 
 Bon, who ought to have taken that place by a cowp de main, 
 managed matters so lamely, that he was beaten oiFby its guns. 
 The nabob of Bengal then fell upon and plundered the 
 English factories at Patna and Cossimbuzar. The Company 
 then sent out a very large ship and a frigate, under the com- 
 mand of a Captain Heath, who was neither more skilful nor 
 more fortunate than Nicholson had been. Instead of taking 
 Chittagong, the EngHsh were obliged to fly from their set- 
 tlement at Hooghly, and to abandon all they had in Bengal, 
 losses too great to be compensated by their having re- 
 duced one or two forts, and burned forty ships and barges 
 belonging to the Grreat Mogul. That irritated sovereign 
 now vowed that he would expel them from his dominions. 
 Owe factory at Surat was seized, and the island of Bombay 
 was surrounded by a hostile fleet. The factory at Masuli- 
 patam was taken possession of, as w^as also the factory at 
 Yisigapatam, where the Company's agent and several of 
 their servants were barbarously put to death. But the Mogul 
 treasury soon felt the want of the copious streams which 
 flowed into it through the English factories ; and that prince 
 and his ministers, flattered by their recent failure, into the 
 belief that the Company would never be strong enough to 
 be very dangerous, soon made a return to their old friendly 
 feeling, and listened to negotiations which were proposed in 
 a most humble tone.f 
 
 In a very short time the English obtained orders for the 
 restoration of Surat, and nearly all that had been taken from 
 them. But during these premature contests with the natives, 
 the most able and powerful of our European enemies had 
 got a footing in India ; the Erench had formed an establish- 
 ment at Pondicherr}'-, and were now employing themselves 
 in fortifying that place, and in establishing a close connection 
 with- such of the native princes as were most unfriendly to 
 the English. These proceedings of the Erench quickened 
 the desire of obtaining an extension of territory and a real 
 dominion, by treaty, by purchase, or by force of arms, but to 
 be, at all events, independent of Grreat Mogul, rajahs, and 
 aU. other powers. " The truth is," says one of the greatest 
 authorities in Indian aflairs, " that, from the day on which 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, * Sketch of the Political History of India.' 
 
 t C. Mac Farlane, ' Our Indian Empire.' Mill, ' Hist. Brit. Ind.' 
 
12 EISE or CALCUTTA. [1707. 
 
 the Companj^'s troops marclied one mile from their factories, 
 the increase of their territories and their armies became a 
 principle of self-preservation ; and at the end of every one 
 of these numerous contests in which they were involved by 
 the jealousy, avarice, or ambition of their neighbours, or the 
 rapacity or ambition of their own servants, they were forced 
 to adopt measures for improving their strength, which soon 
 appeared to be the only mode by which they could avert the 
 occurrence of similar danger." * As early as 1689, the Court 
 of Directors in London broadly laid down the principle that 
 independence was to be established, and dominion acquired 
 " that we must make us a nation in India." And just at 
 this time Tegnapatam, a town and port a little to the south 
 of Pondicherry, was obtained by purchase. The servants of 
 the Company forthwith erected walls and bulwarks, and 
 changed the name of the place to Eort St. David. About 
 nine years after the purchase of Tegnapatam, they made 
 much more important acquisitions. Aurengzebe, the reigning 
 Mogul, had appointed his son, Azim Ooshaun, to be viceroy 
 of Bengal, and this Azim aspired to dethrone his father, as 
 Aurengzebe had dethroned his. To carry out his schemes, 
 the prince needed money ; and for a large sum he sold to 
 the Company the zemindarships of Chutanutty, GrO\ind- 
 pore, and Calcutta. In 1707, about nine years after this 
 purchase, when Fort "William was finished, and a town had 
 risen under its protection, the Company made Calcutta 
 the seat of a presidency, and the place gradually began 
 to rise to the dignity of a capital to the British empire in 
 the East. 
 
 In the mean while, many merchants and traders at home 
 had become jealous of the strict monopoly of the chartered 
 Company, and various attempts were made by men, called 
 " interlopers," to carry on a private trade with India. The 
 Court of Directors ordered their oificers in India to seize 
 these interlopers, and, in certain cases, to try them as 
 pirates. The House of Commons, in 1693, adopted the 
 resolution that JParliamenf should interfere, and determine 
 whatever regulations might be deemed necessary for the 
 Indian trade. JSTevertheless, a new charter was that year 
 granted by Queen Mary, in the absence of her husband, 
 William III., and the interlopers were subjected to the 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, ' Sketch of the Political History of India.' 
 
1698-1708.] cnA:s'aEs iif the coiiPA^T, 13 
 
 same treatment as formerly. The House of Commons then 
 resolved " That it was the right of all Englishmen to trade 
 to the East Indies, or any part of the world, unless pro- 
 hibited by Act of JParliamenty William III. deferred to this 
 decision, which had been brought about by a temporary 
 union of opposite factions. The old Company had bribed 
 the king's ministers and various members of the House of 
 Commons. The interlopers now resorted to the same prac- 
 tices, not aiming at a free trade, but at a strict monopoly of it 
 to their own sole advantage : and in 1698, they were enabled 
 to bring the Company's royal charter under the cognizance 
 of parliament, and to get it set aside for one in their own 
 favour. The charter was in fact knocked down to the highest 
 bidder ; and, in consideration of an advance to the state of 
 ^62,000,000 sterling, at eight per cent., these interlopers 
 obtained, not by royal charter, but by parliamentary bill, 
 the exclusive right of trade with the East Indies, in spite of 
 the protests of the other Company. The old or London 
 Company, however, obtained a confirmation of their charter 
 in the following session, and the nation had thus two East- 
 India Companies instead of one the old by charter and 
 royal prerogative, the new by bill and authority of parlia- 
 ment. " ISTothing," says Sir John Malcolm, " could be 
 more violent than the contests of the Companies during the 
 short period that they continued separate. The great efforts 
 of both were directed to the object of gaining power in the 
 House of Commons ; and at the general election of the year 
 1700, each was detected in bribery and corruption. The 
 old Company corrupted members and purchased votes ; the 
 new Company purchased seats. Thus the one bribed the 
 representatives, the other the constituents. But, tired out 
 at length vrith a struggle which threatened ruin to both, 
 they united their stock under the charter granted to the old 
 Company, and bearing date the 5th September, 1698, and 
 assumed that name under which they have ever since been 
 incorporafed " The United East-India Company." 
 
 It however required some time to remove their rooted ani- 
 mosities, and establish a feeling of common interest. But at 
 length, in the year 1708, a new and more favourable bill was 
 obtained from parliament, and their privileges were both 
 extended and consolidated, in return for a fresh loan to 
 government. Had the two Companies been allowed to 
 remain separate and hostile, the most ruinous consequences 
 
M CHATiTGES ITf THE COMPANY. [1698-1708. 
 
 would have ensued : by their union, wliile commerce was 
 improved in England, the substructures of an empire in 
 India began to be slowly but surely laid.* 
 
 * Auber, 'Rise and Progress of British Power in India.' Bruce, 
 * Annals of the East-India Company.' Sir John Malcolm, * Sketch 
 of the Political ^Hist. of India.' Mill, ' Hist, of British India.' Faria 
 y Sousa, ' Portuguese Asia.' 
 
 Some curious information about the early European settlements will 
 also be found in Maffei, * Istoria Indica,' folio. Florence, A.D. 1588, 
 and in Macpherson, * Hist, of the European Commerce with India.' 
 
THE TTlN'ITED EAST-INDIA COMPAIfT. 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The G-reat Mogul Aurengzebe died the year before tHe 
 Consolidating Bill. His empire had been impoverished and 
 weakened by frequent wars with the Mahrattas, in the 
 Deckan, in Grolconda, in Bijapur, and other parts of India. 
 In attempting to reform the system of finances, he had 
 thrown the revenues of the empire in confusion, and at the 
 same time increased the oppression of his people. He had 
 completely alienated the affections of the Hindus, who had 
 been faithful, able, and devoted servants and administrators 
 to the great Abkar and to others of his predecessors. He was 
 a bigoted Mussulman, treating the Hindus as conquered 
 injidels, and reviving against them the invidious Zezia, or 
 poll-tax, which had been abolished. Besides degrading them 
 by this special tax, he wholly excluded the Hindus from 
 office ; he suppressed their fairs and festivals, and allowed 
 their temples to be insulted, and at times destroyed, hj the 
 fanatics of his own creed. All this had raised up an obsti- 
 nate spirit of resistance and an implacable hatred on the part 
 of the Hindus.* His death was followed, as usual, by fierce 
 wars among his family for the succession. His son Prince 
 Azim was proclaimed in Hindustan ; his son Bahadur Shah 
 assumed the crown of Cabul. Bahadur marched down to 
 Agra, defeated his rival in a bloody battle, in which Azim 
 and his two grown-up sons were killed, and his youngest 
 son, an infant, was taken prisoner. This was scarcely done 
 when Prince Cambakhsh raised the standard of revolt in the 
 Deckan but only to be defeated and slain in a battle near 
 Hyderabad. Though thus victorious, the Mogul Bahddur 
 Shah was so weakened, that he was compelled to make a 
 dishonourable truce with the marauding Mahrattas, and to 
 enter into a compromise with the Eajpoots. While looking 
 
 * Mountstuart Elphinstone, ' Hist, of India.' 
 
16 KADIB SHAII'S INYASION. [1739. 
 
 at least for tranquillity within liis diminislied states, the 
 Grreat Mogul found himself suddenly invaded by the fierce, 
 fanatical Seiks, who ravaged the country as far as the neigh- 
 bourhood of Lahore on the one side, and of Delhi itself on 
 the other.* Bahadur Shah marched against these new 
 enemies, and succeeded in driving them beyond the Sutlej ; 
 but he could not repair the damage they had done, and he 
 died shortly after (in February, 1712). Tour sons con- 
 tended for his throne. Zehandar Shah, who triumphed over 
 his brothers, was dethroned at the end of a few months 
 (after he had put to death all the princes of the blood he 
 could get into his power) by his nephew Farokhsir, who did 
 not occupy the throne quite seven years, and who witnessed 
 the renewal of the Seik devastations and the encroachments 
 of the Mahrattas. He was violently deposed, and succeeded 
 by a very young prince of the blood, who died in three months, 
 and was in his turn succeeded by another youth, who died 
 in a still shorter period. Mohammed Shah was then set 
 up, and under him the empire of the Moguls was wasted to 
 a shadow. Serious conflicts had taken place between the 
 Hindus and Mahometans, and in the very capital between 
 the two rival Mussulman sects, the Shias and Sunnis. 
 The Deckan was entirely alienated under the rule of the 
 Nizam-ul-Mulk ; the Eohillas, a fierce, predatory people, of 
 Afghan race, seized on the northern provinces, and (in 
 1739) the Persians, under the great Nadir Shah, penetrated 
 to Delhi, defeated the Mogul, and massacred alike Mahome- 
 tans and Hindus. Nadir's sole object in invading India, was 
 to enrich himself by its plunder. He first took possession 
 of the imperial treasures and the jewels of the celebrated 
 peacock-throne one mass of inestimable gems. He then 
 plundered the great nobles, the inferior officers, and the 
 common inhabitants, employing every species of cruelty to 
 extort contributions. Many died of the usage they received ; 
 many destroyed themselves to avoid the disgrace and torture. 
 After a residence there of only fifty-eight days, he marched 
 off from Delhi with a treasure in coined money worth eight 
 or nine million sterling ; with several million sterling in gold 
 and silver plate, furniture, and rich stuffs of every descrip- 
 tion, and with gems and jewels too numerous to be counted.f 
 
 * See, for details, ' Hist, of the Punjab, and of the Sect and Nation of 
 the Sikhs,' 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1846. 
 
 t Elphinstone, ' Hist, of India.* Jonas Han way's Travels. 
 
1715.] DECLINE OP THE MOGULS. 17 
 
 The Mogul Mohammed Shah had escaped with life and 
 preserved his liberty, but for a long time he was stupified by 
 his calamities, and remained as if in a lethargy. The empire 
 was as full of ruin and desolation as the capital ; the army 
 was destroyed, the treasury empty, the source of revenue 
 all but annihilated ; the Mahrattas still threatened on the 
 south, and the Afghans on the north-west. 
 
 It was in this period of rapid dismemberment and disso- 
 lution that the English laid the foundations of their empire. 
 The union of the clashing interests of the two Companies, 
 the tranquillity and commercial prosperity which the peace 
 of Utrecht brought to England and the greater part of 
 Europe continued to raise the value of the British settle- 
 ments in the East, and to encourage the Company in seeking 
 an extension of dominion. The circumstances of the times 
 in India were all in their favour. Every year some branch 
 was lopped off the Mogul tree ; some adventurer succeeded 
 in making an independent sovereign state out of a smaller 
 or larger portion of that empire : there was a constant 
 destruction and a constant re-construction, or attempts at 
 it. The mass of the population had now a much stronger 
 aversion to the Mussulmans than to the European Christians ; 
 they showed a marked preference for our rule and protec- 
 tion, and at Surat, Bombay, Eort St. David, Calcutta, and 
 every establishment where we could protect them, they 
 flocked to trade with us and to live with us. Even many of 
 the Mussidmans, when oppressed at home, took refuge in our 
 settlements. 
 
 The Company were signally indebted, in various stages of 
 their progress, to humble practitioners in medicine. It was 
 in consequence of a cure effected on the favourite daughter 
 of one Mogul emperor that they had first been allowed a 
 footing in Bengal ; and in the year 1715, a medical man, 
 named Hamilton, as a reward for curing, at Delhi, the reign- 
 ing emperor, of a dangerous and painful disease, obtained 
 for the Company a grant of three villages near Madras, a 
 permission to purchase thirty-seven townships in Bengal, and 
 the privilege of introducing and conveying their merchandise 
 from Calcutta through Bengal without duty or search. 
 
 But the Erench East-India Company, who had made 
 Pondicherry their strongliold, now began to excite the 
 jealousy of the English by their increasing trade and extend- 
 ing influence. In 1744, the pacific English minister, Sir 
 
 c 
 
18 rRLNClI IN INDIA. [1744. 
 
 Eobert AValpole, was driven from the helm, and the -war 
 which broke out rapidly spread to Hindustan. A few of the 
 best officers in the French service repaired to that country, 
 in the hope of attacking the English settlements before they 
 should be prepared for defence. Labourdonnais, who had 
 risen from a low rank in the French navy to be governor of 
 Mauritius and Bourbon, suddenly appeared oif Madras with 
 a squadron, and with 3,(300 men. The English at Madras 
 did not exceed 300 men, of whom about 200 were soldiers. 
 After sustaining a bombardment for five days, Eort St. 
 Greorge capitulated, Labourdonnais pledging himself upon 
 his honour to restore Madras to the English Company on 
 payment of a fixed ransom. On entering the place he pro- 
 tected the persons, houses, and property of the inhabitants ; 
 but he took possession of the magazines and warehouses of 
 the Company. JNI. Dupleix, who had previously formed in 
 his own mind a system of universal conquest, and who had 
 wished for the sole conduct of the war, considered Labour- 
 donnais as an intruder and rival. Xow, however, he insisted 
 that Labourdonnais should break the conditions of the 
 treaty of capitulation, and keep possession of Madras. The 
 brave sailor was averse to a proceeding which would have 
 been a breach of faith and honour. Having lost two of his 
 ships in a storm, he repaired to Pondicherry to remonstrate 
 Avith the governor. After many quarrels, he took his depar- 
 ture from Pondicherry to France, to answer accusations 
 brought against him by Dupleix and his party, and to seek 
 some patronage in the French cabinet and East-India 
 Company that should enable him to return with credit and 
 power to India. On his voyage he was taken prisoner by a 
 British ship of war, which brought him to England. As he had 
 behaved like a man of honour and humanity, he was received 
 with favoui' and distinction by all ranks, and a director of our 
 East-India Company offered to become security for him with 
 his person and property. But the British Q-overnment desired 
 no security beyond the word of Labourdonnais, and permitted 
 his return to France. It would have been better for him if 
 they had kept him in England, for, upon the representations 
 ofiiie insidious Dupleix, he was arrested without process, and 
 thrown into the Bastile, where he pined for three long years.* 
 
 The nabob of Arcot, our ally, sent an army to driA^e the 
 French out of Madras ; but his army ran away from the 
 
 * Labourdonnais died shortly after his liberation from the Bastile. 
 
1749.] WAE IX TAyJOHE. 19 
 
 quick fire of tlie French guns. Dupleix annulled Labour- 
 donnais's treaty, and ordered liis officers at Madras to seize 
 every article of property, private or public, native or Eng- 
 lish, except clothes, furniture, and the jewels and trinkets of 
 the women. These orders were executed without compunc- 
 tion ; and the English governor and some of the principal 
 inhabitants were carried prisoners to Pondicherry, and 
 exhibited there in a kind of triumph. Dupleix next turned 
 his attention to Fort St. David, and induced the nabob of 
 Arcot to change sides and join him; but three attempts 
 against that place failed completely ; and in March, 1747, 
 the arrival of an English squadron, under Admiral Griffin, 
 made Dupleix tremble for Pondicherry. In the month of 
 January, 1748, Major Laurence, an officer of great merit, 
 arrived at Eort St. David, with a commission to command 
 the whole of the Company's forces in India; and in the 
 month of August following, Admiral Boscawen reached the 
 same port with nine ships of war, and joined Admiral Grriffin. 
 CountiDg some ships of the Company, we had now the largest 
 European naval force that any one power had as yet possessed 
 in India. The land troops brought from England amounted 
 to 1,400 men, Pondicherry was now besieged, but after 
 thirty-one days of open trenches, the siege was given up. 
 
 The anarchy prevailing among the native rulers soon 
 opened a way to easier conquests. Sahujee, a Hindii, who 
 in the rapid revolutions of the times had gained and lost the 
 throne of Tanjore, repaired to Port St. David, and bargained 
 for the assistance of the Euglish in a war against his brother, 
 Pretaupa Sing, who had dethroned him. The price, as fixed, 
 was the fort and country of Devi Cottah. In April, 1749, 
 an English and sepoy force marched from Port St. David 
 into Tanjore, and made an unsuccessful attack on the fortress 
 of Devi Cottah. A new expedition was soon fitted out, and, 
 after some hard fighting in the breach, a truce was concluded, 
 the reigning king of Tanjore, Pretaupa Sing, agreeing to 
 yield to the English the to^n, fort, and harbour, together 
 with the territory adjoining ; and the English on their part 
 agreeing not merely to renounce the alliance and support 
 of Sahujee, for whom, and with whom, they entered on this 
 war, but also to secure his person, in order to prevent his 
 giving any further molestation to his brother.* 
 
 * Orme, ' History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in 
 India.' 
 
20 CLITE A^'D DUPLEIX. [1749. 
 
 At the siege of Devi Cottah, Eobert Clive, the real 
 founder of our Indian empire, greatly distinguished him- 
 self. He ]iad attracted some attention at the siege of Pon- 
 dieherry in the preceding year. He had entered the Com- 
 pany's service in a civil capacity, but at the first sound of 
 war, he had thrown down the "WTiter's pen to take up an 
 ensign's sword. By this time he was a lieutenant, and 
 esteemed by the whole army as tlie most enterprising and 
 daring of their officers. He was in the twenty-fourth year 
 of his age, poor, and comparatively friendless, and illiterate : 
 his chances of patronage, advancement, fame, and fortune, 
 all lay in his sword. * 
 
 However questionable the means by which it was ob- 
 tained, the possession of Devi Cottah was of vast importance 
 to the Company : it was advantageously situated by the 
 bank of the Coleroon, on the Coromandel coast ; the channel 
 of the Coleroon, under the town, was capable of receiving 
 ships of the largest burthen, and this was the more im- 
 portant, as aU along that coast from Masulipatam to Cape 
 Comorin there was no port that could receive a vessel of 
 300 tons : moreover, the neighbouring country was pleasant, 
 rich, and fertile, f 
 
 But ]M. Dupleix did not give up the race for territory or 
 dominion. He was engaging in transactions of the highest 
 moment in the Carnatic, where other rival princes were con- 
 tending with each other. Taking part (for good considera- 
 tions) with Chunda Saheb, and sending 400 French and 
 2,000 sepoys to the field, he gained a great victory. Chunda 
 Saheb' s rival was killed by a Kafre soldier in the service of 
 Erance. Mohammed Ali, son of the fallen nabob, fled to 
 Trichinopoly, and the French conquerors marched to the 
 capital city of Arcot, which surrendered on the fii'st sum- 
 mons. Mohammed Ali threw himself on the protection of 
 the English, and offered high prices for their military aid. 
 But peace between France and England had been con- 
 cluded, and the English were occupied at the time in taking 
 repossession of Madras, which had been given up by France 
 in the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Dupleix sent some 
 of his people with Chunda Saheb to plunder the rajah of 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, ' Life of Robert Lord Clive ; collected from the 
 family papers, communicated by the Earl of Powis.' 
 
 f There was a sand-bank or bar near the mouth of the river; but it 
 was calculated that this could be easily removed. 
 
1750.] WAE IN TUE DECKAN. 21 
 
 Tanjore, who had given up Deri Cottah to the English, and 
 that prince was compelled to give to the French two lacs 
 of rupees, and eighty-one villages.* 
 
 In the Deckto, the succession, on the death of the Nizam- 
 ul-Mulk, was disputed between his son Kazir Jung and his 
 grandson Muzufter Jung ; but the senior prince prevailed 
 over the junior, took MuzufFer Jung prisoner, and now kept 
 him in irons, carrying him in his train wherever he went. 
 ISTazir Jung and Anwar-ud-Dien, who claimed the sovereignty 
 of the Carnatic, having united their forces, and drawn into 
 their ser\'ice nearlyall the troops the Grreat Mogul had on foot, 
 advanced to the Carnatic frontier with an immense army, 
 including 30,000 Mahrattas engaged to act as light cavalry. 
 At the approach of this host, Chunda Saheb and his French 
 allies retreated hastily to Pondicherry. Dupleix, by extra- 
 ordinary exertions, increased the French contingent to 2,000 
 men, and added a large body of well-disciplined sepoys, 
 together mth a well-served train of artillery. In the mean 
 time, the English had managed to send some very small 
 detachments to Trichinopoly to sustain Mohammed Ali, 
 and had thrown a few companies into the army of the rajah 
 of Tanjore. Major Laurence advanced from Fort St. David, 
 with reinforcements, and collecting the companies in Tanjore, 
 he was enabled to join the army of IS^azir Jung with about 
 600 Englishmen. But Laurence had with difficulty obtained 
 the consent of his civil superiors to this active co-operation, and 
 he was for some time disturbed by a doubt whether he should 
 be justified in fighting the French without orders from the 
 British government. He, however, determined to imitate 
 the French in representing the English as mere auxiliaries, 
 and not principals in the war. As Laurence advanced with 
 Nazir Jung's host, the French and their allies strongly 
 intrenched themselves, and waited the attack with full con- 
 fidence of success. Their position was so excellent, that 
 Laurence advised JN'azir Jung against an attack ; but the 
 Indian said it did not become the son of the Nizam-ul-Mulk 
 to retreat before such an enemy. A cannonade was there- 
 fore begun, and the troops were put in motion for a closer 
 attack. At this crisis, the French corps was completely 
 disorganized by the sudden resignation of thirtoLMi commis- 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, ' Life of Lord Clive.' Col. MarkWilks, * Histo- 
 rical Sketches of the South of India,' &c. Orme, ' Military Transactions 
 of the British Nation in Hindostan,' and his * Historical Fragments.' 
 
22 SUCCESSES OF ^. BL'SSr. [1750. 
 
 sioned officers, who were enraged at not having shared in 
 the booty and spoils made in Tanjore. As the defection 
 seemed growing general, M. d'Auteuil, who commanded for 
 Dupleix, deemed it expedient to quit the field and hasten 
 back to Pondicherry. Chunda Saheb, whose own troops 
 began to desert, saw nothing better to do than to march 
 after D'Auteuil. The whole excellent position was soon 
 abandoned without a blow, or a shot fired from it ; and for 
 a moment the triumph of the allies of the English seemed 
 to be fully secured. JNTazir Jung, the real head of this 
 confederacy, had little ability, and still less energy, and, by 
 refusing to grant to his English allies a territory near 
 Madras, which had been promised as the reward of their 
 co-operation, he provoked Major Laurence to return to 
 Eort St. David with his 600 men. Nor had Dupleix lost 
 heart by his most unexpected misfortunes : by various arts 
 he pacified the mutinous French officers, and put a new 
 spirit into their little army, and he opened a secret corre- 
 spondence with some disafiected chiefs, the leaders of the 
 Patau troops, in the army of his enemy, Nazir Jung. These 
 Patans were unprincipled and ferocious mercenaries. Ee- 
 sponding to the overtures of Dupleix, the Patau chiefs 
 engaged to perform various important services, and, if neces- 
 sary, to murder their present employer, JSTazir Jung. 
 D'Auteuil again took the field, and one of his officers, with 
 only 300 men, was allowed to penetrate by night into the 
 very heart of the enemies' camp, and to kill upwards of 
 1,000 without losing more than two or three of his own 
 people. Moreover, another small body of Erench troops 
 sailed for Masulipatam, attacked it by surprise in the night, 
 and carried it with a trifling loss ; and another detachment 
 seized the pagoda of Travadi, only fifteen miles to the west 
 of Eort St. David. Continuing this career, M. Bussy, the 
 Clive of the Erench, captured by storm the hill fort of 
 G-ingee, which had been deemed impregnable and inacces- 
 sible. The event struck awe into the natives of India, and 
 was viewed with astonishment even by Europeans.* 
 
 Soon after the storming of Gingee, Nazir Jung opened a 
 secret correspondence M'ith Dupleix. The Erenchman re- 
 plied to his letters in a friendly manner, and drew up a 
 treaty of pacification ; but at the same time he fully arranged 
 
 * Orme, ' History of Military Transactions,' Sec. 
 
1751.] CLiYE peo:moted. 23 
 
 a revolt in ISTazir Jung's camp, and collected 4,000 men 
 under the hill of Giugee, to wait for the summons of the 
 Patau traitors. That summons was soon received ; the 
 French broke into the subahdar's camp, and when Nazir 
 Jung mounted his war-elephant, and was hastening to the 
 lines, two carbine-balls were fired at his heart, and he fell 
 dead at the feet of the traitors, who forthwith cut off his 
 head, stuck it upon a spear, and exhibited it to the army. 
 This was quite enough to effect an instantaneous revolution ; 
 Muzuffer Jung was released from his chains and installed 
 as subahdar of the Deckan, and to reward the French, he 
 gave tliem a great portion of Nazir Jung's treasures, and 
 nominated Dupleix governor of all the Mogul dominions 
 on the Coromandel coast from the river Kistna to Cape 
 Comorin. At the same time he appointed Dupleix's aUy 
 Chunda Saheb, his deputy in the government of Arcot. 
 
 Early in 1751, the brave and adroit Bussy was sent to 
 escort the new subahdar, Muzuffer Jung, to Hyderabad, his 
 capital. Numerous insurrections had broken out, and in a 
 mountain pass, Bussy found himself opposed by the fierce 
 Patans, who considered that they had not been sufficiently 
 rewarded for their treachery. The French fought their way 
 through with artillery and grape-shot, but Muzuffer Jung 
 was killed by a Patau Arab. Bussy instantly made a new 
 subahdar in the person of one Salabut Jung, who happened 
 to be in the camp, and continued his march upon Hyderabad. 
 
 Our ally, Mohammed Ali, was now so alarmed, that he 
 contemplated joining the French, and giving up Trichinopoly. 
 To keep him in heart, the presidency of Fort St. David 
 twice sent him considerable succours ; but our contingents 
 were miserably commanded, and one of them sustained a 
 disgraceful defeat at Volconda. Chunda Saheb, assisted 
 by some French, pressed the siege of Trichinopoly. In a 
 lucky hour, the English council promoted Clive to the rank 
 of captain, adopted a plan, which his daring genius had 
 formed, and intrusted him with the execution of his own 
 project. This was nothing less than to relieve Trichinopoly 
 by making a sudden attack upon Arcot, Chunda Saheb 's 
 capital. AH the force that could be spared amounted to 
 200 Englishmen and 300 sepoys : his whole staff" of officers 
 counted no more than eight, six of whom had never been in 
 action, and four of these six being very young men, who had 
 just quitted the mercantile service of the Company. The 
 
24 CLIYE AT AKCOT. [1751. 
 
 artillery atfcaclied to this force consisted of three light field- 
 pieces. On the 26th of August, 1751, Clive started from 
 ^ladras with a confidence of success. On the 31st, he 
 lialted within ten miles of Arcot. The country people, or 
 the scouts employed by the enemy, reported with conster- 
 nation that they had seen the English marching without 
 concern through a terrible storm of thunder, lightning, and 
 rain. This was considered as a fearful omen by the native 
 garrison, who instantly abandoned the fort, although they 
 nearly trebled the number that Clive was bringing against 
 them. A few hours after their flight, the English quietly 
 entered, and took possession of the fort, where they found 
 eight pieces of light artillery, a great heap of lead for shot, 
 and abundance of gunpowder. The merchants of Arcot had 
 for security deposited their goods in the fort : Clive scrupu- 
 lously respected this property, and allowed some three or 
 four thousand persons to remain in their houses or dwell- 
 ings, which w^ere situated within the precincts of the fortifica- 
 tions. This conduct procured him many friends among the 
 natives, who cared little for Chunda Saheb, or for either of 
 the parties contending for dominion over them; and it 
 enabled him to obtain provisions and such materials as might 
 be wanted for the defence of the place. On the 4th Sep- 
 tember, he marched out with the greater part of his men to 
 scatter the ex-garrison of the fort who lingered in the neigh- 
 bourhood. These fellows fled for the hills in their rear as 
 soon as the English got within musket-shot, and Clive, who 
 had no cavalry to pursue them, returned leisurely to the 
 fort of Arcot. On the 6th, he made another promenade into 
 the country, found the enemy in greater force and strongly 
 posted, defeated them with great loss, and returned to Arcot, 
 where he employed his people in repairing the crazy fortress. 
 In about a month, 3,000 fighting men, collected from various 
 parts of the Carnatic, encamped within three miles of the 
 city. On the night of the 14th of September, when they 
 were buried in sleep, Clive burst into their camps, com- 
 mitted a great slaughter, put the rest to flight, and then 
 returned to Arcot without losing a single man. At this time, 
 two eighteen-pounders, which he had demanded, were on their 
 way from Madras, escorted by a few sepoys. Anxious for 
 these guns, Clive sent out, at first, thirty of his Englishmen, 
 and fifty of his sepoys, with a field-piece ; and then, on learning 
 that the enemy were in great force and strongly posted on 
 
1751.] SIEGE OF AECOT. 25 
 
 the road to cut oif tlie eigliteen-pounders, he sent out all his 
 people except thirty English and fifty sepoys, with whom he 
 remained in the fortress. The enemy hereupon changed 
 their design, and quitting all their positions on the road, 
 they returned hastily to Arcot, not doubting that they 
 should carry the fort by assault. Two fruitless attempts 
 convinced them of their mistake ; and when dive's main 
 force with the two precious battering-cannons from Madras 
 appeared on the skirts of the town, they packed up and fled. 
 As Clive had calculated, Chunda Saheb withdrew the 
 greater part of his forces from the siege of Trichinopoly. 
 That chief did not march himself, but sent his son Bajah 
 Saheb, who entered the town of Arcot with 4,000 native 
 horse and foot, and 150 French, from Pondicherry, and 
 fixed his head-quarters in the palace. Being joined by the 
 forces previously collected in the neighbourhood, and by 
 other bands, Eajah Saheb found himself at the head of 
 10,000 men, and with these, he prosecuted a siege against a 
 contemptible fort, defended by Olive's handful of troops. 
 On the 24th, Clive made a sally with the view of driving 
 Rajah Saheb from the palace and the town ; or, if he failed in 
 that, of striking terror into the native bands by the excess 
 of his audacity. But, after a fight in the streets, he was 
 compelled by the artillery- of the Trench to fall back into 
 the fort. Had there been none but native troops to 
 meet him, both palace and town would have been cleared. 
 In this day's sortie, Clive lost fifteen of his English soldiers 
 and one of his best officers, who sacrificed his own life in 
 protecting that of his commander. Moreover, Lieutenant 
 E/Cvel, his only artillery officer, was disabled. He was now 
 cooped up within the walls of the fortress, which were, in 
 many places, falling into ruin. Grood French marksmen 
 picked ofi" several of the garrison. In making a night sortie, 
 Clive was deprived of the services of another of his officers, 
 remaining \Nith only four officers fit for duty. To husband 
 the provisions within the fort, he now sent away all the 
 natives except a few artificers. For fourteen days the enemy 
 prosecuted the siege with musketry from houses which over- 
 looked the ramparts, and with a bombardment from four 
 mortars. Several of the English were killed, more were 
 wounded, and Clive himself had several hair-breadth escapes, 
 three Serjeants, who at difierent times singly attended him 
 in visiting the works, being killed at his side. On the 24th of 
 
26 SIEGE OF AECOT. [1751. 
 
 October, the French received from Pondicherry two eighteen- 
 pounders and some pieces of smaller calibre. A weU- 
 served battery was then opened, and at the very first shot the 
 Erench dismounted one of Olive's eighteen-pounders, and at 
 the next, entirely disabled it. In six more days the French 
 beat down all the wall between two of the towers, and made 
 a practicable breach fifty feet wide. But while they were 
 making this breach, Clive was making a deep trench, and 
 erecting palisades, and a strong parapet behind it ; and he 
 planted one of his field-pieces on one of the towers which 
 flanked the breach, and two small pieces of cannon on the 
 flat roof of a house within the fort, and just opposite to the 
 wide entrance which the French guns had made. The 
 besiegers, aware of these skilful preparations, would not 
 venture into the breach until another could be efi*ected on 
 the opposite side of the fort. 
 
 Within that precinct, Clive had found one of those enor- 
 mous cannons which Turks, Persians, and other Orientals, 
 have always so much admired. According to the local tra- 
 dition, this monster gun had been sent from Delhi, by the 
 Emperor Aurengzebe, and had been drawn by 1,000 yoke 
 of oxen. Clive raised a mound of earth to such a height as 
 commanded the nabob's palace ; he hoisted the great gun 
 on this mound, and loaded and fired. The ponderous ball 
 went right through the palace, to the terror of Eajah Saheb 
 and his principal ofllcers there assembled. But, as every 
 charge took thirty pounds of powder, Clive fired the gun 
 only once a day. On the fourth day, the monster burst. 
 
 The Company's agents at Madras and Fort St. David de- 
 spatched 100 English soldiers and 200 sepoys to dive's 
 assistance ; but this small force was met on the road by 
 2,000 native troops and some French artillery, and was 
 driven back with loss upon Madras. Clive and his weakened 
 garrison thus seemed left alone to their fate ; but the gallant 
 defence they made had already produced a deep impression 
 among the Indians. 
 
 At the distance of about thirty miles from Arcot, there 
 lay encamped a body of 6,000 Mahrattas, under the com- 
 mand of Morari Eao. Clive found means to send a message 
 to this chief, who instantly replied, that he would not fiiil to 
 send a detachment to the assistance of such brave men as 
 the defenders of Arcot, Avhose behaviour had now, for the first 
 time, convinced him that the English knew how to fight. 
 
1751.] BATTLE OF AENEE. 27 
 
 Yet all that these Mahrattas did Tvhen they came was to 
 plunder and set fire to some houses in the outskirts of the 
 town, and then ride off. In the meanwhile, the Prench guns 
 had made a second breach, and Clive had counter-worked 
 it as he had done the first. On the 14th of November, the 
 great festival in commemoration of the murder of the holy 
 brothers Hassan and Hussein, when the Mahometans of 
 India quicken their fanaticism with opium and wdth bang, 
 E-ajah Saheb and his French allies resolved to storm the 
 fort through its two opposite breaches. Furious with their 
 wild devotion and the drugs they had swallowed, the troops 
 rushed to the assault ; but they were repulsed at both 
 breaches, and lost 400 in killed and wounded. At two 
 o'clock in the afternoon, they requested leave to carry off 
 and bury their dead. The English granted them two hours. 
 At four o'clock they once more opened their fire from the 
 town, nor did they again cease until two hours after mid- 
 night, when of a sudden a dead silence ensued. "When day 
 broke, Clive learned that the whole army had abandoned 
 Arcot in haste and confusion, leaving behind them some 
 ordnance and much ammunition. Thus ended the siege of 
 the fort of Arcot, which had lasted fifty days. 
 
 On the evening of the day on which the enemy fled, a 
 detachment from Madras, under the command of Captain 
 Kilpatrick, arrived safely at Arcot. Leaving a small garrison 
 in the fort, Clive set out, on the 19th of November, to pursue 
 the enemy. Being joined by a small body of Mahratta horse 
 sent to him by Morari Rao, he gained a splendid victory at 
 Amee. Six hundred sepoys, who had been serving the French, 
 immediately deserted with their arms and accoutrements, 
 and joined the conqueror. Clive then drove the French from 
 the strong pagoda of Conjeveram, strengthened the garrison 
 he had left at Arcot, and returned to Fort St. David.* 
 
 Mohammed Ali, instead of being besieged in Trichinopoly, 
 saw the country open to him, and a great part of the Car- 
 natic submissive to his will. 
 
 But the enemy soon reassembled, and 4,500 natives, horse 
 and foot, 400 French, and a train of artillery, began to ravage 
 the Company's territory. Early in February (1752), Clive 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, ' Life of Lord Clive.' Orme, ' History of Mili- 
 tary Transactions,' &c. Captain Williams, ' Historical Account of the 
 Rise and Progress of the Bengal Native Infantry,' &c. (an admirable 
 little book). 8vo. London, 1817. 
 
28 SIEGES OF TRICIIINOPOLT. [1752. 
 
 went out to meet them vdth. 380 English, 1,300 sepoys, and 
 six field-pieces. Such was the terror of his name, that they 
 retreated before him, abandoning one strong position after 
 another. He however overtook them at Covrepauk, defeated 
 them after a hard-fought battle, and took nine guns and 
 sixty Frenchmen. Fifty Frenchmen and 300 sepoys were 
 found dead upon the field. Chunda Saheb's troops dispersed 
 and fled to their homes, and the French made a rush for 
 their protecting walls of Pondicherry. 
 
 The presidency of Fort St. David determined to despatch 
 Clive to Trichinopoly ; but just at this juncture. Major 
 Laurence arrived from England and took the command as 
 superior ofiicer. Laurence, however, being wholly devoid of 
 professional jealousy, and having the warmest admiration 
 for the daring self-taught soldier, took Clive with him when 
 he set out for Trichinopoly, with 400 English, 1,100 sepoys, 
 and eight field-pieces. As 20,000 men from the kingdom 
 of Mysore and 6,000 Mahrattas Avere ready to co-operate 
 with the English, the troops of Chunda Saheb and the French, 
 who had again gathered round Trichinopoly, broke up in dis- 
 may, the French retreating to a strong pagoda in Seringham, 
 an island formed by the rivers Coleroon and Cauvery.* 
 M. Dupleix sent M. d'Auteuil to supply and reinforce the 
 French on the island ; but D'Auteuil was driven back into an 
 old fort on the road, and there compelled to surrender. The 
 French at Seringham, being nearly starved (for Clive had 
 cut off all their supplies), capitulated and became prisoners of 
 war. Chunda Saheb, finding himself deserted by the last of 
 his troops, fled to the camp of his enemies and surrendered 
 to the general of the Tanjore forces, who had promised him 
 protection, and who put him in irons. Forthwith a violent dis- 
 pute arose between Mohammed Ali and the Mahratta chiefs, 
 the rajah of Mysore and the Tanjorines, who each and all 
 claimed the person of the 'prisoner. To cut the argument 
 short, the Tanjorines cut ofl" the head of Chunda Saheb, and 
 
 * The sieges or blockades of Trichinopoly had lasted more than twelve 
 months, and had given rise to the most picturesque situations, and most 
 romantic adventures. These cannot be read or written in short. They 
 are beautifully narrated by the eloquent and accurate Orme, as are also 
 the full details of Clive's glorious defence of Arcot. I know few things 
 more likely to captivate a young mind than these early chapters of Onne's 
 history. But the young reader must not be afraid of thick quarto 
 volumes. 
 
1746.] OUE riRST sepoys. 29 
 
 sent it to liis now fortunate riyal, Mobammed Ali, who ex- 
 hibited it as a trophy to his army. 
 
 The Mysorean troops and some of the Mahrattas remained 
 in the fort oi* Trichinopoly ; the troOps of Tanjore and other 
 auxiliaries went away to their homes, and the EngHsh, with 
 only their sepoys, marched against Gingee, where they were 
 repulsed by the Trench with loss. 
 
 In a very short time, Major Laurence was recalled to 
 the neighbourhood of Eort St. David, by intelligence that 
 Dupleix had another considerable army on foot. Laurence 
 encountered this force near Bahoor, only two miles from 
 Fort St. David, and gained another victory. Clive was now 
 detached to Covelong, an important fort about twenty miles 
 south of Madras, which mounted thirty pieces of cannon, 
 and was garrisoned by fifty Trench and 300 sepoys. The 
 force which Clive took with him consisted of four 24-pound- 
 ers, 500 newly-raised sepoys, and 200 recruits, who had just 
 been landed at Madras, and who are represented as being 
 the very refuse of the gaols of London. But as Clive had 
 become a general as if by inspiration, so had he the faculty of 
 making soldiers in a week out of vagabonds and cut-purses. 
 At first, the gaol-birds showed some trepidation, but Clive 
 shamed them out of their fears by exposing himself to the 
 hottest of the fire, and by the time the fort surrendered, 
 they w^ere heroes. Cutting up or taldng prisoners some 
 detachments that were marching from Chingliput (a day too 
 late) to relieve Covelong, the conqueror, rapidly marching 
 forty miles, compelled the French commandant of Chingli- 
 put to surrender that strong place. 
 
 Clive now returned to Madras, and, finding his health, 
 which had never been very robust, greatly impaired by the 
 incessant fatigues he had undergone, he proceeded to Eng- 
 land by the first ship. His departure was deplored by the 
 army, and his absence was soon felt in every part of the 
 Coromandel coast.* 
 
 The reader mil have observed, how important a part the 
 disciplined native troops performed in these campaigns. 
 The French had raised corps of sepoys some time before we 
 began the practice. It appears that our first sepoys were 
 trained in 1746, during Labourdonnais's siege of Madras. 
 Some English officers were then attached to some irregular 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, * Life of Lord Clive.' Orme, * Historical Frag- 
 ments, and Military Transactions.' Major Laurence, * Narrative.' 
 
30 Iv'ATITE Ils-rAIvTET. [1757. 
 
 native infantrj^, which they began to drill and discipline. 
 The system was first introduced into the Madras service by 
 Mr. Halibnrton, who, like Clive, had quitted the civil for 
 the military service. In the ensuing year, this gentleman 
 was employed in training another small corps of natives in 
 the European manner. In 1748, Lieutenant Haliburton 
 was shot by a sulky or frantic recruit, who was instantly 
 cut to pieces by his comrades. The name of Haliburton was 
 long cherished by the Madras sepoys. One of the first ser- 
 vices on which these sepoys were employed was with Clive 
 at the defence at Arcot. At first they appear to have been 
 either Mahometans, or Hindus of very high caste chiefly 
 Hajpoots. They soon became remarkable for their attach- 
 ment to their leaders, their entire devotion to the English 
 flag, their good orderly conduct on marches, and their steadi- 
 ness in action. 
 
 In 1748, a little before the death of Haliburton, sepoys 
 were first disciplined at Eort St. George. At that period, 
 they were chiefly under the command of native officers. One 
 of these subah'dars Mahomed Esof ^was a hero whose 
 name constantly occurs in the animated pages of Orme. 
 The Bengal Native Infantry was not properly formed until 
 the year 1757.* 
 
 * Captain Williams, ' Historical Account of the Rise and Progress 
 of the Bengal Native Infantry,' &c. London, 1817. Quarterly Review, 
 vol. xviii. 
 
1752.1 ACHIEYEMEXTS OF M. BUSSY. 31 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 M. DuPLEix's wonderful talent for diplomacy and in- 
 trigue soon obtained signal triumphs. His emissaries were 
 everywhere ; and the native princes were all as fickle as faith- 
 less. In his intrigues with them, he is said to have derived 
 wonderful assistance from his wife, who was bom in India, 
 and perfectly understood not only the languages, but also 
 the character of the natives. In his union with this lady, 
 who is described as being even more ambitious than himself, 
 we may probably trace the cause of the essentially Oriental 
 spirit of many of his proceedings.* 
 
 The ruler of Mysore abruptly broke his alliance with us, 
 and joined the Erench, and his example was followed by 
 Morari Eao, the Mahratta, and by the Mahometan governor 
 of Vellore. Joined by the troops of these recent allies of the 
 English, the French once more laid siege to Trichinopoly. 
 Major Laurence threw himself into that place on the 6th of 
 May, 1753, and by long-persevering and heroic efforts he 
 cut up the French and utterly dispersed the besiegers. 
 
 But in the mean time, M. Bussy, who took his departure 
 for Hyderabad in 1752, to establish Salabut Jung in the 
 sovereignty of the Deckan, had gone through a series of 
 romantic adventures. He had penetrated farther into the 
 country than any European army had hitherto gone, and 
 had, to all appearance, consolidated the authority of his ally. 
 Ud-Dien a prince of the Mogul's choice, advanced against 
 Salabut Jung with 100,000 horse, but was carried off by 
 poison, or by his own excesses, as he was entering the pro- 
 vince of Golconda. Upon his decease, many of his great 
 host returned to their homes ; but the Mahrattas, eager for 
 the spoil of a rich province, continued their advance. 
 
 * ' Memoires de M. Dupleix.' 
 
32 END or M. DrPLEix. [1753. 
 
 Bussy defeated tliern repeatedly, and once or twice with so 
 much slaughter, that they became anxious for peace. Salabut 
 Jung then purchased their retreat, by ceding some remote 
 districts to them ; and they gladly withdrew from the mur- 
 derous execution of Bussy's quick musketry and artillery. 
 The brave and able Frenchman had, however, soon to expe- 
 rience how slightly the ties of gratitude attached Indian 
 princes. Salabut Jung would hardly pay the Erench troops 
 who had saved him from ruin, and he endeavoured to send 
 them to their own destruction by detaching them in small 
 parties to distant quarters. 
 
 Ko sooner did the Mahratta tribes know this disper- 
 sion of the only force they feared, than they got ready for 
 a new war in the Deckan. Salabut Jung thereupon 
 implored M. Bussy to save him once more, and to name 
 his own conditions. The Erenchman did save him, but 
 at an enormous price. At the end of the year 1753, 
 he obtained the cession of the five important provinces of 
 Ellore, E/ajamundry, Cicacole, Condapilly, and Gruntoor, 
 called the Northern Circars, which made the French masters 
 of the sea-coast of Coromandel and Orissa, for an uninter- 
 rupted line of 600 miles ; and w^hich not only afforded a vast 
 revenue, but also furnished the most convenient means of 
 receiving reinforcements of men, and military stores from 
 Pondicherry and Mauritius. 
 
 But neither the court of Versailles, nor the French India 
 Company at home, had embraced the grand projects of 
 Bussy and Dupleix. Against the latter, intrigues were set on 
 foot, and his recall to France was procured. A M. Grodheu 
 was sent out to supersede him, and to negotiate an imme- 
 diate peace with the English and their allies in India. 
 
 "With the departure of Dupleix, the grand schemes of 
 French empire and dominion in the East seemed to vanish 
 into thin air. On his arrival in Europe, this ambitious and able 
 man found himself obliged to dispute the miserable rematas 
 of his once splendid fortune with the French East-India Com- 
 pany, to dance humble attendance on ministers and their 
 satellites, and to solicit audiences in the ante-chambers of 
 his judges. He suffered as much as Labourdonnais had 
 suffered through his means ; and he was soon dead, and soon 
 forgotten in France though not in India. 
 
 On the 11th of October, 1754, a suspension of arms was 
 agreed to, and on the 26th of December, a provisional treaty 
 
1756.] THE A?s-GEIA PIRATES. 33 
 
 was signed by Mr. Sanders, the president of Madras, and 
 M. Grodlieu. The French stipulated to withdraw their troops 
 from the Camatic, and to interfere no more in the affairs of 
 the native princes there, thus leaving Mohammed Ali, the 
 ally or creature of the English, undisputed nabob of the Car- 
 natic. They also agreed that the territorial possessions of 
 the French and English should be settled and defined on the 
 principle of equality, thus virtually resigning nearly all that 
 Bussy and Dupleix had acquired by their wars and policy. 
 
 M. Bussy, however, was left undisturbed at Grolconda, 
 where he lived with all the pomp and splendour of a vizier 
 or a sultan, and continued his control over the Deckan. 
 
 As there was no employment for an English squadron 
 which had arrived under the command of Admiral Watson, 
 it was resolved to send some of the ships to destroy the 
 nests of some powerful pirates who for fifty years had been 
 committing depredations on the Malabar coast. The chiefs 
 of these corsairs, a family of the Mahratta race, bearing the 
 name of Angria, had established on the coast a power closely 
 resembling that of the Algerines. They nominally acknow- 
 ledged the Peishwa, or supreme head of the Mahrattas, as 
 the Algerines nominally professed allegiance to the Otto- 
 man Porte.* But the Angrias had recently given such 
 offence to the Peishwa, that he was eager for their destruc- 
 tion, and joined his fleet to the English squadron. In 1755, 
 the English ships drove the pirates from two of their strong- 
 holds, and took possession of them, the Peishwa's fleet never 
 coming within reach of cannon-shot till the fighting was all 
 over. But the chief nest of the pirates the fort and port 
 of Gheriah was not attacked until the following year, 
 when Clive had returned from England, with improved 
 health. 
 
 Clive accompanied Admiral "Watson on this expedition. The 
 Peishwa's Mahrattas also joined, not to fight but to plunder. 
 On the 11th of Eebruary,'l756, eight English ships, a grab, 
 and five bomb-ketches, having on board 800 Europeans and 
 1,000 sepoys, arrived off Grheriah ; while a Mahratta army 
 approached on the land side. The pirates* nest stood on a 
 rocky promontory, nearly surrounded by the sea, and crowned 
 by a fort of extraordinary strength. In a brief space of time, 
 the English sailors burned the fleet, though under the guns of 
 
 * * Our Indian Empire.' 
 D 
 
34 ALIVERDY KHAIf. [1756. 
 
 the fort ; and Clive then landed his troops and interposed 
 them between the walls of the town and the Mahratta 
 army, who, if they had entered, would have left little but 
 bare walls to the English. The pirates, in whom ferocity 
 had been mistaken for courage, made but a feeble and fool- 
 ish resistance : Angria, their chief, fled for refuge to the 
 Mahrattas' camp ; and on the 13th, the fort fell. Booty to 
 the value of about ten lacs of rupees was divided between 
 the Eoyal Navy and the Company's land troops.* 
 
 The adventurous Clive had come back to India as governor 
 of Port St. David, with a provisional commission to succeed 
 to the government of Madras. George II., who loved a 
 brave soldier, had given him the grade of Heutenant-colonel 
 in the British army, which it was hoped would obviate the 
 quarrels about rank which so frequently had occurred 
 between the King's and the Company's officers. Clive 
 assumed the government of Port St. David on the 20th of 
 June, 1756, the very day on which the nabob of Bengal 
 took Calcutta from the English, f 
 
 The society settled at Calcutta had risen rapidly under 
 the pacific rule of Aliverdy Khan, a wise, humane, and liberal 
 prince. The English factors and their numerous agents 
 travelled through every part of his dominions, finding every- 
 where protection for their property, and safety and respect 
 for their persons. Aliverdy Khan died in the month of 
 April, 1756, and his grandson and successor, Suraj-u-Dowlah, 
 was a luxurious, effeminate, rapacious, and cruel youth. He 
 was known to entertain very hostile feelings towards the 
 English, so that everybody at Calcutta ought to have been 
 prepared for his attacks. He had seen the coffers of his 
 father filled, directly or indirectly, by the trade of the Eng- 
 lish ; he had been led to believe that the wealth and treasures 
 these foreign merchants had accumulated within the walls 
 of Calcutta were enormous in amount, and always ready and 
 tangible ; and, like the fool in the fable, he resolved to kiU 
 the goose that laid these golden eggs. Pretexts for quarrel 
 were easily found. After various disputes, Suraj-u-Dowlah 
 ordered the English to destroy their fortifications at Cal- 
 cutta, and upon their refusing so to do, he gave way to 
 a paroxysm of rage, and threatened to behead or impale 
 Mr. "Watts, the resident at his court of Moorshedabad. 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, ' Life of Clive.' f Id. 
 
1756.] SUEAJ-U-DOWLAH. 35 
 
 Collecting his whole army at jMoorshedabad, tlie new 
 nabob sent a detachment of 3,000 men to invest the factory 
 and small weak fort of Cossimbuzar, which was defended by 
 only twenty-two Europeans and twenty Topasses. In four 
 days the crumbling old gates of the fprt were thrown open 
 to the besiegers, who insulted and triumphed over the little 
 garrison, as if, instead of forty-three men, they had conquered 
 an army of thousands. Their conduct was so brutal, that, 
 to escape from it, the English commanding officer. Ensign 
 Elliot, put a pistol to his head and blew out his brains. 
 
 Suraj-u-Dowlah now struck his tents and began his 
 march upon Calcutta, which was defended by a regular 
 garrison of 264 men, by a militia raised among the in- 
 habitants of 250 men, and by 1,500 bucksaries, or native 
 Indian matchlock-men, whose arms and discipline were alike 
 contemptible. Of the regular garrison and the militia, only 
 170 were English, the rest being Portuguese, Topasses, and 
 Armenians, on whose valour and faith there was little 
 dependence : and, to make the case stiU more hopeless, not 
 ten of the English had ever seen any other service than that 
 of the parade.* The fort, afterwards called Port St. Wil" 
 Ham, was of the meanest description : it was situated near 
 the river, and consisted of four weak bastions, mounting ten 
 guns each, with curtains of brick, only four feet in thickness. 
 
 On the morning of the 16th of June, the nabob, with 
 nearly his whole force, was close to Calcutta ; the Indian 
 inhabitants of the town were flying in all directions, with 
 their rice on their heads ; and the English women, the 
 Armenians, the Portuguese, and all who claimed to be 
 Christians, were abandoning their houses in the city to take 
 refuge within the weak fort, which was crowded and embar- 
 rassed in every part by women and children, and men as help- 
 less or as timid. At the hour of noon, the van of the nabob's 
 army was on the Company's bounds, and shortly after a 
 firing commenced. That night a young English ensign, 
 who had served in Clive's war in the Camatic, made a bril- 
 liant sortie, and with only a handful of men, he drove the 
 enemy before him and spiked four pieces of cannon. On 
 the following day, the attack from the north was abandoned, 
 and some thousands of the besiegers were led into the town 
 on the east side, where no defences existed. Kow, with pre- 
 
 * Orme. 
 d2 
 
36 ATTACK ON CALCL^TTA. [1756 
 
 cipitation and confusion, the Englisli threw up three bat- 
 teries, each mounting two 18-pounders and two field-pieces. 
 These batteries were at the distance of 300 or more yards 
 from the gates of the fort. Moreover, some trenches were 
 dug, and some breastworks raised to bar the progress of the 
 enemy. On the 19th of June, these feeble outposts were 
 assailed by a countless host. They were defended with 
 courage, but very little skill, and they were carried in a few 
 hours. A general consternation ensued : the Indian match- 
 lock-men, who had been engaged by the English, all disap- 
 peared ; the Lascars, who had been helping to serve our guns, 
 all deserted ; and the unwarlike Armenians and the Portu- 
 guese half-castes, who formed a considerable part of the 
 militia, gave themselves up to grief and despair. A ship 
 and seven smaller vessels were now lying before the fort, 
 and shoals of native boats were in readiness to carry off 
 persons and property. As it grew dark, the European 
 women were conveyed out of the fort and safely embarked. 
 About midnight the enemy approached to escalade the walls, 
 but they were scared away by the mere roll of the English 
 drums. On the morrow the fatal 20th of June the nabob's 
 people again swarmed to the fort, bringing artillery with 
 them. The resolution was taken to abandon that worth- 
 less place: there now arose a loud and earnest cry for 
 boats, but the greater part of the native boatmen, tired of 
 waiting, had gone off, and the general embarkation, which 
 would have been easy a few hours before, became exceed- 
 ingly difficult. This difficulty was made the greater by the 
 madness of fear and the total want of order or arrangement. 
 Men, women, and children, rushed to the water's edge; 
 pressing every one to be first embarked; the boats were 
 crowded with more than they could carry, and several of 
 them were overset or swamped. Among those who thus 
 precipitated themselves out of the fort were Mr. Drake, the 
 governor; Mr.Minchin, the captain-commandant; and Captain 
 Gi-rant : overcome by their personal fears, they threw them- 
 selves into two of the last boats, and left Mr. Holwell, one 
 English woman, and 190 men, to shift for themselves. After 
 making every effort to bring back one vessel for their re- 
 moval after hoisting flags by day and thromng up blue 
 lights by night, the reduced garrison saw themselves attacked 
 on all sides by the nabob's troops. IVIr. Holwell attempted 
 to capitulate ; but while the Indian general pretended to be 
 
1756.] THE BLACK HOLE. 37 
 
 willing to grant tenns, he sent a very large party to escalade 
 the walls. This attacking party T^-as hurled back and totally 
 repulsed with great loss ; but in this conflict, twenty-five of the 
 garrison were killed or desperately wounded, and more than 
 twice that number received slighter wounds. In tliis state, 
 when the place was filled with moans and groans and shrieks 
 of anguish, some of the remaining English soldiery broke 
 open the arrack magazine, swallowed that ardent spirit as if 
 it had been water, and became mad or stupid. The un- 
 guarded ramparts were carried, an entrance was made by 
 the Indians through the water-gate, and the fort was lost. 
 About twenty of the garrison threw themselves headlong 
 from the bastions, to be cut down by the enemy's horse, 
 which scoured the open country ; a few escaped by creeping 
 along the slime of the river ; all the rest piled their arms, 
 and surrendered wdth prayers for mercy. 
 
 Suraj-u-Dowlah, who had kept at a distance so long as 
 there was the slightest chance of personal danger, now 
 entered the fort in triumph, and summoned Mr. Hblwell 
 before him. The nabob complained bitterly of tlie small 
 sum of money which had been found in the treasury a sum 
 which fell short of 50,000 rupees. He dismissed Mr. Hol- 
 well ; recalled him to ask if there really was no more money, 
 and then dismissed him again. The horrible tragedy which 
 followed is familiar to every English reader. One hundred 
 and forty-six individuals were thrust into the common dun- 
 geon of the garrison, called the Black Hole. This was a room 
 twenty feet square, with only two small windows, and those 
 obstructed and deprived of air by a projecting verandah. It 
 was the very hottest season of the year, and the night 
 was unusually sultry even for that season, for the Indians 
 had set fire to the houses of the town, and the atmosphere 
 was heated by the conflagration and the air charged with 
 the smoke that proceeded from it. Attempts were made to 
 burst open the door, but the door was strong, and opened 
 inward. Mr. Holwell, who had succeeded in placing himself 
 near one of the windows, addressed himself to an old Indian 
 ofiicer who commanded the guard, and promised him a 
 thousand rupees in the morning if he would only separate 
 his prisoners into two chambers. The old man went to try, 
 but, returning in a few minutes, said it was impossible. Mr. 
 Holwell then oflered him a larger sum, on which he with- 
 drew once more, but only to return with the fatal sentence, 
 
38 THE BLACK HOLE. [1756. 
 
 that no relief could be expected, because the nabob was 
 asleep, and no one dared to wake him. Then the captives 
 went raving mad with despair and a hell-like heat and 
 thirst; they shrieked for water! water! and they fought 
 with each other with maniac hands, feet, and teeth for pos- 
 session of the ground nearest the windows. At the prayer 
 of Mr. Holwell, the old Hindu officer brought some skins of 
 water to the gratings, but the sufferers were too far gone in 
 madness to wait their several turns to drink ; they battled with 
 one another for the first draughts, and they spilt more than 
 they drank. But not the contents of the largest and coolest 
 water-tank in India could have quenched the inward fire that 
 consumed them, or have cooled or sweetened the infernal air 
 of their dungeon. At two hours after midnight not more 
 than fifty remained alive ; at eight o'clock in the morning, 
 when the tyrant rose from his perfumed couch and called 
 for his prisoners, the dungeon-door was found blocked up 
 with the dead, and out of the one hundred and forty-six, 
 only twenty-three ghastly figures were brought alive out of 
 that truly Black Hole. 
 
 The tyrant could talk of nothing but the treasures which, 
 he was sure, the English had buried ; and he threatened 
 further severities if the concealed money were not instantly 
 given up. Mr. Holwell, who knew of no hidden treasures, 
 was consigned over to some officers of the nabob, who put 
 his emaciated frame into irons and fetters. Meanwhile the 
 nabob's army were plundering the warehouses and dwelling- 
 houses in the town, making no distinction as to persons, 
 faiths, or nations, but robbing alike Hindus, Mussulmans, 
 Armenians, Portuguese, and English, and frequently resort- 
 ing to torture, in the %dew of making their victims confess 
 where they had concealed their treasures. 
 
 Having ordered the name of Calcutta to be changed 
 into that of Alinagore, or the Port of God, the nabob col- 
 lected his army, and, on the 2nd of July, proceeded up the 
 river to fall upon a defenceless neighbour a native prince. 
 His boats were decorated with flags and streamers, and the 
 air was filled with triumphant military music. He left 
 behind him, in Port St. William and in the town, about three 
 thousand undisciplined men.* 
 
 * Orme, * Military Transactions of the British Nation in Hindostan.' 
 Holwell, ' Indian Tracts,' 4to. A,D. 1754 ; and ' Historical Events re- 
 pecting Bengal and Hindostan,' 2 vols. 8vo. 1766-1777. 
 
1757.] CALCUTTA EECOTEEED. 39 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Clite the avenger, CliYe " the Daring in War,"* was 
 coming. 
 
 At Madras and I'ort St. David and Bombay, and at every 
 place in India in which there was an Englishman, exertions 
 were made in order to recover Calcutta, and take vengeance 
 upon Suraj-u-Dowlah for the atrocities he had committed ; 
 but the mighty monsoons, which had prevented the sending 
 of relief, would not yield nor change to suit the impatience 
 of man ; materials had to be collected from various parts of 
 the coast, and ships to be waited for that were traversing 
 the Indian Ocean from Europe. Thus it was not until the 
 16th of October that Clive and Admiral "Watson could set 
 sail from Madras. The force consisted of five of his 
 Majesty's ships and five of the Company's, of nine hundred 
 European infantry and fifteen hundred sepoys. On the 
 22nd of December they reached Eulta, a \allage on the 
 Hooghly, twenty miles below Calcutta. Capturing on his 
 way the fort of Budge-Budge, Clive came before Calcutta at 
 the end of the month, and on the 2nd of January, 1757, 
 Admiral Watson brought his ships to anchor close off the 
 fort. Monichund, the nabob's general, had fled already, 
 and a very few shots sufiiced to send the garrison scampering 
 off after their general. Without the loss of a single life, 
 apparently without a wound or a scratch, the English 
 regained possession of the fort and to'wn. 
 
 Eapid in all his enterprises, Clive, within a week and a 
 day, was before the important fortress and town of Hooghly, 
 which bristled with batteries mounting heavy guns, and was 
 garrisoned by three thousand men, who all fled after a very 
 
 * This was one of the epithets which the astonished natives had con- 
 ferred upon Clive. 
 
40 WAR IN BENGAL. [1757. 
 
 short cannonade, leaving the place, with everything in it, 
 to the English. 
 
 Suraj-u-Dowlah had by this time collected an enormous 
 army in Moorshedabad, and, believing Clive's force to be 
 even smaller than it was, he began to march down to Calcutta 
 with terrible menaces. Clive took post in a camp he had 
 hastily fortified, about a mile to the north of the town, and 
 quietly waited for his foe. On the 3rd of Tebruary, the 
 country to the north-east was in a blaze, and the van of the 
 nabob's army came in full view. In the course of that 
 night and the following morning (the 4th of February) the 
 rest of the army came up. Having obtained from Admiral 
 "Watson a reinforcement of sailors, armed with firelocks, 
 Clive, at three o'clock of the morning of the 5th, in the 
 midst of a tliick fog, penetrated into the nabob's camp, 
 marched right through with part of his force, and, attacking 
 in front and rear, gained a rapid and brilliant victory. In 
 this conflict Clive lost altogether one hundred and twenty 
 Eiu-opeans and one hundred sepoys a considerable portion of 
 his small force. But the carnage committed by the English, 
 w^ho were thirsting for revenge on the perpetrators of the 
 Elaclt-Hole murders, was terrible ; the panic in the Indian 
 army was universal, and Clive was not disappointed as 
 to the effects likely to be produced by the battle on the 
 feeble mind of the nabob. Suraj-u-Dowlah sent him a 
 most humble letter, imploring for peace with the English ; 
 and, on the 9th of February, a treaty was concluded on 
 Clive's ovm terms ; and three days after this, an additional 
 treaty, with an alliance, offensive and defensive, was signed. 
 
 As war had broken out in Europe between France and 
 England, and as there could be no permanent security for 
 Calcutta so long as the French were left in posses- 
 sion of Chandemagore, Clive and Admiral AVatson pro- 
 ceeded forthwith to attack that place. Chandemagore was 
 strong, and the French, as usual, made a brave resist- 
 ance ; but they were compelled to surrender on the morn- 
 ing of the 25th March, after a siege or bombardment of 
 fourteen days. 
 
 Instead of assisting these operations, Suraj-u-Dowlah 
 did aU that he could to thwart them, and was already 
 endeavouring to form new leagues against the English. 
 Clive resolved that he should cease to reign. Many 
 circumstances favoured the views of the conqueror. The 
 
1757.] OMICHTJND. 41 
 
 tyrannical and dissolute nabob had alienated the affec- 
 tions of his people, and given mortal offence to some of his 
 grandees and courtiers. While he was again collecting 
 an immense army to fall upon Clive, a conspiracy Avas formed 
 against him in his own court, capital, and camp. The real 
 chief of this conspiracy was Meer Jaffier Khan, a Mahometan 
 soldier of fortune, who had been raised to the highest digni- 
 ties by the late nabob, Aliverdy Khan, whose daughter he 
 had married. Meer Jaffier was at this moment com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army assembling at Plassey, and it 
 was calculated that half of that force would implicitly obey 
 his orders. The khan, after swearing on the Khoran, and by 
 Grodandthe prophet of Grod, to keep his secret engagementa 
 with the English, gave great uneasiness by his timidity and 
 vacillation. But the man who most disquieted Clive and 
 Admiral "Watson and their agents was Omichund, a Hindu 
 merchant or banker of great wealth, who had been admitted 
 into all the secrets of the plot, and who threatened to divulge 
 them to Suraj-u-Dowlah unless he were gratified with a bond, 
 or thirty lacs of rupees. It was therefore suggested to Clive, 
 and approved of by the members of the Council, and most, 
 if not all, the English officers, who thought tliat treachery 
 ought to be met and defeated by treachery ; that Omichund 
 ought to be deceived by a fictitious agreement to pay him the 
 money. Accordingly, two bonds were drawn up, one real, 
 upon white paper, and the other false, upon red. In the 
 former there was no mention of Omichund ; in the latter, 
 there was an article stipulating that he should receive twenty 
 lacs of rupees as soon as the revolution was completed. The 
 red paper was sho^\Ti to the grasping, gasping Hindu ; the 
 white one was kept in reserve. Omichund was universally 
 detested in Calcutta for many former acts of treachery and 
 rapacity, and on account of the weU-grounded suspicion that 
 he had contributed to lead the nabob to the capture and 
 plunder of that place, and to the dismal tragedy of the 
 Black Hole. 
 
 On the 13th of June, Clive, with his Kttle army, movedfrom 
 Chandemagore towards Plassey, dispatching before him a 
 letter to reproach Suraj-u-Dowlah with numerous breaches of 
 faith and of treaties, and to call upon him to choose between 
 submission to the demands of the English and instant war. 
 On the 16th he halted at Patlee, and sent Major Coote to 
 take Cutwah, a mud fort. Coote, an officer worthy to serve 
 
42 CLIVE AT PLASSET. [1757. 
 
 a Clive, took the place, and found in it rice enougli to supply 
 a native army of ten thousand men for a whole year. On 
 the 17th Clive received a letter from Meer Jaffier, which 
 was far from being satisfactory. Doubting whether that 
 man would have steadiness and courage enough to keep his 
 engagements, he determined not to cross the river of Cossim- 
 buzar, the holiest branch of the G-anges, until he should 
 obtain some further securities or assurances that Jaffier 
 reaUy intended to act with him. On the 20th, the anniver- 
 sary of the Black Hole, he received an unsatisfactory letter ; 
 but on the evening after the arrival of this messenger, another 
 secret emissary appeared with letters from Meer Jaffier, 
 stating that he would be on the right or left wing of the 
 nabob's army, and that he would come over as soon as the 
 English should appear on the field at Plassey. 
 
 The mind of the English commander was still disquieted 
 by doubts and suspicions ; with the assistance of Jaffier's 
 three thousand horse he made sure of victory, but without 
 this accession of strength he despaired of it, as he was 
 wholly destitute of cavalry. The greatness of the stake 
 for which he was playing with so small an army, the heavy 
 responsibility that lay upon him, rendered him irresolute 
 and nervous, and he had recourse, for the first and last time 
 in his life, to a council of war. Having on the morning 
 of the 21st assembled his officers, to the number of fifteen,* 
 he proposed the following questions : " Whether the army 
 should immediately cross into the island of Cossimbuzar, and 
 at all risks attack the nabob ? or whether, availing them- 
 selves of the great quantity of rice which they had taken at 
 Cutwah, they should maintain themselves there during the 
 rainy season, and in the mean time invite the Mahrattas to 
 enter the province and join them ?" Contrary to the esta- 
 blished practice, Clive gave his opinion first, and it was, that 
 they should remain where they were. Majors Kilpatricfc 
 and G-rant, with six other officers, agreed with Clive ; but 
 Captain Coote differed with him, and his opposite opinion 
 was supported by six other officers. Coote's notion was 
 that the common soldiers were at present confident of 
 success ; that a stop so near the enemy would naturally quell 
 this ardour; that the arrival of the French troops with 
 
 * Orrae says twenty, but Sir John Malcolm gives the names of all the 
 officers from a list found in Clive's papers, and there, the total number, 
 including Clive, is sixteen. 
 
1757.] BATTLE OF PLASSET. 43 
 
 M. Law would add strength to the nabob's force and vigour 
 to his councils ; that they would surround the English army 
 and cut oif its communication with Calcutta, when distresses 
 not yet foreseen might ruin it as effectually as the loss of a 
 battle. He therefore advised that they should either advance 
 and decide the contest immediately, or immediately return 
 to Calcutta. But soon Clive himself felt dissatisfied at the 
 decision, and his mind recovered its vigour. To collect his 
 thoughts, he retired alone to a grove of mango-trees, a little 
 beyond the town of Cutwah ; he remained there for an hour 
 in deep meditation, but then he returned with the word "For- 
 ward " on his lips ; and, without consulting or caring for the 
 council of war, he gave his orders that the army should cross 
 the river on the following morning. At the hour appointed, 
 at sunrise, the troops were put in motion; they had all crossed 
 the river by four in the afternoon, and after a rapid march 
 they encamped, long after sunset, in a mango-grove near 
 Plassey, and within a mile of the enemy. Clive, kept awake 
 by his anxious thoughts, heard during the whole night the 
 drums, trumpets, and C3rmbals of the nabob's host, who had 
 been warned of his approach, and were making their barbaric 
 music to dispel drowsiness. At last the day broke which 
 was to decide the fate of Bengal, 
 
 The extensive ground occupied by the nabob's army had 
 good defences, both natural and artificial; but, relying 
 on their numerical superiority, the Indians, instead of wait- 
 ing to be attacked, marched out *to attack the English. 
 Soon after sunrise they poured through all their openings 
 and advanced to the mango-grove where Clive lay. They 
 were forty thousand foot and sixteen thousand horse ; they 
 had fifty heavy cannon, each drawn by a long train of 
 white oxen, and pushed on from behind by an elephant ; 
 and, besides this ordnance, there were some field-pieces, 
 managed by about forty Frenchmen. To oppose this vast 
 host Clive had but three thousand foot (of which number 
 one thousand were Europeans) and eight field-pieces. He 
 expected every moment to receive an encouraging message 
 from Meer Jafiier, but none came. The battle began with a 
 cannonade at about eight in the morning. About noon there 
 fell a heavy shower of rain, which damaged the ammunition 
 of the incautious Indians. Nearly at the same time one of 
 Clive' s cannon-balls mortally wounded Meer Murdeen,one of 
 the highest and best officers of the enemy, and the event 
 
44 BATTLE or PLASSEY. [1757. 
 
 greatly terrified the nabob, who was remaining in his tent 
 at a safe distance. To increase his panic, one of his grandees, 
 who was deep in the conspiracy against him, magnified the 
 danger, and then advised him to retreat immediately npon 
 his capital. At about two o'clock in the afternoon the white 
 oxen were put to the heavy guns to drag them off" ; in a 
 short time all that host, horse and foot, were seen retreating 
 through the camp. Clive then moved forwardfrom the mango- 
 grove. As he was advancing, a great body of the cavalry 
 appeared on his flank. These were the three thousand or 
 more horse of Meer Jaffier, but they were not recognized as 
 such by the English, for a promised white flag was not held 
 out, nor was any other signal given or message sent. Sus- 
 pecting that they were manoeuvring to fall upon his baggage 
 and rear, which, no doubt, they would have done if he had 
 been beaten or checked, Clive detached some troops of the 
 line to stop them. On receiving the fire of this detach- 
 ment, Jaffier, still making no sign, halted and fell back. 
 
 After a short retreat, the French artillery-men stood 
 firm, some of the nabob's troops rallied, some of his 
 heavy guns were again loaded, and a few feeble charges 
 of cavalry were made. At last, that great body of horse, 
 which had recently been on the flank of the English, 
 began to move altogether off the field, without joining 
 the rest of the nabob's army ; and this convinced Clive 
 that they were the troops of Meer Jaffier, and that that 
 conspirator was now, in reality, doing something, in his 
 timid wa}^, to decide the affair. Advancing, Clive fell upon 
 the Erenchmen, who, finding themselves again abandoned 
 by the natives, fled and left their field-pieces behind them. 
 There was no more fighting ; the nabob's tens of thousands 
 were flying towards Moorshedabad ; the whole camp, with 
 tents, baggage, artillery, carriages, and white oxen, was left 
 in the undisputed possession of the victors, whose booty 
 upon that spot alone was of immense value. Clive stated 
 his loss at twenty-two killed and fifty wounded, and these 
 chiefly blacks ; and the loss of the enemy at about 500 
 killed and wounded. All of his little army had behaved 
 admirably, but praise was more particularly given to the 
 39th British regiment, which still bears on its banners the 
 name of " Plassey," and the motto, Frimus in Indis. 
 
 The English pursued the fugitives for about six miles, 
 and then halted for the night at Daudpore, where Clive 
 
1V57.] CLIVE AT MOOESIIEDABAD. 45 
 
 received a congratulatory letter from Meer Jaffier, who 
 came and encamped in his neighbourhood that night. At 
 midnight, the fallen nabob, Suraj-u-Dowlah, who had fled 
 from the field on a swift dromedary (an animal now rarely 
 used or seen in Bengal), arrived at his palace in Moorshe- 
 dabad, and assembled aU the officers that had escaped with 
 him. Bold resolutions were taken, but he had not the 
 heart to stay and act upon them. Dismissing his council 
 and returning to the apartments of his women, his fears over- 
 came him, and he made up his mind to fly from his capital. 
 He took with him, grasped in his own hand, or hid under 
 his o^^-n vest, a rich casket of jewels ; his chosen companions 
 were his favourite concubine and his confidential eunuch; 
 with no other attendants, and disguised in a mean dress, he 
 descended in the darkness of the night from a window of 
 the palace. 
 
 On the morning after the battle, Meer Jaffier waited upon 
 Clive, who, embracing him, hailed him as nabob of Bengal, 
 Orissa, and Bahar. The nabob-maker then hurried him on 
 with all his cavalry to Moorshedabad, in order to secure the 
 palace and the treasury of Suraj-u-Dowlah. It is said that a 
 new conspiracy was got up, not only to Tvithhold all the 
 treasure from the English, but likewise to assassinate the 
 conqueror of Plassey. Clive, though so near, certainly deemed 
 it expedient to postpone his entrance into Moorshedabad 
 until the 29th of June, and when he entered, he was sur- 
 rounded and closely guarded by 200 Europeans and 300 
 faithful sepoys. Moreover, he took up his quarters in a 
 strong palace, and kept his 500 men with him. 
 
 Meer Jaffier now protested that there was not money 
 enough left in Suraj-u-Dowlah'a treasury to pay what the 
 English demanded, and what had been stipulated for in the 
 treaty between Jaffier and CHve. The conqueror proposed 
 that they should repair together to the residence of the 
 eeits, or great Hindu bankers, who had nearly all been con- 
 cerned in the conspiracy against Suraj-u-Dowlah. Meer 
 Jaffier consenting, they went forthwith to the seits, Clive 
 being followed by Omichund, who fancied that the moment 
 was now at hand when he should receive some of his lacs of 
 rupees. ' But on arriving at the seits, Omichund was not 
 invited to a seat on the carpet with the other Hindu capi- 
 talists, and, somewhat disconcerted and dismayed by this 
 slight, he sat himself down among his servants near the 
 
46 END OF OMICHTJKD. [1757 
 
 outer part of the hall. The white or real treaty, contain- 
 ing all the stipulations, and the sums and proportions agreed 
 upon, was now produced ; and Clive, turning to Mr. Scrafton, 
 who was in attendance with Mr. Watts, said, "It is now 
 time to undeceive Omichund." Scrafton, who spoke the 
 language of the country weU, went up to the Hindu, who 
 rose at his approach, and said, " Omichund, the red paper 
 is a trick; you are to have nothing!" The old man stag- 
 gered as if struck by a thunderbolt, and, fainting, would 
 have fallen to the earth, if his attendants had not caught 
 him ia their arms. He was conveyed to his palanquin and 
 carried to his house in the city, where he lay for several 
 hours speechless and insensible. His intellect, once so 
 keen, never made more than a partial return ; Clive recom- 
 mended, what was a common cure for grief and sickness 
 among the Hindus, a pilgrimage to some famed pagoda or 
 temple ; the old man went to one of the most celebrated of 
 all these shrines, but he returned uncured ; he fell into a state 
 of idiocy, and died about a year and a half after receiving the 
 mortal shock. His death-like swoon and departure from 
 the haU of the seits occasioned no emotion there ; and the 
 contracting parties to the white treaty calmly settled their 
 money affairs. The treaty, as written in Persian and Eng- 
 lish, was read, and, after much conversation, it was settled, 
 that one-half of the sum promised the English should be 
 paid immediately in coia, plate, and jewels taken out of the 
 treasury ; and that the other half should be discharged in 
 three years by equal instalments. 
 
 Two days after this conference, Meer Jaffier received 
 tidings that Suraj-u-Dowlah had been taken at Eajahmahal, 
 through the iaformation of a poor fakir or dervish, who 
 had recognized him in his disguise. The holy man had good 
 reason to remember the person of the tyrant, for Suraj-u- 
 Dowlah had cut off his ears about thirteen months before. At 
 the hour of midnight, the fallen nabob was brought like a 
 felon into the presence of Meer Jaffier, in the palace which 
 had so recently been his own. He crawled in the dust at 
 the new nabob's feet, weeping and praying for mercy. It 
 is said that Meer Jaffier, moved both by contempt and pity, 
 intended to spare his life, but that Meeran, his son, as vile 
 and ferocious a wretch as Suraj-u-Dowlah, insisted that he 
 ought to be put to death, to render the musnud, and his 
 own succession to it, the more secure. The victim was 
 
1757.] DEATH OP SURAJ-TJ-DOWLAn. 47 
 
 carried off to a distant chamber, tlie vilest in the palace, and 
 was there secretly murdered by one of Meeran's servants 
 and some soldiers. In the course of the following day, his 
 mangled remains were exposed on an elephant in the streets 
 of Moorshedabad, and then deposited in the tomb of his 
 predecessor, Aliverdy Khan. He was only twenty years old 
 when he died ; Meeran, his murderer, was still younger^ 
 being only in his seventeenth year. 
 
 Clive and the English committee, on the 6th of July, ob- 
 tained payment, in coined silver, of 7,271,666 rupees, 
 amounting ^in English money to 800,000/. ; in addition to 
 which, Clive had taken or accepted from Meer Jaffier, as his 
 private reward, about 200,000/. sterling, or, according to 
 his own statement, about 160,000/.* The money filled 700 
 chests, embarked in 100 boats, which proceeded under the 
 care of soldiers to Nudea, whence they were escorted to 
 Eort WilHam by all the boats of the English squadron, 
 with banners flying and music sounding a scene of triumph 
 and joy, and a remarkable contrast to the scene of the pre- 
 ceding year, when Suraj-u-Dowlah had ascended the same 
 stream triumphant from the conquest and plunder of Cal- 
 cutta. In the course of the month of August, the Company 
 received in gold, jewels, and cash, 3,255,095 rupees. The 
 other advantages which the new nabob granted the English 
 were, a right to establish a mint of their own at Calcutta ; the 
 entire expulsion of the French for ever, and the delivery to 
 the Company of their factories and effects ; the entire pro- 
 perty of all lands within the Mahratta ditch at Calcutta ; 
 also 600 yards aU round beyond the said ditch ; the cession 
 of aU the land in the neighbourhood of Calcutta that lay 
 between the river, the lake, and Culpee, the Company paying 
 the usual rent to the nabob ; and full freedom of trade 
 throughout the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, 
 except the old prohibition against their trading in salt, 
 betel, and a few other commodities. The Company's mint 
 at Calcutta began to coin rupees by the 19th of August. 
 Three days before this date, Admiral Watson, who had very 
 materially contributed to the success of the war, died of a 
 jungle-fever. 
 
 M. Law was in the field at the head of a small Erench 
 
 * One of the first uses Clive made of his wealth was to bestow an 
 annuity of 300 on his old commander, Laurence, who had grown old in 
 the service without growing rich. 
 
48 COOTE IX BAIIAR. [1757. 
 
 force wMcli liad escaped from Chandernagore, and had been 
 in correspondence with Suraj-u-Dowlah. Upon learning 
 the capture and death of that wretched man, Law, who had 
 been advancing to aid him, retreated \\dth all speed into 
 Bahar, intending to offer his services to Bamnarrain, the 
 vice-nabob of the province. To dislodge these dangerous 
 Erenchmen, Clive detached Coote with a flying column, con- 
 sisting of 230 Europeans, 300 sepoys, 50 lascars, and two 
 field-pieces. Coote, in spite of the excessive heat of the wea- 
 ther, and of numerous obstacles raised in^ his way, by Meer 
 Jaffier's brother, and by other men who were bound to aid 
 and assist him, made a wonderful and rapid march. On 
 the 10th of July, he was at Eajahmahai, on the 21st at 
 Monghir, on the 23rd at Burhai, on the 25th he entered 
 Eutwah, only seven miles from Patna. On the 1st of 
 August, he reached a small town at the confluence of the 
 Sona and Granges, and on the 5th he halted at Chuprah, on 
 the frontier of the powerful ruler of Oude. He could not 
 overtake the nimble Law, but he struck terror into Eamnar- 
 rain, and other native princes, and received their oaths to be 
 true and obedient to Meer Jaffier, the new nabob. 
 
 Eeturning to Moorshedabad, Coote' s detachment was 
 quartered at Cossimbuzar ; and the rest of the troops who 
 had fought at Plassey, and conquered a country more exten- 
 sive and more populous than the whole of Oreat Britain, 
 were sent down the river and stationed at Chandernagore, a 
 place then considered more healthy than Calcutta. At the 
 latter city, Chve was received with acclamations and all 
 possible honours ; and he already witnessed the effects of 
 his achievements in the restoration of commerce, confidence, 
 and prosperity.* 
 
 * Orme, ' Military Transactions.' Sir John Malcolm, ' Life of Lord 
 Clive, with Extracts from his Lordship's own Letters and Memoranda.' 
 
1757.] WAR I^' THE CARXATIC. 49 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AVhile Clive was changing princes and nabobs and rooting 
 out the Ereuch in Bengal, his countrymen on the Coroman- 
 del coast were not altogether idle. Though weakened by 
 having sent ships and' troops to co-operate on the Granges, the 
 presidency of Madras despatched Captain Calliaud to make 
 an attempt upon Madura. "While Calliaud was before that 
 place, the Erench made a rush at Trichinopoly, which was 
 very weakly garrisoned, and laid siege to it. Leaving tents, 
 baggage, and artillery behind him, Calliaud flew from Ma- 
 dura to Trichinopoly, out-manoeuvred M. d'Auteuil, got 
 between the besiegers and the besieged, and finally entered 
 Trichinopoly in triumph; but so exhausted by the in- 
 cessant fatigues he had undergone, that he could no longer 
 walk or stand without support. D'Auteuil raised the siege 
 the same day, and retreated towards Pondicherry, disap- 
 pointed, mortified, and humiliated. After his retreat the 
 war languished in the Carnatic, until the Erench, by an 
 unexpected movement, took the important English factory 
 of Vizagapatam. 
 
 Wliile the presidency of Madras were demanding money 
 from their ally or dependant Mohammed Ali, by letters and 
 by messengers, Bajee-Kao's Mahrattas burst into the country 
 to exact, at the sword's point, clioult, or tribute, or black mail, 
 from the same poor, extravagant potentate. " The English," 
 says Orme, " had no alternative but to pay or fight." Eor 
 fighting they had not men enough, and for paying they had 
 not money enough ; but the credit of the Company was Imown 
 even in the camp of the wild Mahrattas, and when the 
 English consented to pay for the nabob, they agreed to take 
 part of the amount in rupees, and part in bills. 
 
 In the month of September, a squadron of twelve ships 
 appeared off Port St. David. These Erench ships were 
 commanded by M. Bouvet, an officer of high reputation ; 
 
50 M. LALLY. [1758. 
 
 and they had on board twenty pieces of battering camion, 
 some mortars, and a great number of bombs and balls, the 
 regiment of Lorraine, nearly 1,000 strong, fifty artillerymen, 
 and sixty volunteers, the troops being under the command 
 of the Marquis de Soupires. The English, from Fort St. 
 David, saw these ships repair to Pondicherry, where they 
 landed the troops. This was on the 9th of September ; and 
 a day or two after, the whole squadron disappeared, leaving 
 the English much perplexed as to its next destination and 
 object. An intercepted English letter, in which it was 
 stated that Admiral Watson was expected "with his fleet on 
 that coast by the middle of September, had done wonders. 
 As Bouvet apprehended that the English admiral would 
 collect a force superior to his own, he determined to fly 
 while there was yet time ; and in so great a hurry was he, 
 that he would not even wait to land the heavy artillery and the 
 heavy ammunition which he had brought. Crowding all his 
 eanvas, he bore away for the Mauritius flying from Watson, 
 who had been nearly a month in his winding-sheet, and 
 whose fleet, under the command of Ear- Admiral Pococke, 
 was still in the Hooghly. 
 
 On the very day on which Bouvet took his precipitate 
 departure, Captain Calliaud took Madura by making a fresh 
 expedition from Trichinopoly, and by carrying a well-fiUed 
 military chest with him. One hundred and seventy thou- 
 sand rupees was the price paid to the native chief and 
 garrison for the surrender of this place, the possession of 
 which was of great importance to the English on the Coro- 
 mandel coast. 
 
 On the 28th of April, 1758, another Erench squadron, 
 consisting of twelve ships, reached that coast. It was com- 
 manded by Count d'Ache, and had on board a regiment of 
 infantry nearly 1,100 strong, a corps of artillerymen, and a 
 number of oJficers of distinction, aU under the command of 
 Count Lally, a veteran of Irish extradition, who had been all 
 his life in tlie service of Erance, and who had fought against 
 the English at Eontenoi. So high did Lally' s reputation 
 stand at this time, that he had been appointed governor- 
 general, with the most extraordinary powers, over all the 
 Erench possessions and establishments in India. He was to 
 commence operations by the reduction of Eort St. David. 
 He dropped into Pondicherry with two of the ships, and 
 with the other two D'Achc repaired at once to Eort St. 
 
1758,] LOSS OF CUDDALOEE. 51 
 
 Dayici, where two English frigates, the only ships on the 
 station, were run ashore and wrecked to prevent their being 
 captured. But on the very next day, Admiral Pococke 
 stood into the road and brought M. d'Ache to action. The 
 JEngKsh squadron was inferior in number, and some of the 
 ships were scarcely fit for service ; nevertheless Pococke 
 inflicted a severe blow on the French, the result of a drawn 
 battle being the loss of 500 in killed and wounded on their 
 side ; while the English counted only twenty-nine killed and 
 eighty-nine wounded. One of D' Ache's ships was stranded 
 after the battle in consequence of damage done by our shot 
 to her cables. Pococke' s ships, however, had suffered 
 greatly in their spars and rigging, and, in the various 
 manoeuvres which followed the battle, they drifted to lee- 
 ward, and the Erencli were enabled to come to anchor in 
 the night in the road of Alamparoa. Before the sea-fight 
 began, some of the French troops from Pondicherry, hurried 
 on across the country by the impetuous Lally, without 
 baggage, and even without provisions, got to the rear of 
 Port St. David, and drove in some of the English outposts. 
 The troops on board the French ships were now landed with 
 all speed, the Marquis de Soupires came up with more troops, 
 some heavy guns found in Pondicherry, and convoy of pro- 
 \'isions. On the next day, the 1st of May, Lally himself 
 came up and detached Count d'Estaing to take up a position 
 near Cuddalore, which was no stronger now than when 
 attacked twelve years before by M. Dupleix. It was gar- 
 risoned by four companies of sepoys and a few artillerymen, 
 and, to add to the precariousness of its situation, it con- 
 tained within its walls 150 French prisoners. In the even- 
 ing, this very weak garrison was reinforced from Fort St. 
 David by thirty Europeans and a few lascars. But Cudda- 
 lore could not have been held for any length of time by a 
 much stronger garrison ; and Major PoHer, the commandant 
 of Fort St. David, agreed to evacuate it in four days, the 
 troops being allowed to retire with the honours of war. 
 
 M. LaUy, at the very beginning of his career, spoiled the 
 chances of success in India, by setting the feelings and 
 prejudices of the people at defiance. He knew nothing of 
 India, or of the strange, graduated, complex structure of 
 Indian society, and he was too self-willed, hot-headed, 
 and presiunptuous, to be guided by those who had more 
 knowledge : in this siege he created the greatest disgust, by 
 e2 
 
52 SUREE>'DEE Or FOET ST. DATID. [1758. 
 
 forcibly employing together different castes of the natives in 
 labours to which they had never been accustomed, and 
 which they considered derogatory to their condition and 
 dishonourable to the castes to which they belonged. The more 
 rigour he exercised, the greater became the difficulty of getting 
 any Avork done. The sepoys, and all others who did not 
 belong to the very lowest castes, would neither dig in the 
 trenches nor drive the trains, and when Lally threatened or 
 punished them, they deserted. Port St. David was at this 
 time garrisoned by 619 Europeans and about 1,600 natives : 
 in sj^ite of some radical defects in the works, they might 
 certainly have been maintained for a long time against an 
 enemy who committed so many blunders as Lally did ; but 
 Major Polier matched him in this respect, and after he had 
 burned nearly all his gunpowder in an absurd, ineffectual 
 firing, the English commandant capitulated on the 2nd of 
 June. In consequence of instructions from France, Lally 
 immediately ordered all the fortifications to be razed to the 
 ground. He then detached M. d'Estaing with a considerable 
 force to obtain possession of Devi Cottah. That garrison, 
 being very weak, abandoned the place at the approach of the 
 Erench, and marched away for Trichinopoly. Lally returned 
 to Pondicherry, entered that city in a triumphant proces- 
 sion, and celebrated a Te Deiim for his successes. But this 
 was scarcely over ere he entered upon a furious quarrel 
 with the gentlemen of the Erench council on account of the 
 emptiness of the treasury. He thus early prepared a strife 
 and a hatred which, in the end, brought him to a lamentable 
 death. He accused powerful and resentful men of having 
 appropriated the public money to their own use. Eor lack 
 of rupees, his operations were impeded. In rummaging the 
 exhausted treasury of Pondicherry, he discovered a bond for 
 5,600,000 rupees, which had been given by the rajah of 
 Tanjore to Chunda Saheb, and by Chunda Saheb to the 
 Erench, in satisfaction for some of the various claims which 
 they had upon him. Lally resolved to enforce payment of 
 this bond, and taking the field, he advanced towards Tan- 
 jore, with one Gratiea, a native prince, in his camp, who had 
 some pretensions to the sovereignty of the country. The 
 march was long, and the disposition of the country 
 people everywhere unfavourable. No bullock-men or bazar- 
 people would follow him except by compulsion, and every 
 act of compulsion tended to spread and increase the preva- 
 
1758.] lallt's deyastations. 53 
 
 lent ill-will. His want of money, and almost total want of 
 provisions, even at the beginning of the march, forced him 
 to rob and plunder ; and the Trench soldiery, when once they 
 got accustomed to these operations, considered as their own 
 everything that they could seize or extort by violence. A 
 regiment of hussars was constantly employed in cattle-lifting, 
 and the unfortunate natives saw their cows and their oxen 
 driven into the French camp, where no price was ever paid, 
 or even promised. Still more to excite the native passions 
 of hatred and revenge, the French committed outrages on 
 their women and their priests. From Carical, Lally pro- 
 ceeded to what had recently been the rich and thriving 
 town of Nagore, in the hope of getting a great booty and 
 contribution in money. But the native merchants, warned 
 in time, had carried oif their money and jewels, and they 
 offered little for the redemption of their houses. Lally 
 therefore let loose his hussars on the defenceless town, with, 
 a regular bargain that he was to have a large share of what- 
 ever they might find. The Hiberno-Frenchman then applied, 
 in a peremptory manner, to the Dutch at JS'egapatam for 
 money, ammunition, and provisions, and the Dutch, awed by 
 his power, sent him 20,000 pounds of gunpowder. Acting 
 under the same fears, the Danes, who had a small settlement 
 on the coast, sent him 10,000 pounds of gunpowder and six 
 field-pieces. On his line of march stood the ]3agoda of 
 Kivalore, which Lally believed to contain inestimable riches. 
 He ransacked the place and the houses of the Brahmins, 
 dug into the earth for concealed treasures, dragged the 
 tanks and brought up a number of uncouth idols ; but, to his 
 bitter disappointment, these graven images, instead of being 
 of gold, were of brass ; and as no treasures could be found 
 above ground, or under ground, or in the water, he incurred 
 a horrible odium without any profit. On the following day 
 he reached another pagoda, from which the priests had all 
 fled ; but discovering in the evening that some of the Brah- 
 mins had come back, and were looking about them and 
 asking questions, he savagely put them to death by blowing 
 them oft" from the mouths of his field-pieces. At Trivatore, 
 where he remained some days, he drove a grand trade in 
 cattle-lifting. Part of the beeves were consumed in the 
 camp, and part sent down to the coast, to be there sold for 
 the benefit of the army. On the 18th of July, Lally halted 
 near the walls of the city of Tanjore, and sent in a Jesuit 
 
54 SIEGE OE TaNJOEE. [1758. 
 
 and one of his captains to demand the full amount of the 
 bond. The terrified rajah oifered 300,000 rupees, money 
 down; Lally then asked for 1,000,000 in money, 600 bullocks 
 (he had become a wholesale carcase-butcher), and 10,000 
 pounds of gunpowder ; and upon finding that these terms 
 were not accepted, he began to throw shot and shell at the 
 temples and pagodas. He also continued the work of cattle- 
 lifting in the open country, sending droves upon droves 
 down to Carical and Pondicherry. At length a treaty was 
 commenced, in which the Hindu prince endeavoured to dupe 
 the French, and they him. 
 
 After an infinitude of manoeuvres on both sides, Lally 
 broke off the negotiation, and on the 2nd of August, having 
 erected two batteries, he began to ply the walls of Tanjore 
 where they were weakest. After five days' firing, a breach 
 was made ; but by this time the Trench had burned nearly 
 all their powder, and, notwithstanding all their cattle-lifting, 
 they had not provisions for more than two days. On the 8th 
 of August, Lally' s uneasiness was increased by intelligence 
 that another engagement had taken place between the 
 French and English squadrons, and that the English ships 
 were menacing Carical, where the Erench had not been 
 heard of since the battle. Quite crest-fallen, he summoned 
 a council of war ; ten of his officers recommended an imme- 
 diate retreat, and only two an immediate assault and storm, 
 Forthwith, the sick and wounded were sent away under a 
 strong escort, and preparations were made for a general de- 
 campment on the morrow. But in the course of that night, 
 600 Euglish sepoys, sent by Major Calliaud from Trichinopoly, 
 threw themselves within the walls of Tanjore. Lally had 
 cause to wish he had gone off a little earlier. The next 
 morning the sepoys joined the Tanjoreans in a sortie and 
 general attack on his camp, while bodies of Tanjore horse, 
 and swarms of country people, and wild coolies from the 
 hills, threw themselves on the Erench rear. Lally himself 
 had several hair-breadth escapes, and he was actually knocked 
 over and trampled upon by some of the rajah's cavalry. 
 Three of his cannon were captured, and a considerable num- 
 ber of his men were killed in the first surprise. But when 
 the Erench recovered their presence of mind, and formed in 
 good compact order, they were too much for the undisciplined 
 Tanjoreans ; and the English sepoys, left without proper 
 support, were obliged to abandon the three guns they had 
 
1758.] KATAL E^^GAGEME:STS. 55 
 
 taken, and to retreat into the town with no other prizes 
 than one elephant and two lean camels. But the French 
 now spiked their heavy guns, threw the shot into wells, 
 and destroyed a considerable part of their baggage, and then, 
 under cover of night, they marched rapidly away from Tan- 
 jore, pestered in their retreat by the vindictive peasantry 
 and the rajah's cavalry, and half-famished, and half-crazed 
 with thirst. The retreat was most disastrous till they 
 reached Trivatore. Between that place and Carical, Lally 
 learned that the French squadron had returned to Pondi- 
 cherry, but that M. d'Ache was determined to sail for the 
 Mauritius without hazarding any further action withPococke. 
 Lally, in a fury, sent the Count d'Esfcaing to remonstrate, 
 to persuade, to threaten, to do everything he could to make 
 the French admiral stay where he was. On the 18th of 
 August, the retreating French army arrived at Carical, and 
 saw the English squadron at anchor not far from that town. 
 
 In the two naval engagements which had taken place, 
 Admiral Pococke's force had been inferior, and D'Ache, after 
 the experience he had had, felt no desire to wait till rein- 
 forcements, which he believed were expected, should give the 
 EnglSh a superiority, or replace two of their very bad ships 
 by two good ones ; and he turned a deaf ear to D'Estaing. 
 Having left Carical and crossed the Coleroon, Lally quitted 
 the army, and with an escort rode with loose bridle to Pon- 
 dicherry, where he arrived on the 28th of August. He 
 instantly summoned a council, with the view of stopping the 
 anxious admiral. But D'Ache declared that his ships were 
 greatly disabled, and his crews much reduced by the combats 
 and by sickness ; and on the 2nd of September he hove an- 
 chor, and went away under a press of sail for the Mauritius. 
 
 To procure the nerves of war, Lally now resolved, before 
 proceeding on his grand object the siege of Madras to 
 make a predatoiy excursion to Arcot, which was defended 
 by only a few English sepoys and some detachments of 
 Mohammed All's cavalry. He made a bargain beforehand 
 with the commander of the native troops, who agreed to 
 deliver up the place for 13,000 rupees and employment 
 with the French army. Lally reached Arcot on the 4th of 
 October, and, finding that capital of the Carnatic open to 
 him, he entered with his accustomed pomp and parade, in 
 the midsb of long salvos of artillery. But fresh disap- 
 pointments awaited the gold-seeker : all the merchants and 
 
56 SIEGE OF 3IADEAS. [1758. 
 
 wealthier inhabitants had departed before his arrival, and 
 even the poorer sort had concealed their money and most 
 valuable effects. Distributing his troops into cantonments, 
 Lally himself retiuned to Pondicherry, to blame everybody 
 and everything, except his 0'v\^l foUy and presumption. On 
 his first arrival in the country, he had made up his own 
 mind to be sole ruler in India ; and as soon as he had re- 
 duced Fort St. David, he recalled M. Bussy from the 
 Deckan, speaking contemptuously of the character and ex- 
 ploits of that truly remarkable man. When the colonels of 
 several regiments men of rank and ancient lineage paid 
 a high compliment to the hero of the Deckan, he grossly 
 imputed it to the influence of M. Bussy' s money, instead 
 of his reputation. Lally was a bold and loud talker ; he made 
 no secret of his sentiments, and Bussy would have been no 
 Frenchman if he had not resented vtith vivacity these various 
 attacks on his fame. "With rancorous feelings on both sides, 
 they were to proceed together to capture Madras, and to 
 root out the English power on the Coromandel coast. By 
 contributing 60,000 rupees of his own, and opening a sub- 
 scription at Pondicherry, Lally raised 94,000 rupees ; and 
 with this insignificant treasure, and an army of 2,700 Euro- 
 peans and 4,000 natives, he made for Madras, where he 
 arrived on the 12th of December, without money, without 
 credit, and almost without food for the troops. 
 
 Major Laurence, Olive's old superior, and Mr. Pigot, held 
 command within the waUs of Madras, where the total of 
 the force collected was 1,758 Europeans, 2,220 sepoys, and 
 200 of Mohammed All's cavalry, these last being scarcely 
 worth their rations. On the 14th of December, the French 
 took possession of the Black Town, which was open and de- 
 fenceless ; and there the soldiers, breaking open some arrack 
 stores, got drunk and mad, andcommitted great disorders. As 
 their condition was reported in the fort, a sortie was resolved 
 upon ; and 600 chosen men, under the command of Lieute- 
 nant-Colonel Draper (afterwards Sir "WiHiam), and Major 
 Brereton, with two field-pieces, rushed into the streets of the 
 BlackToAvn. Unluckily, the drummers, who were allhttle black 
 boys, struck up the Grrenadiers' March too soon, and this gave 
 warning to the French,who, running to their arms, drew up at 
 a point where the streets were very narrow, and crossed each 
 other at riglit angles. Those who were drunk were joined 
 by others who were sober, and soon they far exceeded in 
 
1759.] FAILURE or M. LALLT. 57 
 
 number the English detachment. If Bussy, who was close 
 at hand, had made one of the bold, dashing movements 
 familiar to him, when acting on his own responsibility and 
 for his own glory, the English, blocked up in the narrow 
 streets, must either have surrendered, or have been destroyed. 
 But Bussy remained motionless, and afterwards excused his 
 conduct by saying that Lally, his superior, had sent him no 
 orders to move. Our detachment retreated to the fort, 
 leaving their two field-pieces behind them ; they had lost, 
 in killed, wounded, and prisoners, about 200 men, and had 
 inflicted about an equal injury on the foe. Six of their ofiicers 
 were killed or mortally wounded, and among these, was 
 Major Poller, who, unable to bear the reflections which had 
 been cast upon him for his weak defence of Eort St. David, 
 threw away his life here to prove that he was no coward. 
 Count d'Estaing was taken prisoner at the begraning of the 
 aflEray, and conveyed into the fort of Madras. 
 
 Some money came from Erance, and by begging, borrow- 
 ing (sword in hand), and extorting, Lally got a little more 
 in the Black Town, and began to dig trenches and erect bat- 
 teries. But all his warlike means were as deficient as those 
 of tlfe English garrison were perfect ; and dissensions and 
 ill-will against him increased among his officers. His con- 
 dition was rendered quite desperate by the return of Admiral 
 Pococke to the coast, and by the entrance into the harbour 
 of two frigates and six of the Company's ships, having on 
 board 600 king's troops, fresh from England. This was on 
 the 16th of Eebruary (1759), when Lally had been two 
 months and four days under the walls of Madras. His 
 money and his provisions were alike exhausted ; he had 
 thrown away his last bomb three weeks before, and he had 
 blazed away nearly all his gunpowder. Cursing Admiral 
 d'Ache for not having stayed to meet Pococke, and again 
 blaming everybody but himself, he decamped as silently and 
 expeditiously as he could ia the night of the 17th, with his 
 army in a mutinous state, and his marauding hussars 
 threatening to go over to the English. Nowhere could this 
 violent man find a friend ; the natives removed or concealed 
 their provisions ; and not unfrequently his troops had to 
 feel the sharp execution of flying colmims of native horse, 
 and the deadly animosity of the coolies and coUeries, and 
 other wild people of the hills, who glided round his camp 
 like ghosts, and stabbed in the dark. 
 
58 CAPTUEE OF COXJETEEAM. [1759. 
 
 On the 6tli of March, Major Laurence, with 1,156 Euro- 
 peans, 1,570 sepoys, 1,120 coolies, 1,956 horse, and ten field- 
 pieces, commenced his march upon Conjeveram, where Lally 
 had concentrated his forces. For twenty-two days the 
 French and English armies lay encamped in sight of each 
 other. Then the English struck off for Wandewash, en- 
 tered that town, and began to besiege the fort. The French 
 hurried to defend the place, and the English, giving them 
 the slip, hastened back and took the far more important 
 fort of Conjeveram. On the 28th of May, both Laurence 
 and Lally put their armies into cantonments for the rainy 
 season.* 
 
 * Orme, 'Military Transactions.' Schomberg, * Naval Chronology.' 
 Sir John Malcolm, ' Life of Clive.' * Parliamentary Reports.' French, 
 ' Memoires of M. Lally.' 
 
1769.] OPEEATio:s's at sea. 59 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Admieal Pococke cruised between Bombay and Pondi- 
 cberry to intercept a fresh squadron which Lally expected 
 from the Mauritius. Towards the end of June, three of 
 the Company's ships reached Madras with 100 recruits, 
 and intelHgence that the enterprising Coote might be 
 shortly expected on the coast with 1,000 of king's troops. 
 The first division of these troops arrived at the end of July. 
 On the 20th of August, looking into Trincomalee, in Ceylon, 
 Pococke there discovered his old adversary, M. d'Ache, 
 with eleven ships of the line and three frigates. The 
 English squadron consisted of nine ships of the line, one 
 frigate, two of the Company's ships, and a fire-ship; 
 their entire number of guns being 174 less than that 
 of the Erench. Owing to adverse currents and wind 
 and weather, the English could not close upon the enemy 
 till the 10th of September, when, after a sharp action 
 of two horn's' duration, the careful Erenchman once more 
 retired before the flag of Pococke. Having all his topmasts 
 standing, D'Ache got safe to Pondicherry, which was his 
 object, several days before Pococke could reach Negapatam. 
 The arrival of the squadron saved the Erench council from 
 absolute despair ; it brought to them only 180 soldiers, 
 but it brought some money ; it poured iuto the empty 
 coffers specie to the amount of 16,000 sterling, and a 
 quantity of diamonds valued at 17,000,' which had been 
 taken in an English East-Indiaman. But D'Ache had 
 scarcely landed this treasure, when he again intimated that 
 he must leave the coast and return to the Mauritius ; his 
 orders being peremptory to take great care of his ships. No 
 entreaties, no vehement protests, could shake his resolution. 
 He was, however, induced to land and leave behmd him 400 
 Cafiiers, who had been serving in his fleet, and 500 Euro- 
 peans, partly marines and partly sailors. 
 
60 COLONEL rORDE's CONQUESTS. [1759. 
 
 The Englisli army in tlie field, who had surprised and 
 captured the fort of Covrepauk in July, were encouraged 
 by the disorganized condition of Lally's forces to make an 
 attempt upon Wandewash, and on the 26th of September 
 they all marched from Conjeveram for that purpose, under 
 the command of Colonel Brereton. Their assault was, 
 however, repelled, with a loss of 200 men. But in other 
 directions the Trench lost ground almost daily. They were 
 in rags and half-starved. 
 
 The English took advantage of the absence of that able 
 and prevailing man, M, Bussy, to open negotiations with 
 several native chiefs in the Deckan, and even with Salibufc 
 Jung himself, who had owed the musnud to Bussy; and Clive, 
 from Bengal, had detached Colonel Forde to the ISTorthem. 
 Circars, those valuable provinces which had been ceded to 
 M. Bussy. Forde, with 500 British troops, 2,100 native 
 troops, and a respectable train of artillery, proceeded by 
 sea to Vizagapatam. There he landed and joined the 
 native army of Anunderauze, who had engaged to co- 
 operate against the French, in the hope that the English 
 would eventually make him sovereign of the Deckan. 
 This rajah agreed to supply 56,000 rupees per month 
 for the expenses of Forde's army. They then advanced 
 to Peddapore, and there encountered M. Conflans, who 
 had been left by Bussy in command of the French 
 forces. In preparing for battle, Forde's first care was to 
 get his precious allies, the troops of the rajah, out of the 
 way, for he knew that they would not fight, and could 
 produce only confasion. In' numbers, Conflans' s French 
 troops were equal to Forde's English ones, and the defen- 
 sive position they occupied was a good one : their artillery 
 was abundant, and to oppose to the 2,100 English sepoys they 
 had 6,000 sepoys of their own, and 500 native horse. But 
 Conflans rashly quitted his strong ground, the French infan- 
 try got into disorder in pursuing a portion of Forde's sepoys, 
 and then the British troops, who had been concealed by a stand- 
 ing crop of Indian corn, fell upon the French, routed them 
 with a terrible loss, and took the best of their field-pieces. 
 Further discouraged by the resolute behaviour of some of the 
 English sepoys under Captain Knox, Conflans retreated to 
 his camp ; but notwithstanding the advantages of the ground, 
 and the fire of some heavy artillery which he had kept there, 
 he was soon driven from the height by Colonel Forde. Some 
 
1759.] TOTAL DEFEAT OE M. CONFLATES. 61 
 
 of the Prench threw down their arms and cried for quarter ; 
 but the greater number made a sauve-qui-'peiit flight. The 
 spoils of the field were considerable, including thirty pieces 
 of cannon, fifty tumbrils, and other carriages, laden with 
 ammunition, seven mortars with a large provision of shells, 
 1,000 draught bullocks, and all the tents of the French. 
 M. Conflans galloped from the field on a good horse ; and 
 it is said, that he never stopped until he reached, at night, 
 the town of Eajahmundry, nearly forty miles from the field 
 of battle. 
 
 Unfortunately, the Eajah Anunderauze would no more 
 pay than fight. Thus Forde, who had spent all the money 
 he had brought with him, was reduced for se^^eral weeks 
 to a stand-still ; the French, however, continued to give 
 ground : Eajahmundry was abandoned, and Conflans sought 
 refuge in Masulipatam, urging Salibut Jung to send him 
 some assistance, and representing to that ruler that the 
 English, if left unopposed, would assuredly make themselves 
 masters of the whole of the Deckan. Salibut Jung pu.t an 
 army in motion and collected other troops at Grolconda and 
 Hyderabad. Obtaining at length some money from his rajah, 
 and marching through Ellore, where several native chiefs 
 joined him, Forde arrived, on the 6th of March, 1759, in 
 front of Masulipatam, the strongest place the French held 
 on that coast. The besieged were more numerous than the 
 besiegers ; yet Colonel Forde, by making an impetuous 
 assault on three points at the same moment, induced Con- 
 flans to surrender ; and, after a siege of only twelve days, 
 Masulipatam surrendered to the English. 
 
 "Within a week after the surrender, two French ships, with 
 a reinforcement of 300 men, appeared in the offing. They 
 went back ; but the army of the subahdar, which had been 
 marching to the relief of Conflans, halted where it was, and 
 soon received in its camp the victorious English commander, 
 not as a foe, but as a friend and ally. Salibut Jung readily 
 entered into a new treaty, by which he ceded a considerable 
 territory about Masulipatam to the English, bound himself 
 not to permit for the future any French settlement in his 
 dominions, and to oblige the French army of observation, 
 collected at Eajahmundry, to evacuate the country and cross 
 the Kistna within fiLfteen days ; the English, on their part, 
 agreeing to support him against his enemies in general, and 
 his rebellious brother, Nizam Ali, in particular. It was also 
 
62 AIsNEXATIOKS OP TEREITORY. [1759. 
 
 stipulated that tlie subalidar should never more have recourse 
 to rreneb assistance, or call in any troops of that nation ; 
 that Anunderauze should not be called to account for what- 
 soever he had collected out of the governments of the 
 Erench, nor for the tributes of his own country for the pre- 
 sent year. 
 
 In addition to Masulipatam, eight districts, as well as 
 the jurisdiction over the territory of Nizampatam, with the 
 districts of Codover and Wacahnannar, were granted to the 
 English without the reserve of fine or miHtary service. The 
 whole territory thus ceded extended eighty miles along the 
 coast and twenty inland ; the revenue was estimated at 
 400,000 rupees a year. 
 
 The subahdar next offered to Colonel Forde, for his own 
 private account and profit, another considerable district, if 
 he would march with him against his rebellious younger 
 brother, Mzam Ali. But Eorde, at the same time, pressed 
 the subahbar to join the English in an immediate expedition 
 against the Erench, who were once more making head at 
 Eajahmundry. Einding Eorde immovable, the subahdar 
 sullenly quitted him, and marched away into the interior. 
 As the English prepared to march by themselves, the Erench 
 broke up from Eajahmundry, crossed the Kistna, and 
 marched to the westward, the subahdar' s elder brother, 
 Bassaulet Jung, having promised that he would take them 
 into his pay in a short time. Colonel Eorde remained on 
 the coast and assisted in re-establishing all the English fac- 
 tories which had been swept away by M. Bussy.* 
 
 * Schomberg, ' Nav. Cbron.' Or me, ' Mil. Trans.' Mill, 'British 
 India.' Sir John MaJcoltn, ' Life of Lord Clive.' 
 
1759.] MEEE JArriEE. 63 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 1^ Bengal, Meer Jaffier,A^ery soon required the armed 
 assistance of those who had made him nabob. Many native 
 chiefs rebelled against him, and far and near he was sur- 
 rounded by enemies, all eager for his throne, or for a slice 
 out of his rich territories. Mohammed Kooly Khan, the 
 lord of Allahabad, the r^'ahs Sunder Sing and Bulwunt 
 Sing, and, most powerful of all, his neighbour Sujah Dowlah, 
 the nabob of Oude, were united, as far as such beings could 
 unite in one- object, against Meer Jafiier, and their cause 
 received the high sanction of the name, and afterwards the 
 assistance, of the Mogul of Delhi's elder son, the Shah Zada, 
 who had established himself in Eohilcund, and had, at the 
 time, a considerable army of Eohillas, half-soldiers and half- 
 robbers by profession, but a hardier and braver race than 
 any in the lower parts of Hindustan. In a short time the 
 Shah 2iada ^descended from Eohilcund with an army of 
 40,000 men, Eohillas, Mahrattas, Jauts, and Afghans, and 
 other forces were expected to join him on his advance. 
 Meer Jaffier showered letters and messages upon Clive, and 
 constantly besieged with entreaties and prayers the new 
 English resident atMoorshedabad Me. Waeken Hastings. 
 This gentleman, who was rapidly rising in reputation, had a 
 near view of the imbecility and confusion of the nabob's 
 court and government, and of the intrigues, plots, and 
 vices of the nabob's son, Meeran, and he wrote nearly 
 every day to his patron, Clive, that all classes confided in 
 him, and him alone ; that without his intervention the whole 
 fabric of government would fall to pieces by intestine broils, 
 and Orissa and Bahar be severed from Bengal even before 
 the arrival of the invaders from Eohilcund. 
 
 Weakened by the force detached under Colonel Forde, and 
 by other troops sent to Madras, Clive, at this moment, could 
 
64 THE SlIAH ZADA. [1759. 
 
 only count in Bengal about 300 British infantry, 100 artil- 
 lery, and 2,500 disciplined sej)oys ; yet with this force he not 
 only resolved to meet the confederacy which threatened Meer 
 Jaffier, but he also sent orders to Forde to continue his 
 conquests, and then to proceed, not to Bengal, to join and 
 assist him, but to Madras, there to finish the Indian adven- 
 tures of Count Lally. On the 12th of February he wrote 
 to Eamnarrain, the Hindu governor of Patna, whose fidelity 
 to the nabob was much doubted : " I have this day pitched 
 my tent, and, with the blessing of Grod, I will come to 
 your assistance, if it be necessary." But the strangest part 
 of the very active correspondence carried on at this juncture 
 was a letter addressed by the Mogul's son, the Shah Zada, 
 in imperial and oriental style, to " The Most High and 
 Mighty Protector of the Grreat," i, e. Clive. " In this happy 
 time," said the epistle, " with a view of making the tour of 
 Patna and Bengal, I have erected my standard of glory at 
 this place. It is my pure intention to bestow favour upon 
 you, the high and mighty, and all faithful servants, agreeable 
 to their conduct. This world is like a garden of flowers 
 interspersed with weeds and thorns ; I shall therefore root 
 out the bad, that the faithful and good ryots (God willing) 
 may rest in peace and quietness. Know you, who are great, 
 that it is proper you should pay a due obedience to this my 
 firman, and make it your business to pay your respects to 
 me like a faithful servant, which will be great and happy for 
 you. It is proper you should be earnest in doing this, when, 
 by the blessing of God, you stand high in my favour. Know 
 this must be done." Clive wrote an answer to the prince in 
 respectful terms, expressing a still higher reverence for his 
 father, the Great Mogul, who had neither ordered the expe- 
 dition of his son nor had had power to prevent it, being, in 
 fact, little more than a state prisoner in the hands of his minis- 
 ters and nobles. "I have had the honour," said Clive, "to 
 receive your highness's firman. It gives me great concern to 
 find that this country must become a scene of troubles. I 
 beg leave to inform you that I have been favoured with a 
 sunnud (patent) from the emperor, appointing me to a 
 munsubdar of the rank of 6,000 foot and 5,000 horse, 
 which constitutes me a servant of his ; and as I have 
 not received any orders, either from the emperor or vizier, 
 acquainting me of your coming down here, I cannot pay that 
 due regard to your highness's orders, which I should other- 
 
1759.] CLIVE AT PAT2fA. 65 
 
 wise wish to do. I must furtlier beg leave to inform you, 
 tliat I am under the strictest engagements with the present 
 subahdar of these provinces to assist him at all times, and 
 it is not the custom of the English nation to be guilty of 
 insincerity." The Shah Zada's ministers sent to offer him 
 provinces upon provinces if he would only make common 
 cause Vidth their master ; but Clive, unmoved, continued his 
 preparations, and on the 25th Pebruary he began his march 
 upon Moorshedabad. In a few days he arrived at that capi- 
 tal, where, to prove that there was no interruption to their 
 friendship, he rode abroad on the same elephant with the 
 nabob. On the 13th of March he left Moorshedabad to 
 advance upon Patna, taking Meeran, the nabob's son, with 
 him, and writing to the secret committee that he would soon 
 give a good accoiuit of the Shah Zada, although his army was 
 estimated to be 50,000 strong. 
 
 Encouraged by the rapid advance of the English, the 
 Ilindii governor of Patna, instead of opening his gates to the 
 enemy (which he had almost determined to do), proved true 
 and steady to the nabob ; and the next news Clive received 
 of him was that he had repelled two assaults made upon the 
 place. Yet, not placing much confidence in Hindu valour, 
 Clive hurried forward a detachment of his sepoys, under the 
 command of Ensign Mathews, to assist in the defence of the 
 capital of Bahar. But the dread of Clive' s name alone was 
 sufficient to disperse the invading army, and on the 5th of 
 April, the day before Mathews could reach Patna, the Shah 
 Zada, though he had possessed himself of some of the bas- 
 tions, raised the siege and retreated in the greatest disorder. 
 M. Law, with his small party of Prench, joined the prince 
 on the day when this retreat began, but could not prevail 
 upon him to halt and make another attack. 
 
 Tlie " Daring in War," the " Protector of the Great,'* 
 entered Patna without any parade of triumph, but there 
 were few that saw him but felt that he was in reality the 
 lord and master of all that part of India. Meanwhile the 
 Shah Zada had crossed the river Caramnassa into Oude. 
 The ruler of Oude, who had prepared to join him in the 
 event of his success, now declared himself the enemy of the 
 fugitive prince, who, daily deserted by the troops and 
 abandoned by his friends, knew not whom to trust or 
 whither to fly. Knowing that Clive had more generosity as 
 well as more power than any one else, he sent him many 
 
 F 
 
G(j MEEE JAFFIEE. [1759. 
 
 letters and messages, imploring to be taken into his protec- 
 tion. Clive sent him about 1,000 sterling to enable him 
 to escape to some safer country. " I have received repeated 
 orders from the vizier, and even from your father the em- 
 peror," wrote Clive, "not only to oppose your highness, but 
 even to lay hold of your person. Were I to assist your 
 highness in any respect, it would be attended with the ruin 
 of this country. It is better that one should suffer, however 
 great, than that so many thousands should be rendered 
 unhapp}'. I am now on my march to the Caramnassa, and 
 earnestly recommend you to withdraw before I arrive." 
 The Shah Zada took this hint, continued his flight, and was 
 reported to be going to take refuge in the Grazipore country. 
 
 Clive then directed his arms against some Eajpoot and hill 
 chiefs of Bahar, who liad invited and assisted the Shah Zada, 
 and, having reduced them to submission rather by policy 
 than by fighting, having tranquilHzed the whole country 
 with almost magical rapidity, he returned quietly to Calcutta. 
 
 The vizier, who ruled instead of that poor phantom the 
 G-reat Mogul, as one mark of favour and gratitude, informed 
 Clive that the English might establish a factory at Delhi, 
 the royal city, and he assured the "Daring in War" that 
 the Mogul would heap the highest favours upon him, and 
 that his honours shoidd be increased. The nabob, Meer 
 Jaffier, who owed everything to Clive, gave more substantial 
 personal proofs of his gratitude, conferring on him for life, as 
 a jagheer, or estate, the quit-rent which the Company was 
 bound to pay to the nabob for the extensive lands held by 
 them to the south of Calcutta, which quit-rent was worth 
 thirty lacs of rupees, or about 30,000 sterling per annum. 
 Mr. Warren Hastings had the satisfaction of drawing up, 
 at the nabob's request, the letter to be written to the 
 council at Calcutta, to acquaint them with this splendid 
 donation to his liberal patron. 
 
 But never was the gratitude of an Indian prince enduring 
 or steady. Meer Jaffier felt, ^ith bitterness of soul, that 
 the power and consideration of the Englishman were far 
 greater than his own, and that he who had put him on a 
 throne and defended him upon it, could at any time overthrow 
 him, or abandon him to the tender mercies of his many 
 enemies. He looked round for some other support, and for 
 some alliance, with strength enough to curb the potency of 
 Clive, and impose obedience on his own discontented chiefs. 
 
1759.] IXTEIGUES WITH THE DUTCH. 67 
 
 No native prince could furnish a force that would look 
 the little English army in the face. The French power was 
 utterly annihilated in Bengal, was broken by Forde in the 
 Circars and the Deckan, and was fast breaking in the Car- 
 natic, through the folly or madness of Lally. The old might 
 of the Portuguese was now only a tradition ; and the Dutch, 
 though strong in the islands of the Indian Ocean, were 
 scarcely more powerful than the Portuguese on the Indian 
 continent. Yet, in his impatience of the English supre- 
 macy, and in his total ignorance of the decline of the Dutch 
 government in Europe, Meer Jaifier looked to this people 
 for assistance ; and although they had been slow and reluctant 
 in acknowledging his authority, and had frequently insulted 
 him since the conqueror of Plassey had placed him on the 
 musnud, he opened secret negotiations with the Dutch 
 factory at Chinsura, which had witnessed, with jealousy and 
 dread, the British conquest at Chandernagore. The two 
 places were only two miles distant from each other. The 
 near sight of the English flag was too much even for Dutch 
 phlegm. The factory wrote the most urgent letters to the 
 governor of Batavia, exhorting him to fit out an expedition 
 for the Hooghly.* There was at the moment no war, in 
 Europe, between Holland and England ; but this was a con- 
 sideration which seldom had much weight with the various 
 European governors and factors settled in India. The 
 
 * Clive's own account is this: " About the month of November, 
 1758, a prevailing party at the Nabob Jaffier Ali Khan's durbar [court], 
 headed by Meeran, his son, had prejudiced him to look with an evil and 
 jealous eye on the power and influence of the English in the provinces, 
 and taught him to think and look upon himself as a cipher, bearing the 
 name of Subah only. From subsequent concurring circumstances, it 
 must have been at that period, and from this cause, that we imagine a 
 private negotiation was set on foot between the nabob and the Dutch, 
 that the latter should bring a military force into the provinces to join the 
 former, and balance our power and sway. The Dutch, stimulated by 
 envy at our very advantageous situation, and a sense of their own very 
 small importance, readily embraced the overture, and hoped another 
 Plassey affair to themselves." MS., entitled, " A narrative of the Dis- 
 putes with the Dutch in Bengal," found by Sir John Malcolm among 
 Clive's papers. 
 
 The nabob had entered into these intrigues with the Dutch before the 
 invasion of the Shah Zada ; and after Clive's conduct at that crisis he 
 would willingly have broken them off. But when he saw the Dutch 
 arrive in the Hooghly in such great force, he fancied that they must 
 triumph over the English, and that in assisting them he should be pur- 
 suing the wise policy of siding with the strongest. 
 F 2 
 
68 THE DUTCH ARMAMEXT. [1759. 
 
 Diitcli authorities in Batavia were as eager to send an ex- 
 pedition, as was the factory at Chinsura to request it, and in 
 a sliort time, intelligence was received in Calcutta, that a 
 strong armament was coming. 
 
 Quick and sagacious as they were, both Clive and "Warren 
 Hastings were for a time deceived by the cunning Meer 
 Jaffier, who pretended that the Dutch were in league with 
 the powerful ruler of Oude, and that lie and his court at 
 Moorshedabad Avere in an agony of alarm. Early in the 
 month of August, a Dutch ship arrived in the Hooghly with 
 European troops on board. The factory at Chinsura gravely 
 protested that this ship had been driven in by stress of 
 weather, and that she and the troops on board would depart 
 in peace as soon as they had obtained water and provisions. 
 The vessel, however, continued to lie where she was, and 
 attempts were made to send soldiers from her up to Chin- 
 sura, by concealing them in the bottom of native boats. Clive 
 issued his mandate, that every Dutch or native boat should 
 be stopped and searched. The gentlemen at Chinsura 
 protested against such proceedings on the part of a friendly 
 power ; but Clive continued to stop their soldiers and send 
 them back to their ship, telling the gentlemen of their fac- 
 tory, that he was in Bengal in a double capacity ; that as an 
 English officer, while England was at war witli Erance, he 
 was justified by the laws of nations, in searching all vessels 
 whatever, not knowing but that they might introduce French 
 troops into the country ; and that, as an auxiliary to the 
 Great Mogul, he was under the necessity, by solemn treaty, 
 to oppose the introduction of any European or foreign 
 troops whatsoever into Bengal. The Dutch, in their own 
 way, quoted the laws of nations on their own side, and kept 
 pressing their warlike preparations all the time. 
 
 Early in October, Meer Jaffier arrived in person at Cal- 
 cutta, as if merely intending to pay a visit of honour. A 
 day or two after, advices came from below of the arrival of 
 six more Dutch ships of a large size, and crammed with 
 troops, partly Europeans, and partly Malays from Batavia 
 and other Dutch settlements in the islands. " Now," says 
 Clive, " the Dutch mask fell off, and the nabob (conscious of 
 his having given his assent to their coming) was greatly 
 confused and disconcerted. He, however, seemed to make 
 light of it ; told the governor he was going to reside three 
 or four days at his fort of Hooghly, where he would chas- 
 
1759.] clive's decision-. 69 
 
 tise the insolence of the Dutch, and drive them soon out of 
 the river again. On the 19th of October, he left Calcutta ; 
 and, in place of his going to his fort at Hooghly, he took up 
 his residence at Cojah Wazeed's garden, about half-way 
 between that and Chinsura ; a plain indication that he had 
 no apprehensions from the Dutch, whom he received there 
 in the most gracious manner he could, more like friends and 
 allies than as enemies to him and his country." 
 
 In three or four days the nabob, by letter, informed Clive 
 that he had thought proper to grant some indulgence to the 
 Dutch in their trade, and that the Dutch, on their part, had 
 engaged to leave the river with their ships and troops, so 
 soon as the season would permit. This reference to the 
 season was unfortunate, inasmuch as, at the time of his 
 writing, the season was propitious to their departure. 
 
 From the tenor of the letter, and the whole course of the 
 nabob's conduct, Clive was sure that the Dutch had no in- 
 tention to quit the river, and that Meer Jafiier had given 
 his permission to them to bring up their troops if they 
 could. This the " Daringin War" was determined they should 
 not do ; and the council at Calcutta heartily seconded him. 
 In a very few days the Dutch armament was actually moving 
 up the river towards Calcutta, and intelligence was received 
 that Dutch agents were enlisting troops at Chinsura, Cos- 
 simbuzar, and even as far up the country as Patna ; and this 
 evidently with the connivance of Meer Jaffier, and the more 
 open assistance of his son Meeran. Clive's force, in Euro- 
 peans, was, at the moment, inferior to that of the Dutch on 
 board the seven ships, without counting those in garrison 
 at Chinsura; for the force from Batavia consisted of 700 
 Europeans and 800 Malays. There was no time to be lost 
 this was no season for indulging in subtleties, or for turn- 
 ing over the pages of Grrotius and Puffendorf and Clive 
 resolved to proceed at once against the Dutch. At the 
 moment of crisis, some of the members of the council at 
 Calcutta demurred. Clive said that " a public man must 
 sometimes be called upon to act with a halter round his neck." 
 His private interest must have been in conflict with his 
 public duty, for he had recently remitted a great part of his 
 fortune to Europe, through the Dutch East-India Company, 
 who might have kept the money in the banks of Amsterdam 
 and Rotterdam, both in revenge and in compensation of 
 damages. 
 
70 MOYEMEXTS ON THE HOOGnLY. [1759. 
 
 It was not knoAiiii ^Ylletller the Dutch would ascend the 
 river and pass the English batteries with their troops on 
 board, or whether they would land the troops below the bat- 
 teries and march them thence by land ; but Clive made the 
 necessary dispositions against both these plans of operation, 
 as far as comported with the smallness of his disposable 
 force, which consisted only of about 320 English, 1,200 
 sepoys, and three of the Company's ships. Just at this 
 juncture, brave Colonel Eorde returned to Calcutta, having 
 quitted his separate command on account of ill-health, and 
 iQl-humour against the Court of Directors ; but at the invi- 
 tation of his friend and patron Clive, he readily consented 
 to take the command of part of the forces. 
 
 On the 19th of November, Eorde moved from Calcutta, 
 took the Dutch settlement at Bamagore, crossed the river 
 Hooghly the next day with his scanty troops and four pieces 
 of artillery, and marched upon Chandernagore, to strike 
 terror into the factory at Chinsura, and to be ready to inter- 
 cept the Dutch troops in case they should land. The rest 
 of the troops, with many volunteers draughted from the 
 Mauritius, and part of an independent company, mounted as 
 cavahy, Clive sent down to the forts on the river, under the 
 command of Captain Knox. 
 
 Mr. Holwell, who had survived the Black Hole and the 
 subsequent barbarities of Suraj-u-Dowlah, took charge of 
 Eort William with the militia, Avho counted about 250 Eng- 
 lish, and a few Portuguese. Clive remained at Calcutta, 
 but went and came, dividing his attention between the two 
 divisions of his army under Eorde and Knox. The three 
 English East-Indiamen, which had arrived after the Dutch, 
 were lying in the lower part of the river, between that 
 squadron and the sea ; but as the Dutch ships began to 
 ascend the river, these Indiamen were ordered to pass them 
 (if they could), and station themselves above the English 
 batteries, at Charnoc and Tanna, where Clive prepared fire- 
 boats to assist. Our Indiamen did not pass the Dutch, 
 who, on the 23rd of November, landed on the Chinsura side 
 of the river their 1,500 men ; and then dropped down 
 with their ships to a place called " Melancholy Point,"* 
 where the three English vessels lay ready for action. 
 
 The moment the Dutch troops were landed, Clive sent 
 Captain Knox across the river to reinforce Colonel Eorde, 
 and ordered Commodore AVilson to demand immediate res- 
 
1759.] DETEAT OF THE DUTCH. 71 
 
 titution of some vessels, property and subjects, that had 
 been seized, and, on their refusal, to fight, sink, burn, and 
 destroy the Dutch squadron. The very next day the de- 
 mand Vas made and refused. The Dutch had seven ships, 
 four of them being called "capital ships ;" the English had 
 but three, and these appear to have derived no assistance 
 either from the land batteries, which were too far off, or from 
 the fire-boats, which were manned by natives. Nevertheless, 
 Commodore "Wilson, who began the attack, ended it with 
 the total defeat of the enemy. The Dutch commodore 
 struck, and the rest followed the example, all except his 
 second, who cut and ran down the river as far as Culpee, 
 where he was stopped short, intercepted, and captured by 
 the Orford and Royal George, which had just arrived from 
 England, and were ascending the Hooghly. 
 
 Alarmed by the loss of their squadron, and apparently 
 stupified, the Dutch and their Malays halted and wavered 
 on their march to Ghinsura, and on the 25th, the day after 
 the river-fight, they blundered upon a position, from which 
 retreat was difiicult, and a further advance impracticable. 
 Forde, with the quick eye of a soldier, saw their blunder ; 
 but there came over him a doubt and a misgiving ; and 
 hesitating to attack the troops of a European nation not in 
 a state of declared M^ar with England, he sent a messenger 
 and a note to Clive, saying, " that if he had the order of 
 council, he could attack the Dutch, with a fair prospect of 
 destroying them." Clive, who was playing a quiet game at 
 cards when the note reached him, took out his pencil, 
 and without quitting the card-table, wrote on the back of 
 the note, " Dear Eorde, Eight them immediately. I will 
 send you the order of council to-morrow." Accordingly, 
 Eorde fought the Dutch : and the engagement was short, 
 bloody, and decisive. The fugitives left on the field 120 
 Europeans and 200 Malays in killed, and 150 in wounded ; 
 about 350 Dutch and 200 Malays were taken prisoners. 
 From the field of his easy victory Eorde marched to Chin- 
 sura, only four miles off*. The Dutch factory implored for a 
 cessation of hostilities, entirely disavowing the proceedings 
 of their squadron, humbly acknowledging themselves to be 
 the aggressors, and agreeing to pay costs and damages. 
 Upon these conditions, an amicable arrangement was set- 
 tled, and their captured ships were all restored to them. 
 Three days after this land-battle of Bedarra, the nabob's son, 
 
72 CLIVE EETUENS TO ENGLAND. [1760. 
 
 INIeeran, whom Clive seldom names without the affix of 
 " scoundrel," encamped within two miles of Chinsura, with 
 G,000 or 7,000 horse. If the Dutch had proved victorious, 
 he would have joined them in plundering and destroying the 
 English ; but now that the English had triumphed, he hoped 
 to be allowed to share with them in the spoils of the Dutch. 
 The Dutch factory was again in an agony of alarm, and 
 applied to the English governor for protection. Clive, losing 
 no time, crossed the river and sent Meeran packing in the 
 direction of Moorshedabad. 
 
 The few remaining months of Olive's present stay in In- 
 dia were devoted to various arrangements and wise precau- 
 tions for securing the tranquillity of the country. Having 
 called that most able officer Major Calliaud from the Car- 
 natic to Bengal, Clive sailed from India on the 25th day of 
 Eebruary, 1760.* 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, ' Life of Clive.' Orme. 
 
1759.] BATTLE OF WATfDEWASH. 73 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Cliye had left brave and experienced men, trained by 
 himself, and inspired by his own daring genius. Foremost 
 among these was Colonel Coote. 
 
 While the French army lay in cantonments in the coun- 
 try round about Wandewash, and while Lally and Bussy 
 were engaged in violent quarrels, Coote, on the 21st of 
 November, 1759, proceeded with some British reinforce- 
 ments to Conjeveram, where the rest of our army of the 
 Carnatic was stationed. He then suddenly fell upon the 
 fort of Wandewash, carried it by storm on the 29th, marched 
 to Carongoly, and took that place also from the French by 
 the 10th of December. Having obtained the services of 
 some Mahratta horse, Lally surprised and took Conje- 
 veram, but he was disappointed in his expectation of finding 
 there magazines and provisions for his haLf-famished people. 
 He next attempted to recover the fortress of Wandewash, 
 where the breaches they had made w^ere still open, and 
 where the English had hardly any artillery. But while he 
 or his engineer officers were formalizing as to the proper 
 construction of the battery of assault, Coote reached the 
 spot and compelled the French to retire. Lally' s pride, 
 however, forbade his retreating far, and he drew up in order 
 of battle at a short distance from the walls of AVandewash. 
 He had with him 2,250 Europeans and 1,300 sepoys ; but as 
 his Mahratta allies, they kept aloof. Coote had only 1,900 
 for Europeans, but he had 2,100 sepoys, 1,250 black cavalry, 
 and twenty-six field-pieces. The black cavalry, however, did 
 no more for him than Lally' s Mahrattas did for the French, 
 as they kept out of the reach of shot. Lally, however, had 
 about 300 European cavalry, while Coote had none. But 
 a,t the very commencement of the battle, the French horse, 
 which LaUy conducted in person, were thrown into dis- 
 order by a few cannon-balls. Lally hastened to the in- 
 
74 coote's conquests [1760. 
 
 fantry, and led them on with great gallantry, for, how- 
 ever deficient in cool judgment, he had courage in abun- 
 dance. His regiment of Lorraine, which charged in column, 
 broke through the battalion opposed to it; but that 
 battalion wrapped round the flanks of the bold Lor- 
 rainers, and almost destroyed their mass by a few dis- 
 charges. In a short time the French were more thoroughly 
 defeated than ever they had been up to this period. Bussy, 
 who gallantly put himself at the head of a battalion to try 
 a bayonet-charge, was abandoned by his men and taken 
 prisoner. Lally escaped, protected by some of his French 
 cavalry. He had lost in this battle of Wandewash more 
 than 600 men, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, twenty-four 
 pieces of cannon, eleven tumbrils of ammunition, with tents, 
 stores, and baggage. He collected his shattered army at 
 Chittapet, but he could make no stand there, and, without 
 reinforcing the garrison in the place, he retreated to the 
 strong hill-fortress of Gingee. Instead of following him, 
 Coote resolved to strike across the country and recover 
 Arcot ; and the very day after the battle of Wandewash, 
 which was fought on the 22nd of December, he hurried 
 forward a detachment in that direction. 
 
 On the 1st of February, 1760, Coote himself arrived 
 before Arcot, and on the 5th he began a cannonade. On 
 the 6th, he commenced making approaches, and by the 
 morning of the 9th the sap was carried to the foot of the 
 glacis, and by the hour of noon on the same day, two small 
 breaches were made. Not three men in the garrison had 
 been killed, the breaches were impracticable, and yet a flag 
 of truce was held out, and Arcot was surrendered. 
 
 Lally found it impossible to remain on the barren hill of 
 Gingee, and he retreated with what remained of his army, 
 to the vicinity of Pondicherry. In that city he renewed his 
 quarrels with the council and all the French authorities, 
 blaming them for the destitute state of his troops, and 
 calling them embezzlers and peculators ; and they, retort- 
 ing, accused him of folly, imbecility, treachery, and even 
 cowardice. During these disgraceful scenes, the French 
 flag was struck down from nearly every place Avhere it had 
 yet floated ; Timery surrendered, Devi Cottah was evacuated, 
 Trinomalee surrendered, Permacoil and Alamparva were 
 taken by storm, and the whole country between Alampaiwa 
 and Pondicherry was laid waste by fire and sword. Carical, 
 
1760.] TS THE CAENATIC. 75 
 
 the most important place on the coast next to Pondicherry, 
 was soon invested by an armament sent from Madras, and 
 by a detachment which descended from Trichinopoly ; the 
 garrison made a miserable defence, and surrendered on the 
 6th of April, before a relief despatched by Lally could reach. 
 The fall of Vellore, Chillambaram, and Cuddalore followed 
 in rapid succession. By the 1st of May, the English, who 
 had been considerably reinforced, encamped within four 
 miles of Pondicherry ; and the French, who had received no 
 succour from their mother-country, were cooped up in that 
 strong town. Our fleet, now under Admirals Cornish and 
 Stevens, had also been strengthened, and was collected on 
 the Coromandel coast. In his extremity Lally turned his 
 eyes towards the country of Mysore, where Hyder Ali, who 
 was soon to fill a wider scene, had established his authority 
 by force of arms, intrigue, and treachery. A bargain was 
 concluded, Hyder Ali agreeing to send droves of bullocks 
 to feed thePrench, and troops to fight for them. A detach- 
 ment sent by Coote to stop the march of Hyder' s people 
 was too weak for the purpose, and sustained a reverse ; but 
 when the Mysoreans obtained a nearer view of the English 
 army, and a correcter notion of the condition of the Prench, 
 they broke their compact and marched back to their own 
 country, troops and bullocks. Some companies of the royal 
 artillery had arrived before, and about the time of the My- 
 sorean advance, a further reinforcement of 600 men landed 
 on the coast. Tliose and more forces continued to pour in to 
 Coote, and still not a ship, not a man, not a barrel of beef 
 or biscuit, arrived to sustain the Prench. 
 
 On the night of the 4th of September, Lally made a sortie, 
 in the hope of surprising the English camp ; but his troops 
 no longer acted with concert or spirit ; one of his columns of 
 attack lagged behind, and the whole project failed. Unfor- 
 tunately, the Court of Directors had sent out by the last 
 ships from England their orders that Colonel Coote should 
 return to Bengal, and that Major Monson, the officer next 
 under him, should take the command on the Coromandel 
 coast. Although on the very point of completing his bril- 
 liant campaign by the reduction of the Prench capital in 
 India, Coote, without murmur, submitted to the instruc- 
 tions of his employers. He even consented that his own 
 British regiment one of the best in the country should 
 remain at the siege of Pondicherry to gain laiu-els for 
 
76 THE END OP M. LALLT. [1761. 
 
 another. But the chances of war overset or postponed the 
 execution of the Directors' orders : Major Monson was dan- 
 gerously wounded in making an attack, and, being for the 
 time incapable of duty, joined the council in entreating 
 Colonel Coote, who had not yet sailed for Bengal, to resume 
 the command. Coote stayed where he w^as ; and the siege 
 of Pondicherry, after the cessation of the rains, at the end 
 of JSTovember, was pressed with vigour. Having consumed 
 such provisions as (by some inexplicable means) he had pro- 
 cured, nothing was left to the fiery, proud man, who had 
 arrived in India, with the confident hope of extirpating the 
 English, but to yield ; and, on the 4th of January, a com- 
 missioner from Lally, and a deputation from the council of 
 Pondicherry, repaired to the English camp, and made an 
 unconditional surrender to Colonel Coote. By order of the 
 council of Madras (who acted in conformity with orders 
 received from the Court of Directors), immediate prepara- 
 tions were made for levelling the town and fortifications of 
 Pondicherry with the ground. 
 
 The white flag of the Bourbons still floated over the hill- 
 forts of Thiagur and Gringee ; but the garrisons, isolated and 
 without any hope of relief, surrendered ; and by the beginning 
 of April, the Erench had not so much as a single military 
 post in all India. 
 
 M. Bussy, taken prisoner at the battle of "Wandewash, 
 had been instantly liberated upon parole by Coote, who 
 respected his abilities as a soldier and his character as a 
 man ; and when this hero of the Golconda returned to 
 Erance, he was received, at least by the public, with the 
 honours due to a brave, adventurous, and able commander. 
 He had remitted, from the Deckan and the Circars, a very 
 considerable fortune ; and shortly after his return to Erance, 
 he married a niece of the minister, the Due de Choiseul, 
 which gained him the support of government, and raised him 
 in favour at court. "With Lally it fared otherwise : he was 
 regarded with aversion and contempt by his conquerors, he 
 left Pondicherry reproached and insulted by his own coun- 
 trymen, and upon his arrival in Erance, he was hooted by 
 the people and thrown into the Bastille by the government. 
 Erom the Bastille he was afterwards removed to a common 
 gaol. The Erench ministers of the day being borne down 
 by a long succession of failures and defeats, were glad to 
 avert the popular indignation from themselves. Therefore, 
 
1761.] HONOUES COKFERRED OK" CLITE. 77 
 
 tliey made a scape-goat of the Hiberno-Prenchman. Their 
 East-India Company concurred ^A-ith them, as did the 
 party or friends of the members of the Pondicherry council. 
 The unhappy man was brought to a public trial and to a 
 public execution. He was dragged through the streets of 
 Paris in a dung -cart to the Place de Grreve, and was there 
 beheaded. 
 
 In the mean while, Clive had been received with all 
 honours in England, .and had been raised to the Irish peerage 
 by the title of Baron Clive, of Plassey. But great changes 
 took place in the Englisli government, owing to the death of 
 Greorge II., the accession of Greorge III., and the formation 
 of the cabinet of Lord Bute, to replace that of Clive' s friend 
 and patron, Chatham. A peace with Prance was determined 
 upon ; and in the preliminary negotiations, Clive had the 
 mortification to find that he was not consulted by the new 
 ministry as to Indian aftairs. Grreatly was he irritated at 
 seeing the treaty of peace restore Pondicherry and other 
 places to the Prench ; and he predicted that such measures 
 would be productive of another hard struggle in India when- 
 ever war broke out again between England and Prance. 
 Unable to gain Clive, the Bute administration leagued 
 themselves with some directors of the East-India Company, 
 who hated the hero of Plassey, and opened legal proceedings 
 to deprive him of his wealth. 
 
 But while " The Daring in "War " was thus being involved 
 in the mazes of the law, and the Company were battling 
 with the man who had re-established their declining power 
 in India, and gained for them provinces equal to kingdoms, 
 news arrived in England that the garrison and all the Eng- 
 lish residents at Patna had been massacred ; that revolutions, 
 undertaken and made by the council at Calcutta, had proved 
 wretched failures ; and that everything in Bengal was falling' 
 into confusion and ruin. This being ofiicially announced, it 
 was instantly felt, even by the most violent of his enemies, 
 that Clive alone could remedy these evils ; and overtures 
 were made to him for his instant return to India.* 
 
 * Orme, ' Military Transactions.' Major M. Wilks, ' Historical 
 Sketches of the South of India; an Attempt to trace the History of 
 Mysore,' &c. French Account of the Trial of M. Lally. Sir John 
 Malcolm, ' Life of Lord Clive.' 
 
78 EETURIf OF LORD CLIVE. [1765. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Sailing for the third and last time for India, Clive reached 
 Calcutta on the 3rd of May, 1765, and there found all things 
 in confusion and disorganization. He told the council that he 
 had come out to ejSect a thorough reform in their selfish bad 
 conduct, the source of most of the mischief which had hap- 
 pened ; that it was his resolution to effect a thorough reform, 
 and for that end, to make use of the whole of the ample 
 authority, civil and military, which had been intrusted to 
 him. 
 
 During Clive' s five years' absence from India, the gentle- 
 men of the council and the governor, Mr. Vansittart, had 
 proceeded without any fixed plan, without consistency, and 
 without courage. They had mixed with some native revolu- 
 tions without any political aim, and they had interfered with 
 others without generosity, and Avithout justice. They had 
 sunk and were fast sinking the moral influence of England. 
 
 At the period when CHve had taken his departure from 
 the country, in Eebruary, 1760, it was rumoured that the 
 Shah Zada had collected another army, and was again ad- 
 vancing upon Patna and Moorshedabad. The vizier and 
 master at Delhi, against whom the Shah Zada pretended in 
 the first instance to have taken up arms, murdered the im- 
 becile G-reat Mogul in a fit of desperation. After this event, 
 the Shah Zada took the state and title of emperor, and con- 
 ferred the ofiice of vizier upon Sujah Dowlah, the powerful 
 ruler of Oude, who had shown no great devotion to his per- 
 son or fortunes the year before, when the prince was flying 
 before Clive. Shah Alum "King of the World," was the 
 name which the new impotent Mogul chose for himself. 
 With the assistance of the nabob of Oude, he collected a 
 numerous army, advanced to Patna, and defeated the go- 
 vernor, Eamnarrain, who had been left by the Calcutta 
 government with only seventy Europeans and one weak 
 
1760-5.] KETEOSPECT. 79 
 
 battalion of Englisli sepoys. But Colonel Calliaud coming 
 up with 300 English, 1,000 sepoys, and a native force, com- 
 manded by Meeran, the son of Meer Jaffier, completely- 
 routed Shah Alum, and compelled him once more to retire 
 from before Patna. As, however, Meeran would not pursue 
 with his cavalry, and as a strong body of Mahratta horse 
 joined the other side, the young Mogul, instead of retiring 
 towards Benares, took the route of Moorshedabad, being 
 also joined, at this time, by the erratic M. Law, and his 
 small body of French.* But, being followed up by our 
 sepoys. Shah Alum set fire to his camp and fled towards 
 Oude. Yet, encouraged by the jimction of the naib of 
 Purneah, who, after many intrigues threw off the mask, and 
 repaired to the imperial standard with a considerable force, 
 Shah Alum, doubling upon those who were pursuing him, 
 got back to Patna, which had been left almost void of troops. 
 Mr. PuUerton, a Scotch surgeon, was the chief manager of 
 the defence, and M. Law of the attack. Two assaults were 
 gallantly repulsed by the English factory; but at length, the 
 weak rampart was scaled by the Erench, and hope was nearly 
 abandoned by the bold little garrison, when Captain Knox, 
 who had rapidly marched from Moorshedabad, in the hottest 
 season of the Bengal year, broke through the camp of the 
 besiegers, and drove them from their works. 
 
 A few days after, Knox, with 200 English, one battalion of 
 sepoys, five field-pieces, and about 300 native horse, crossed 
 the river opposite to Patna, and completely defeated the 
 naib of Purneah with his 12,000 men. The naib was hotly 
 pursued by Colonel CalHaud and Meeran. But on the 2nd 
 of July, the fourth day of the chase, a tremendous storm 
 necessitated a halt, and on that night, the tent of Meeran 
 was struck with lightning, which killed him and some of his 
 attendants. After this evil omen, Meeran' s troops became 
 unmanageable, and Calliaud was obliged to retrace his 
 steps to Patna. He quartered his troops in and round that 
 important place. But Meeran' s people went to Moorshe- 
 dabad, where they threatened the life of their ruler Meer 
 Jaffier, in order to obtain payment of arrears. Other bodies 
 
 * This will-o'-tbe-whisp, M. Law, is said to have been a son or nephew 
 of the celebrated Scotch financier Law, who had driven all France mad 
 with the famous Mississippi scheme, the parent of the South Sea scheme, 
 which had produced an equal madness in England. He had previously 
 been serving in the Carnaiic against Clive and Laurence. 
 
80 EEVOLUTION AT MOORSIIEDABAD. [1760. 
 
 of discontented men took up arms against the old nabob, 
 whose coffers were quite empty. The weak old man's mis- 
 fortunes seemed to be completed bv the predatory incursions 
 of hordes of Mahrattas. 
 
 On the other hand, Mr. Yansittart, the new governor at 
 Calcutta, found his treasury empty, and the English troops 
 and sepoys almost mutinous through want of pay. He was 
 induced to acquiesce in a scheme for overthrowing Meer 
 Jaffier and setting up a new nabob. On the 27th of Sep- 
 tember, 1760, a treaty was concluded with Meer Cossim Ali, 
 son-in-law to Meer Jaffier, and general of his army, engag- 
 ing that he should be invested as nabob of Bengal, Bahar, 
 and Orissa, upon condition of his making over to the Com- 
 pany the fruitful provmces of Burdwan, Midnapore, and 
 Chittagong. 
 
 Grovernor Yansittart went in person to Moorshedabad, 
 with a strong armed force, to jpersuade Meer Jaffier to re- 
 sign his power into the hands of his son-in-law. The old 
 nabob hesitated, but his palace was surrounded by our troops^ 
 his own army declared against him, and thereupon he sent 
 out the seals to Meer Cossim, and offered to resign if the 
 English would only be security for his life. The old man, with 
 his women and children, was conveyed to Calcutta, the only 
 place where he could be safe ; and his son-in-law, Meer 
 Cossim Ali, was proclaimed nabob. Having procured some 
 money, the new ruler paj'-ed the arrears due to the English 
 troops at Patna, and sent six or seven lacs of rupees to the 
 treasury at Calcutta. 
 
 In the month of January, 1761, Major Carnac, who had 
 succeeded Colonel Calliau'd, advanced from Patna against 
 the emperor Shah Alum, who was once more making head in 
 the province of Bahar. Carnac gained an easy and complete 
 victory over the Mogul. In this affair, M. Law, who had 
 been so long flitting from place to place, so often heard of, 
 yet never seen, seated himself cross-legged on one of his 
 guns, and, in that curious attitude, surrendered to Major 
 Carnac and Captain Knox. Shah Alum now retired towards 
 Delhi, whence he soon sent Meer Cossim Ali his investiture 
 as subahdar of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, Meer Cossim 
 agreeing, in consideration of this recognition, to pay him an 
 annual tribute of twenty-four lacs of rupees. 
 
 Meer Cossim was incessantly called upon by Mr. Yansit- 
 tart and the Calcutta council for more and more money ; 
 
1763.] MEEE COSSIM. 81 
 
 but lie had given to tlie governor and council, for his ele- 
 vation to the musnud, upwards of 200,000/.; in ceding to 
 the Company Burdwan, Midnapore, and Chittagong, he liad 
 given away a third-part of his revenues ; and from these and 
 other reasons, he Avas poorer than his predecessor, Meer 
 Jaffier. To the disgrace of Mr. Vansittart and the majority 
 of the council, Meer Cossim was allowed to fall upon the 
 Hindu governor of Patna, Eamnarrain, who was reputed 
 to be wealthy. Ramnarrain was thrown into prison, his 
 house was broken open and plundered, his friends and ser- 
 vants were tortured in order to make them confess where lay 
 his hidden treasures for the money really found was of 
 small amount. The disappointed tyrant, fearing the indig- 
 nation of the English, did not put his prisoner to death 
 immediately ; but two years later, when he had drawn the 
 sword against those who had made him nabob, he murdered 
 in cold blood Eamnarrain, together with several other chiefs, 
 some Mussulmans and some Hindus. 
 
 The immediate consequence of this base abandonment of 
 Eamnarrain was the cessation of all friendly correspondence 
 between the English and the native nobility. Thinking it 
 wiser to conciliate the new nabob than trust to the Company, 
 these chiefs made offers of their money and their services ; 
 and ]Meer Cossim flattered himself that he might soon be 
 strong enough to defy the English authority. Quarrels 
 broke out about duties upon merchandise, and the nabob's 
 right of searching English boats, and of examining English 
 bales. The vacillation and infirmity of purpose displayed by 
 Mr, A^ansittart and his council led the nabob to despise what 
 he and all Bengal had so long feared. He seized two of the 
 Company's boats that were proceeding to Patna with arms, 
 and made preparations for getting Patna into his own hands, 
 and destroying the English detachment there stationed. Ap- 
 prised of this latter intention, the majority of the council, 
 against the advice of Warren Hastings and others, resolved 
 to anticipate the nabob's design, and sent orders to Mr. 
 Ellis, the chief at Patna, to seize upon the citadel. Ellis, a 
 violent man, no sooner got the orders than he acted upon 
 them, by surprising and taking the citadel of Patna by night, 
 on the 24th of June, 1763. Meer Cossim's rage was hke 
 that of the tiger. Exclaiming against the treachery of the 
 Company, he murdered Mr. Amyatt, who had formerly been 
 chief at Patna ; he murdered two Hindu bankers, supposed 
 
82 SFMEOO, OR SOMBEE. [1763. 
 
 to be attaclied to the Englisli interests ; threw forward a great 
 army to Patna, drove the English from the town to their 
 factory outside of it, and from their factory to their boats. 
 These English troops, who had behaved disgracefully, fled 
 up the Granges to Chuprah, where they were surrounded, 
 deprived of provisions, and reduced to lay do'vvn their arms. 
 They were sent prisoners to Monghir, where they found for 
 companions in misery their countrymen from Cossimbuzar, 
 that factory having been attacked and plundered by the 
 nabob. 
 
 The astounded governor and council of Calcutta now saw 
 nothing better to do than to let loose old Meer Jaffier upon 
 his son-in-law, and set him again upon the musnud from 
 which they had so recently pulled him do'wn. Having issued 
 his mandates to the chiefs and to the cities of the three vast 
 provinces, as rightful and indisputable nabob, the old man 
 joined the English, who were now taking the field and 
 advancing in force upon Moorshedabad. Meer Cossim sent 
 three of his generals to meet them on their march, and an 
 encounter took place on the 19th of July. The three native 
 generals were routed; but they made head again near Greriah, 
 whither Meer Cossim sent nearly all his remaining troops to 
 join them. Among these large reinforcements was a regi- 
 ment of sepoys, disciplined in the European manner, and 
 commanded by a European adventurer, whose real name is 
 lost in his Indian designation of Sumroo, and whose real 
 country is unknown, though he is generally called a Grerman, 
 and is known to have first gone to India as a serjeant in the 
 Erench army. Sir John Malcolm, however, says that he was 
 told by a well-informed person that he was not a Grerman, 
 but a Frenchman or Swiss, of the name of Sombre, which, 
 perhaps, had been only his nom de guerre when in the Erench 
 service. His deeds were sombre enough ! 
 
 On the 24th of July the English dispersed some detach- 
 ments, and took posession of Moorshedabad without opposi- 
 tion. On the 2nd of August Meer Cossim risked a battle 
 in the open plain near Gheriah. Our force amounted to 
 about 750 Europeans, 1,500 sepoys, and some squadrons of 
 native horse. Meer Cossim' s army was as ten to one ; it 
 was supported by an immense train of artillery ; the sepoys 
 under Sumroo Avere perfectly well trained, and most of the 
 other corps were better disciplined and appointed than any- 
 native troops the English had yet encountered in Bengal. 
 
1763.] MASSACEE AT PATJs'A. 83 
 
 Tims tlie battle was maintained for nearly four liours, with 
 warm and close firing. Our 84tli regiment, attacked both 
 in front and rear, was at one moment in great danger, and 
 some daring and almost successful movements were made 
 under the eye of Sumroo. But at last the nabob's army was 
 thoroughly defeated and driven ofl:' the plain, with the loss 
 of all their cannon, and of 150 boats that lay close by in the 
 Ganges loaded with provisions. They fled to an intrenched 
 camp, which had been formed on the banks of the Oodwah. 
 
 Meer Cossim, after executing some more of his chiefs, 
 and sending his family and treasure to a strong fort, left 
 jMonghir with the avowed intention of throwing himself into 
 the camp on the Oodwah ; but when he came near that scene 
 of danger, his heart misgave him, and he turned back. Yet so 
 strong was that position, that it detained the English for 
 three whole weeks. At length, however, on the 5th of 
 September, the intrenched camp was carried, after some 
 hard fighting, and the nabob's army there was completely 
 scattered. 
 
 Murdering one or two more chiefs, Meer Cossim fled 
 from Monghir towards Patna. The English advanced, and 
 laid siege to Monghir, which had been strongly fortified, and 
 which was defended by 2,000 sepoys. Early in October, 
 after nine days of open trenches, the garrison surrendered. 
 Meer Cossim, who had entertained the hope that it could 
 repulse our army, was thrown into a paroxysm of rage by 
 the news of the surrender, and his fury vented itself in 
 ordering the execution of all the English who had been 
 taken prisoners, together with Mr. Ellis, the chief of Patna. 
 The European adventurer, Sumroo, or Sombre, undertook 
 the execution, and personally directed the massacre, of 150 
 Englishmen every soldier, every ofiicer, and every servant 
 of the Company being brutally murdered, with the single 
 exception of Mr. Fullerton, the surgeon. 
 
 After this bloody deed, Meer Cossim abandoned Patna to 
 the care of one of his chiefs, and retreated towards the Caram- 
 nassa. The British army took Patna by storm on the 6th 
 of November, and were on the banks of the Caramnassa 
 early in December. They were, however, too late to catch 
 the flying nabob ; he had crossed the river some days before, 
 and had gone with Sumroo to seek the protection of the 
 nabob of Oude, who had previously concluded a treaty 
 with him. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 VICTORY AXD MUTIKT. [1764?. 
 
 Sujali Dowlali, the powerful ruler of Oude, and recently- 
 appointed vizier to the young emperor, was at Allaliabad, 
 and Shah Alum was with him. Forthwith he marched his 
 army to Benares, and then came and encamped not many- 
 miles from the English. He was still accompanied by the 
 young Mogul, who had some troops under his orders, and, 
 as a portion. of the troops trained by Sumroo had followed 
 that adventurer, the entire force collected was imposing. 
 
 At this critical moment an alarming mutiny broke out in 
 the English camp : many of the sepoys deserted to the enemy, 
 and whole companies of Europeans, chiefly Erench, and 
 Germans, and Swiss, who had been formerly- in the Erench 
 service, marched off for Benares with their arms and accou- 
 trements. Major Carnac, who now arrived to take the com- 
 mand, deemed it prudent to retreat from the frontier of 
 Oude to the city of Patna, for provisions had grown scarce, 
 and the mutinous spirit seemed to continue. After a short 
 interval, Carnac was followed by the united armies of Sujah 
 Dowlah, Meer Cossim, and Shah Alum. He encamped under 
 the walls of Patna, and was there attaclced, on the 3rd of 
 May, by what seemed an overwhelming force, foremost in 
 which was the devil Sumroo, with the best of his disciplined 
 infantry. But Carnac stood like a rock ; attack after attack 
 was repulsed, and the battle, which began at noon, was 
 ended at sunset by the defeat and rout of the assailants, 
 whose loss had been immense. The two nabobs and the poor 
 Mogul fled, rather than retreated, from Bahar into Oude. 
 Shortly after the battle of Patna, Major Hector Monro came 
 up with considerable reinforcements of British troops, and 
 assumed the command of the whole army. To put a stop 
 to the mutiny of the sepoys, whom he found clamouring for 
 higher pay, Monro determined to blow twenty-four of their 
 ringleaders from the mouths of his cannon. The victims 
 were selected out of a whole battalion of sepoys, who, after 
 threatening the lives of their English ofiicers, had been 
 caught marching off by night to join the enemy. They had 
 been tried by a field court-martial, composed of their own 
 black officers, who had found them guilty of mutiny and 
 desertion. "When four of them had suffered, and the fifth 
 was being tied to the gun's mouth, the sepoys tumultu- 
 ously declared that the executions should stop tliere. 
 Monro ordered the artillery officers to load with grape, and 
 turn their guns on the native regiments ; he drew up his 
 
1764.] DEFEAT OF SUJAir DOWLAK. 85 
 
 Europeans in the intervals between the guns, and called 
 upon the sepoys to ground their arms. The men obeyed, 
 and the executions went on. This extreme measure was 
 attended with complete success : there was no more mutiny 
 from that day forward. 
 
 At the close of the rainy season, on the 15th September, 
 Major Monro led his reformed army against the enemy, 
 carrying with him no more than provisions enough for eight 
 days. On the 22nd of October, having crossed the Sona in 
 the teeth of their cavalry, he reached the viciuity of their 
 intrenched camp at Buxar, and on the following morning 
 he gave them a defeat, which entirely broke the power of 
 the nabob of Oude, the only Mogul prince we had to fear. 
 Leaving 130 pieces of artillery on the field, Sujah Dowlah 
 fled for Lucknow, cursing his allies who had hurried him 
 into this war. Instead of following him, Shah Alam, the 
 unsteady Mogul, came and pitched his tents close to the 
 English army, sought an interview with our chief officers, 
 vowed that Sujah Dowlah had treated him rather as a state 
 prisoner than as an emperor, and proposed entering into a 
 treaty of amity and close alliance with the Company. 
 Monro, with the Mogul in his train, marched on through 
 Oude. AVhen he reached the holy city of Benares, Sujah 
 Dowlah sent to offer him twenty-five lacs of rupees for the 
 Company, twenty-five lacs for his army, and eight lacs for 
 himself, if he would consent to a peace and quit the country. 
 Monro refused to treat unless the nabob previously delivered 
 to the English Meer Cossim and Sumroo. Sujah Dowlah, 
 ivho had quarrelled with the ex-nabob and seized all the 
 treasure he had with him, urged that he could not be guilty 
 of a breach of the sacred laws of hospitality, but that he 
 would undertake to induc6 Meer Cossim to give up all 
 thoughts of dominion and flee to a distant country. As for 
 Sumroo, he was not so scrupulous, purposing to invite him 
 to a feast, and there have him murdered in the presence 
 of any English gentleman Major Monro might choose to 
 send to witness the punishment. These proposals were not 
 relished in the English camp, and the negotiation was broken 
 off. The treaty with the emperor was then hurried to a 
 close. Shah Alum, as Mogul and lord of the whole, granting 
 to the English the country of Grazipore, with all the rest of 
 the territory of Bulwunt Sing, the zemindar of Benares, and 
 the English agreeing to put Shah Alum in possession of the 
 
86 BATTLE OF CORAH. [1765. 
 
 city of Allahabad and the remainder of the dominions of 
 Sujah Dowlah, 
 
 As a last desperate expedient, Sujah Dowlah called in a 
 great army of Mahratta horse under the command of Mul- 
 har Eao Holkar. AVith these allies, Sujah Dowlah once 
 more tried his fortune against the English, who had pos- 
 sessed themselves of Lucknow, the capital of Oude, and of 
 Allahabad, the strongest fortress of the country. On the 3rd 
 of May, 1765, a battle was fought near Corah, the English 
 being again under the command of Major (now G-eneral) 
 Carnac. The Mahrattas were quickly dispersed by our 
 artillery, and the whole of the confederate army was broken 
 and driven across the river Jumna. 
 
 About four months before General Carnac' s great victory, 
 the nabob Meer Jaffier died at Moorshedabad, thus render- 
 ing necessary new political arrangements. Moreover, on the 
 very day of that victory. Lord Clive had arrived at Calcutta 
 with powers to set right all that had been done \ATong 
 during his absence. A few days after his defeat at Corah, 
 Sujah Dowlah, having announced his intention of throwing 
 himself upon the mercy and magnanimity of the English, 
 repaired to the camp of Greneral Carnac. He assured the 
 general that Meer Cossim had fled into Eohilcund, and that 
 Sumroo had escaped to the far-off" regions on the Indus. 
 Carnac readily agreed with him that the Company could 
 not safely or profitably occupy the extensive dominions of 
 Oude ; that he (Sujah Dowlah) was more capable of defend- 
 ing those territories than Shah Alum, to whom they had 
 been promised ; and that in his hands they might be made a 
 barrier against the Mahrattas and Afghans. 
 
 Lord Clive set off" for Allahabad to take these negotia- 
 tions into his own hands. Finding, however, important 
 business to settle at Moorshedabad, where affairs had fallen 
 into a chaos of confusion, it was not till the end of July that 
 he reached our camp at Allahabad, which then contained the 
 persons both of the Mogul of Delhi and the nabob of Oude. 
 The new treaty was then taken up with earnestness, the old 
 one with the Mogul (if we can call old that which had been 
 made only three months before) being torn up as waste 
 paper ; and it was agreed that Shah Alum must rest satis- 
 fied with possession of Allahabad, Corah, and the Douab, 
 and that all the rest of Oude should be restored to Sujah 
 Dowlah, who was to continue vizier to the emperor. Sujah 
 
1785.] 
 
 NEW TEEATIES. 
 
 87 
 
 Dowlah engaged to oppose the Mahrattas and defend the 
 frontiers of Bengal, and the English bound themselves to 
 afford him assistance in case of invasion. Shah Alum, in 
 right of the imperial authority, which would have been 
 nothing without the presence of the armies of the Company, 
 granted to the English the dewannee, or collection of the 
 revenues, in Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa ; in return for which, 
 he was to receive, in addition to the revenues of Allahabad, 
 Corah, and the Douab, twenty-six lacs of rupees per annum. 
 Along with this dewannee, which, in fact, constituted the 
 Company masters and sovereigns of the vast and rich regions 
 named in the grant, the young emperor confirmed the rights 
 of the Company to all the territory which they possessed in 
 any other part of India. 
 
 The grant was presented by the young Mogul, in great 
 state, to Lord Clive, about the middle of August, 1765.* 
 
 * Scott, ' History of Bengal.' Orme, ' Vansittart's own Narrative.' 
 
 * Life and Correspondence of Lord Teignmouth, by his Son.' Verelst, 
 
 * View of the English Government in Bengal.' 
 
88 CLIVE A EEFOEMEE. [1765. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Theee were no more wars while Clive remained in India ; 
 the terror of his name was sufficient to keep the natives in 
 awe. His lordship directed all his attention to the reforma- 
 tion of abuses in the civil and military departments of the 
 Company's service. 
 
 On the death of Meer Jaffier (some four months before 
 Clive' s return to India), the council at Calcutta had con- 
 ferred the nominal sovereignty of Bengal on that nabob's 
 eldest surviving son, ]N[ujeem-ul-Dowlah,-^a spiritless, imbecile 
 youth. The dictator in India, for such Lord Clive now 
 was, strongly disapproved of the revolution effected by the 
 Company in deposing Meer Jaffier, the nabob of his own 
 making ; but he did not admire Meer Jaffier' s son, and soon 
 compelled him to retire from all public business on a pen- 
 sion of thirty-two lacs of rupees. 
 
 During the great man's absence in England, the Company 
 liad been defrauded and robbed, and the natives of Bengal, 
 in many instances, defrauded and oppressed by Englishmen 
 in the Company's service, who wanted to be rich of a sudden, 
 iind who received no sufficient check from the weak govern- 
 ment of Mr. Vansittart. Clive had come out, chiefly, to put 
 .an end to this state of things. It has been well said that 
 this was a battle harder than that of Plassey, the whole 
 settlement rising against him and his proposed reforms. 
 ;Several civil servants of the Company, relying on their 
 powerful patronage at home, refused to act with or under 
 him, Clive coolly sent to Madras for some other civil 
 servants, and turned the refractory out of their offices, 
 flattery, entreaty, arguments (including money ones), per- 
 suasions, and prayers, were then employed. All in vain ; 
 they could not turn Clive from his purpose. He put 
 doTNT.1 innumerable abuses and vile money-getting practices ; 
 
1766.] MUTINY. 89 
 
 but, at tlie same time, lie adopted measures wMch might 
 give the civil servants of the Company, whose pay had 
 hitherto been miserably low, a proper maintenance, and a 
 fair chance of acquiring fortunes by ability, application, and 
 perseverance. 
 
 After settling with the men of the pen, the civil servants, 
 Clive had to struggle with the bolder men who held the sword, 
 and to encounter, what is always hard for an old soldier to 
 bear, the ill-will and reproaches of old companions in arms. 
 He proceeded to set limits to the practice of giving addi- 
 tional pay, or, as it was called, " double batta," a practice 
 first introduced after the battle of Plassey, when the nabob 
 Meer Jaffier paid expenses. On the 1st of January, 1766, 
 Clive issued an order, that " double batta " to the European 
 officers, the only class that now claimed it, should cease, 
 except at Allahabad, where the troops were considered as 
 actually in the field; and, generally, that the army in 
 Bengal should be put on the same footing as that on the 
 Coromandel coast, by whom no "batta" was drawn, except 
 when marching or serving in the field. After remonstrating, 
 200 English officers resigned in one day, apparently in full 
 confidence that Clive would be intimidated. Stern and 
 unmoved, his lordship wrote to the Calcutta council, " Such 
 a spirit must, at all hazards, be suppressed at the birth ;" 
 and he desired the council to write to Madras, in order 
 that every officer, every cadet that could be spared from 
 that presidency, should be held in readiness to embark for 
 Bengal. He had still a few officers near his person on 
 whom he could rely, and having in his own personal expe- 
 rience some reason to know that a young writer or clerk 
 might soon be turned into a good soldier, he gave commis- 
 sions to several young gentlemen in the mercantile service. 
 He was well backed by Greneral Carnac, Colonel Smith, 
 and other superior officers ; he knew that the English sol- 
 diery were steady, and that the sepoys would stand by him 
 their idol in any extremity. Therefore, he quitted Moor- 
 shedabad, where he had been arranging matters of trade and 
 finance, and advanced with a small escort to Monghir, the 
 head-quarters of the rebellious officers, declaring that he 
 must see the soldier's bayonet levelled at his throat before 
 he could give way an inch. Immediately on his arrival at 
 Monghir, Clive addressed the soldiers, explained the crimes 
 of their officers; mentioned his own recent donation of 
 
90 MUTINY SUPPRESSED. [1766. 
 
 70,000 to the European portion of tlie army,* and ordered 
 double pay to the sepoys for two months. To the devoted 
 sepoys he committed the care of escorting a number of the 
 mutinous officers to Fort William. In a short time, and 
 with the greatest ease, all the ringleaders were arrested, 
 tried by a court-martial, and cashiered. The younger offend- 
 ers were treated with lenity, and, when his indignation was 
 cooled, Clive scorned to take any vengeance for the many 
 personal Avrongs and insults he had received. Upon being 
 told that one of the mutinous officers had planned his assas- 
 sination, he stopped the charge with a short sentence " No ! 
 the officers are Englishmen, not assassins." He adopted 
 several wise regulations to check that luxury and extrava- 
 gance, that gambling and dissipation, which had demoral- 
 ized the English officers. In the course of a very few 
 weeks he could announce that discipline and subordination 
 were restored, and that everything was as quiet and as well 
 regulated as could be wished. 
 
 Clive showed a disinterestedness which was rare and 
 heroical. He aimed at a reform which, in the end, must 
 prove beneficial to the oppressors and to the oppressed ; to 
 the poor natives, to the servants of the Company, to the 
 Company itself, and to the British nation. The servants of 
 the Company would have enabled him to double or treble 
 his fortune, if he had consented to connivance ; the neigh- 
 bouring princes of India would have paid any price for his 
 assistance in their several schemes of aggrandizement ; but 
 he cast all these temptations behind him, making no merit 
 of his refusals, which did not come to light till after his 
 death. He always affirmed that this last visit to India 
 diminished the fortune he had previously made.f 
 
 Having, as he considered, done all that he came to do, 
 Clive was anxious to retm-h home, for his health was again 
 seriously affected. The nervous malady to which, from time 
 to time, he had been a prey ever since his youth, Avas now 
 accompanied by the bodily and mental horrors that arise 
 
 * A legacy of ^70,000 was bequeathed by Meer Jaffier to Clive, who 
 paid it into the Company's treasury at Fort William, to lie at interest for 
 the support of European officers and soldiers who might be disabled in 
 the Company's service in Bengal, and for the widows of officers and 
 soldiers who might die on the service of that presidency. The Company 
 afterwards extended this provision, but the fund still bears the name of 
 "Clive." 
 
 t Sir John Malcolm, * Life of Lord Clive.' 
 
1767.] clive's taeewell to iis^dia. 91 
 
 from continuous bile and a diseased liver ; and lie was occa- 
 sionally attacked by spasms, whicli endangered bis life, or 
 Lis reason. On tbe 16tb of January, 1767, he attended a 
 meeting of tbe select committee for tbe last time. In 
 ending an address, be said, " I leave tbe country in peace ; 
 I leave tbe civil and military departments under discipline 
 and subordination : it is your duty to keep tbem so." 
 
 At tbe end of January be took bis final farewell of India, 
 embarking for England in tbe good sbip Britannia. 
 
 Clive bad done bis duty, but in so doing be bad created 
 as many enemies in England as M. Lally bad provoked in 
 France.* 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, * Life of Lord Clive.' Id., ' Political History of 
 India.' Scott, * History of Bengal.' 
 
92 HTDEE ALL [1767. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A FEW montlis after Lord Clive's departure, the fierce 
 Afghans created some alarm by marching again upon Delhi ; 
 but they came only for plunder, and soon returned to their own 
 mountains. In the course of the same year, the presidency 
 of Bengal made a feeble attempt to restore a dispossessed 
 rajah of ISTepaul to his dominions. The country of Nepaul, 
 surrounded by mountains and forests, was found too difficult 
 of access, and the officer in command of our weak detach- 
 ment thought proper to return. 
 
 In the Carnatic, the flames of war were rekindled by Hyder 
 Ali, the ruler of Mysore, whom we have seen in brief alliance 
 with M. Lally. 
 
 Hyder, the son of a distinguished robber, began life as a free- 
 booter. Making himself considerable by the number of his 
 followers, he was received into the service and favour of the 
 rajah of Mysore, a Hindu prince, who governed according to 
 the ancient religion and laws of the country. Hyder was a 
 Mussulman, but it does not appear that all his followers 
 were of that faith. By degrees the bold adventurer acquired 
 more horses, oxen, camels, and elephants, more money, and 
 the command of more men, than his benefactor the 
 rajah ; and he accordingly made war upon that prince, de- 
 feated him, took him prisoner, pensioned him off with three 
 lacs of rupees per annum, and kept possession of all his 
 dominions. Hyder's army was originally formed out of the 
 freebooting bands and erratic tribes that abounded in 
 "Western India, and that looked for no other reward than 
 the privilege of plunder. 
 
 By the end of the year 1761, Hyder All's authority seemed 
 firmly established in Mysore, a country enclosed by the 
 Eastern and Western Grhauts, about 210 miles in length by 
 140 in average breadth, consisting of a high table-land 
 nearly 3,000 feet above the level of the sea. From this 
 
1767.] CONQUESTS OF HTDEE. 93 
 
 table-land rise many lofty hills, and clusters of hills, containing 
 the sources of nearly all the rivers that intersect and ferti- 
 lize the low countries of India. The climate, exempt from 
 burning heats, may be called mild ; the soil is fertile, and no 
 part of India produces such fine flocks and herds.*' The 
 son of a robber might well have rested content with such an 
 inheritance ; but his own disposition, and the habits of the 
 marauders in his service, led him to look to an extension of 
 dominion or to the plunder of the neighbouring states. The 
 physical geography of Mysore was favourable to aggression 
 and to defence. While Hyder had at least seven or eight 
 passes by which he could descend into the Carnatic, there 
 was only one good pass by which he could be attacked or 
 approached by an enemy on that side. 
 
 At first, however, Hyder limited his operation to the 
 subjugation of several minor rajahs and polygars, whose 
 territories lay within the limits of Mysore, but who had set 
 the power of liis predecessor on the musnud at defiance. 
 Gooty, Balapoor, Harponelly, Chitteldroog, Bednore, and 
 other districts, were rapidly reduced. The booty he made in 
 Bednore was immense ; for, situated among lofty mountains, 
 that district had for a long time escaped the visitations of 
 war. Its capital city (also called Bednore) is said to have 
 contained at this time 20,000 houses. According to native 
 authorities, the spoils of this city alone rendered to Hyder 
 and his army about twelve millions sterling. He then over- 
 ran the country to the north, and extended his dominions 
 almost to the banks of the Kistna. But here his career 
 was checked by the peishwa of the Mahrattas, who crossed 
 the river with an immense army of horse, defeated him 
 repeatedly, drove him back upon Mysore, and compelled 
 him to pay thirty-two lacs of rupees. 
 
 Hyder, however, was soon in the field again. "With 
 rapidity and ease he conquered the rich Malabar provinces, 
 and kept the country quiet by murdering nearly aU the 
 nairs, or Hindu chiefs. He was meditating fresh conquests 
 when he was recalled to Seringapatam, by intelligence that 
 the English, the Mahrattas, and the ruler of the Deckan, 
 had formed a league to check his encroachments. 
 
 The Deckan was no longer in the hands of Salibut Jung. 
 That prince had been made a prisoner by his brother, Nizam 
 
 * Walter Hamilton, Esq., ' Geographical, Statistical, and Historical 
 description of Hindiistan and the adjacent Countries.* 
 
94 WAR WITH HYDEE, [1767. 
 
 Ali, who occupied his throne, and respected his life, until the 
 arrival of the treaty of Paris, which recognized Salibut Jung 
 as laAvful sovereign, and which thus induced Nizam Ali to 
 give orders for his immediate murder. At first, the nizam 
 was unfavourable to the English, and he had invaded the 
 Carnatic, and made war upon our dependant, Mohammed 
 Ali. But he had fled before Colonel Campbell and a small 
 British force, and since that campaign he had concluded a 
 treaty with the Company, confirming to them Forde's con- 
 quests in the Northern Circars, on condition of their paying 
 a small quit-rent, and holding in readiness a body of their 
 troops for hia service, whenever he might demand such 
 aid. 
 
 The peishwa soon covered the table-lands of Mysore with 
 his cavalry. Colonel Smith followed with a small EngHsh 
 corps, and the large but disorderly armies of the nabob of the 
 Carnatic and the nizam of the Deckan. But before Smith 
 could come up, the peishwa had consented to take from 
 Hyder thirty-five lacs of rupees, to quit the country, and 
 break all his engagements with the nizam and the English. 
 The faithless Mahratta had his match in our other ally, the 
 nizam, who next negotiated a treaty with the ruler of 
 Mysore, the scope of which was the expulsion of the Com- 
 pany from the Carnatic, and from every place they held on 
 the Coromandel coast. 
 
 Separating as quickly as might be from the nizam' s 
 army, Colonel Smith hastened to defend the Carnatic by 
 taking possession of the ghauts or passes leading from 
 Mysore into that country. But his force was far too small 
 to secure all those passes against three numerous armies ; 
 Mahrattas, Mysoreans, and the best of the troops of the 
 nizam, got down into the level country, and Smith's rear 
 was soon threatened by the peishwa' s rapid cavalry, and he 
 was compelled to retreat, by forced marches, upon Chan- 
 gama, a town about sixty miles from Madras. But before 
 the colonel could reach that place, he was attacked by three 
 armies. His well-disciplined infantry- beat ofi" their count- 
 less assailants ; but while they were fighting, the Mahrattas 
 got at their rice-bags, and to avoid starving, Smith's 
 forces were obliged to continue their retreat, and to march 
 night and day until they reached Triuomalee. Plundering, 
 burning, and destroying, the enemy followed closely upon 
 the steps of the colonel, who, receiving some reinforce- 
 
1767-8.] A>'D THE MAIIEATTAS. 95 
 
 ments at Trinomalee, issued from the town into the open 
 country, which he endeavoured to save from these hre- 
 brands. Having scarcely any cavalry, Smith's efforts were 
 not very successful. 
 
 Seizing a favourable moment, Hyder Ali detached his son 
 Tippoo, a youth of seventeen, to beat up the neighbourhood 
 of Madras with 5,000 Mysorean horse. Tippoo' s advance 
 was so secret and so rapid, that he very nearly caught the 
 members of the presidency and the wealthiest of the Eng- 
 lish in their country houses. The fortress of Madras had 
 little to fear from cavalry attacks ; but the town, the Black 
 Town, the warehouses, villas, gardens, callages, all things in 
 its vicinity, were carried off or destroyed, and the country, 
 for miles, was made as bare as a desert. Tippoo retired as 
 rapidly as he had advanced, and wdth great booty ; but 
 his father and his allies loitered in the open country, until 
 they were attacked and signally defeated, near Trinomalee, 
 by Colonel Smith. The nizam, who had been the first to 
 fly from the field, had already had quite enough of this war, 
 and was very anxious to be restored to the friendship of the 
 English, whom he had so recently betrayed and deserted ; 
 and, after very little negotiation, he agreed to separate from 
 the Mysoreans and Mahrattas. Hyder and the peishwa 
 tried the fate of another battle, and were again beaten by 
 Smith and more soundly than before near Amboor. Hyder 
 and his ally then fled to Caverypatam, on the river Panaur. 
 
 The presidency of Madras now resolved to carry the war 
 into the very heart of Hyder All's dominions. Colonel 
 Smith, who had displayed much bravery and skill, received 
 orders to march into Mysore. To favour his operations, 
 the presidency of Bombay sent a force to fall upon Hyder's 
 recent conquests in Malabar and Canara. Most unfor- 
 tunately, the ci\ilians who formed the presidency of Madras 
 took it into their heads to direct the operations in the field, 
 and sent to the army two members of council as field- 
 deputies, who were to keep the campaign entirely under 
 their own control. No war ever prospered under such a 
 system. Hyder expelled our Bombay force in the west, and 
 returned rapidly to the east to face Colonel Smith. He 
 made overtures for a peace, but they were rejected by the 
 two field-deputies. Because Colonel Smith treated these 
 deputies, or their opinions on warlike matters, with little 
 respect, the Madras presidency recalled that able officer, and 
 
96 THE CAEXATIC DEVASTATED. [1769. 
 
 intrusted tlie command to Colonel AA^ood, wlio, in a very 
 short time, abandoned every place which had been taken, 
 retreated before Hyder, and even allowed himself to be sur- 
 prised, beaten, and deprived of all his baggage. The presi- 
 dency then superseded AVood, by Major Fitzgerald, who 
 came up just in time to save the flying army from annihilation. 
 
 In the month of January, 1769, Hyder Ali rushed down 
 once more into the Carnatic, and penetrated into the dis- 
 trict of Pondicherry, where, by virtue of the treaty of Paris, 
 the Prench flag was again displayed. 
 
 As the most dangerous enemy of the English, Hyder was 
 regarded by the Prench as their own best friend. Several 
 adroit Prenchmen issued from Pondicherry to join and 
 advise the Mysorean chief. By these men Hyder was con- 
 firmed in the opinion he had previously formed that he 
 ought to avoid pitched battles with the English, and make 
 use of his advantage in light cavalry, in cutting oft' their 
 detachments, and in plundering the country from which 
 they derived their supplies. Several English posts were 
 surprised, and a considerable number of prisoners were sent 
 off to Seringapatam. The open country was again devastated. 
 The presidency of Madras now restored Colonel Smith to 
 the command, and recalled their two field-deputies. They 
 could not, however, improvise regiments of cavalry, and for 
 want of that arm. Smith's operations were for the most part 
 impeded and frustrated. After paying two visits to Pondi- 
 cherry, and conferring with the Prench there, Hyder Ali 
 made a rush upon Madras with 6,000 horse. The fortress 
 had lost none of its strength ; but the town, and the Black 
 Town, the warehouses, the country-houses, and the villages, 
 were as defenceless as at the time of Tippoo's foray. The pre- 
 sidency eagerly proposed terms of peace, or eagerly listened 
 to terms proposed by the Mysorean, who was anxious to be 
 well on his road homeward, before Colonel Smith should 
 double upon him and draw near to Madras. It was very 
 soon agreed that Hyder Ali should restore whatever terri- 
 tory he had taken from the English, and that the Eng- 
 lish should restore all that they had taken from him ; that 
 he should assist the English in their future defensive wars, 
 and that they should do the same by him. The treaty of 
 Madras, concluded on the 4th of April, 1769, was soon fol- 
 lowed by the invasion of Mysore by the peishwa and his 
 Malu'attas, who swept everything before them, burning 
 
Hpe; 
 
 1772.] WAK IX MYSORE. 97 
 
 towns and Tillages, and cutting off noses and ears. Hyder 
 called upon tlie presidency of Madras for tlieir promised 
 assistance ; but the presidency and apparently >Yith perfect 
 truth affirmed that this was not a defensive war, that Hyder 
 had brought the war upon himself by making preparations 
 to invade the territory of the peishwa, and by conniving with 
 certain disaffected Mahratta chiefs. Hyder then offered 
 money, and endeavoured to work upon the fears of the 
 English, by representing what turbulent neighbours the 
 Mahrattas * would be to them, if allowed to conquer and 
 occupy Mysore. Still the council of Madras declined sending 
 a single gun or a single sepoy to his assistance. 
 
 The peishwa of the Mahrattas now courted a new alliance 
 with the English, but met with a refusal. Thus the Mahrattas 
 and the Mysoreans were left to fight out their own battles, 
 
 Hyder and his son Tippoo were defeated in several 
 encounters, and reduced to sad straits. By the month of 
 November, 1771, the Mahrattas were in possession of all 
 Mysore, except Seringapatam, and some of the strongest 
 forts, and were pressing upon and plundering the borders of 
 the Carnatic. Then the presidency sent an army towards 
 that frontier, before which the Mahrattas retreated. In 
 July, 1772, a treaty of peace was concluded between Hyder 
 and the peishwa ; the Mahrattas obtaining a considerable 
 portion of Mysore, together with fifteen lacs of rupees in 
 hand, and fifteen lacs more in promises. Eor a time, Hyder 
 Ali remained humble and quiet. 
 
 Mohammed Ali, the nominal lord of the Carnatic, had 
 induced the English to lend him aid in an expedition against 
 the rajah of Tanjore, who had given great provocation to 
 the presidency. Our old aUy behaved in the most faithless 
 manner, attempting to get aU the gain and profit to him- 
 self, and to leave to us the expenses and the loss ; but the 
 expedition and the subsequent diplomacy terminated in the 
 cession to the presidency of large and fertile tracts of land 
 round Madura, together with the fortress of Vellum. 
 
 The rajah of Tanjore held a doubtful rule over the Mara- 
 wars, the polygars of which district had formerly paid 
 tribute and allegiance to the nabobs of the Carnatic. In 
 the month of March, 1772, a force marched from Trichi- 
 nopoly to reduce those chiefs. It consisted of 520 British 
 infantry and artillery, three battalions of the Company's 
 
 poys, six battering cannon, some of the nabob's horse, and 
 II 
 
100 HOME LEGISLATION. [1772. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Fob, many years Indian aiFairs attracted very little attention 
 -either in tlie parliament or in the country. This ceased to 
 be the case after the last return of Lord Clive. The territo- 
 rial acquisitions, exaggerated even beyond their real extent 
 and vast importance, were forced upon the serious consider- 
 ation of the somewhat drowsy ministry of the day. 
 
 In April, 1769, an act was passed confirming to the 
 Company the revenues of the countries they had acquired 
 for five years to come, upon consideration of their paying 
 the British government 400,000 per annum, and exporting 
 to India, annually, certain quantities of British manufac- 
 tures, etc. 
 
 At the same time, the Court of Directors resolved to send 
 out three supervisors, to complete the work of reformation 
 and put the revenues and finances under better manage- 
 ment. Of the three gentlemen selected for this purpose, 
 one had already given proofs, in Bengal, of his incapacity and 
 unfitness ; but the other two were men of energy and of 
 eminent ability. They were Mr. Vansittart, Mr. Scrafton, 
 and Colonel Torde, the conqueror of the Circars. They 
 never reached India, for the royal frigate which carried them 
 foundered at sea. 
 
 Without supervisors, the government of Bengal was left 
 in the hands of Mr. Cartier ; but in less than two years, it 
 was notified by the Court of Directors to Mr. Warren 
 Hastings, who had continued to rise in estimation, that he 
 was nominated to the place of second in council ; and that 
 whenever Mr. Cartier should retire, it was their wish that 
 he should take the government upon himself. 
 
 In opening the session of parliament in January, 1772, 
 the speech from the throne had, by implication, recommended 
 to attention India, and our possessions there, as being among 
 the dependencies of the British empire, of which it was said, 
 
1772.] LOllD CLIYE.*ifc!C,IISBD. ! I " \' ' ; i '^ ; ; ; 40^,. 
 
 that "some of them, as well from remoteness of place as 
 from other circumstances, are so peculiarly liable to abuses 
 and exposed to danger, that the interposition of the legisla- 
 ture for their protection may become necessary." 
 
 About two months after this royal speech, Mr. Sulivan, 
 deputy-chairman of the Court of Directors (an old and bit- 
 ter antagonist of Clive), moved, in his place in the House of 
 Commons, for leave to bring in a" bill " for the better Regu- 
 lation of the aifairs of the East-India Company, and of their 
 servants in India, and for the due administration of justice 
 in Bengal." Sulivan's principal object in the speech he 
 delivered was to shift aU blame from the Court of Directors, 
 and to throw it wholely and solely upon the servants of the 
 Company abroad. He did not spare the great Clive himself ; 
 but pointed at him as the fountain-head of mischief. The 
 conqueror of Plassey, the real founder and father of our 
 Indian empire, who had granted innumerable favours to 
 dependants and chents without securing gratitude, had few 
 steady friends, and innumerable and implacable enemies. 
 The whole crew of robbers and oppressors, whom he had 
 driven from Bengal during his last governorship, now fell 
 upon him for revenge. They assailed him in parliament, 
 they abused him in the East-India Court of Proprietors,, 
 they calumniated him in pamphlets, and they set up lying 
 newspapers for no other purpose than to abuse him. No- 
 single man can reply with effect to a continuous multiplied 
 fire like this ; and Clive was too proud to reply at all. He 
 soon came to be considered a monster in human shape. It 
 was in;.^^ ain that he was kind and liberal to his servants, 
 bountiful to his friends, generous on all occasions, affec- 
 tionate to his family, kind-hearted and hospitable ; men 
 persisted in considering him as an incarnation of wickedness, 
 laying to his charge all the bad acts of all the English in 
 India, including many which had been committed in his 
 absence, and others which he had manfully put down and 
 severely punished. 
 
 About a fortnight before the opening of the present session 
 of parliament, the Court of Directors, by their secretary, had 
 informed his lordship that they had lately received several 
 papers containingcharges respecting his management of affairs 
 in Bengal, and that copies of these papers were enclosed. The 
 charges were signed by no one, and they were vague as well 
 as anon}Tnous. Clive proudly replied to the directors, that 
 
102: ; ,' ; ; _ qltte^s defence. [1772. 
 
 upon the public records of the Company they might find a 
 sufficient confutation of the papers they had transmitted to 
 him, and that he could not but suppose, that if any part of 
 his conduct had been injurious to the service, contradictory 
 to his engagements, or even mysterious, four years and a 
 half since his return to England would not have elapsed 
 without his being called to account. Sulivan, however, in 
 his vindictive, recriminatory speech in the Commons, alluded 
 to these vague anonjTuous charges. Clive had been for some 
 time a member of that house, but he had seldom spoken 
 before, and on those few occasions in a brief and homely or 
 negligent manner ; but now, in replying to Sulivan, he 
 astonished and electrified the assembly, and convinced the 
 most practised and applauded speakers of that eloquent 
 epoch that he might easily have made himself a great 
 orator. 
 
 , " The house," said Clive, " will give me leave to remove 
 evil impressions, and to endeavour to restore myself to its 
 favourable opinion. IS'or do I wish to lay my conduct before 
 this house only ; I speak likewise to my country in general, 
 upon whom I put myself, not only without reluctance, but 
 with alacrity." He rapidly sketched the history of his pro- 
 ceedings during his last mission to Calcutta, which had been 
 selected for these hostile charges. He told the house how 
 he had cleansed that Augean stable, and how this process 
 had raised him a host of enemies. " It is that conduct," he 
 exclaimed, " which has occasioned the public papers to teem 
 with scurrility and abuse against me. It is that conduct 
 which has occasioned these charges. But it is that conduct 
 which enables me now, when my day of judgment is come, 
 to look my judges in the face. It is that conduct which 
 enables me to lay my hand upon my heart and most 
 solemnly declare to this house, to the gallery, and to the 
 whole world at large, that I never, in a single instance, 
 lost sight of what I thought the honour and true interest of 
 my country and the Company, that I was never guilty of any 
 acts of violence or oppression, unless the bringing offenders 
 to justice can be deemed so. As to extortion or monopoly, 
 such an idea never entered into my mind. So far from 
 reaping any benefit from the last expedition, I returned to 
 England many thousand pounds out of pocket." One of the 
 insinuations was, that during that mission he had made 
 money by monopolizing cotton. To this he replied in 
 
L772.] ri^fANCIAL DIFriCIJLTIES. 103 
 
 acorn and evident irritation, " Trade was not my profes- 
 ision, my line lias been military and political. I owe all I 
 have in the world to my having been at the head of an army. 
 As to cotton, I know no more about it than the pope of 
 Eome!" 
 
 Prom a triumphant defence of his own conduct, Clive 
 proceeded to attack that of others, and to throw back the 
 blame on his accusers. " I attribute," he said, " the present 
 bad situation of affairs to four causes : a relaxation of govern- 
 ment in my successors ; great neglect on the pai't of admi- 
 nistration ; notorious misconduct on the part of the directors ; 
 and the violent and outrageous proceedings of general 
 courts." He argued that all the e^als were aggravated by 
 the system of annual elections at Leadenhall-street ; that 
 the directors thus elected were too dependent on the pro- 
 prietors of Indian stock, who returned them ; that one half 
 of the year was employed by the directors in discharging 
 obligations contracted by their last election, and the second 
 half of the year spent in incurring new obligations for 
 seciu-ing their election the next year by clandestine bargains 
 with the stock-holders and others. Hence, he said, the 
 directors had not proper time for the despatch of the Com- 
 pany's business, and the orders sent out to India had been so 
 fluctuating, and frequently so unintelligible, that the ser^^ants 
 in the country had, in many instances, followed their own, 
 opinions rather than their orders. 
 
 The first Pitt, now earl of Chatham, was that night imder 
 the gallery of the Commons, and he declared that Clive's 
 speech was " one of the most finished pieces of eloquence he 
 had ever lieard in that house." One eflfect of the speech 
 was, that the assaiUng party changed their points of attack, 
 and, leaving his last administration in India as invulnerable, 
 turned their arms against the events and deeds of his 
 earlier hfe. In April, 1772, a select committee of inquiry 
 was appomted by the House of Commons. The members of 
 this select committee, thirty-one in number, w^ere elected by 
 ballot, yet it so chanced that many of them were personal 
 enemies of the great man. The committee had made little 
 progress wlien parliament rose. 
 
 The parliament had hardly risen when the pecuniary em- 
 barrassments of the Company became too great and pressing 
 to be concealed. Bills were falling due, without money to 
 meet them. It appeared that by the end of October tliere 
 
104 ^ , riNANCirAL' DIFFICULTIES. [1772. 
 
 woiiia be a deficit of 1,293,000. On the 15t]i of July the 
 directors applied to the Bank of England for a loan of 
 400,000, and obtained it. On the 29th of July they asked 
 for a further loan of 300,000, but only got 200,000, the 
 bank directors being now somewhat alarmed. 
 
 dive's system of economy, regularity, and vigilance, had 
 been abandoned as soon as he had left India, and disastrous 
 circumstances, which he could not foresee, had occm-red in 
 that country. The presidency of Madras, with its new wars 
 in the Carnatic, the Marawars and Tanjore, had acted as a 
 continual drain on the treasury of Calcutta ; extensive forti- 
 fications and cantonments, which Clive considered wholly 
 useless, had been undertaken at Calcutta and other places 
 in Bengal ; engineers, contractors, and all engaged in their 
 construction, being allowed to make the wildest bargains 
 and the most extravagant profits. Nefarious abuses, which 
 Clive would have stopped with the strong hand, had crept 
 into the commissariat and all other departments of the 
 public service ; and, finally, the rich plains of India had been 
 depopulated by a terrible famine. 
 
 This will account for the greater part of the present em- 
 barrassments in LeadenhaU-street; but the directors, in order 
 to captivate the shareholders and the general courts, had 
 increased the deficit by augmenting the dividends on Indian 
 stock. On the 10th of August, Mr. Sulivan and the chair- 
 man waited upon Lord North, the premier, to announce the 
 insolvency and ruin of the East-India Company as inevi- 
 table, if they were not allowed to borrow at least 1,000,000 
 more from the public. It happened to them, as to others, 
 when reduced to the condition of borrowers : those from 
 whom they asked money gave them advice and interfered in 
 their affairs. They were at the mercy of ministers, and 
 ministers soon determined to remodel their constitution, 
 and make several important changes, notwithstanding the 
 letter of their charters charters which had been granted, 
 under totally different circumstances, to a body of traders 
 and merchant adventurers, and not to merchant princes and 
 lords and masters of provinces and kingdoms. For the 
 present, however. Lord North received the chairman 
 and deputy-chairman with coldness and reserve, referring 
 them to parliament for the solution of their financial 
 difficulties. 
 
 At the re-opening of parliament in 1773, Lord North, who 
 
1773.] SECEET COMMITTEE. 105 
 
 was dissatisfied vrith the select committee appointed in the 
 preceding session, moved that a secret committee of only 
 thirteen members should be appointed, with powers to inspect 
 the books and accounts of the East-India Company, which, in 
 spite of a violent opposition from the East-India directors 
 and others, was appointed. Colonel Burgoyne, a leader of 
 the party opposed to government, a loud and impetuous 
 debater, and chairman of the select committee (at the same 
 time a virulent foe of CHve), vindicated the proceedings of 
 the select committee, declaring that its inquiries, if allowed to 
 proceed, would disclose such a scene of iniquit)^ rapine, and 
 cruelty as had never been discovered until then. 
 
 Though Clive stood high in favour at court, and was duly 
 esteemed as a brave and great man by George III., the timid 
 government was not disposed to make any invidious exertion 
 in his favour ; it was agreed that the select committee should 
 be continued ; and thus there were two committees of inquiry 
 proceeding with their investigations at the same time. In 
 a very few days the committee of secrecy recommended 
 measures which went to lower the political powers of the 
 Company. 
 
 The dissatisfied Court of Directors had still no resource but 
 in parliament, and on the 9th of March, 1773, they humbly 
 petitioned the Commons for a loan of one million and a half 
 for four years, at four per cent, interest. Ministers offered 
 to lend them 1,400,000, and to give up the claim of 
 400,000 a year, which the Company had been paying from 
 their territorial revenues, till this debt should be discharged, 
 but insisted upon binding them strictly not to raise their 
 dividends above six per cent, until the liquidation of this 
 debt.* By complying with these and some other conditions 
 and restrictions, the Company were to remain in possession 
 of all the territories they had acquired for six years to come, 
 when their charter would expire. The Company petitioned 
 against these terms as harsh, arbitrary, and illegal: but all 
 was of no avail ; they could not do without the money ; 
 the minister was determined to let them have it only on his 
 o^vn conditions, and everything proposed was carried in the 
 house by a large majority. 
 
 * For some time the dividends had been at 12 per cent. In March, 
 1772, they had been raised to 12 J. Then came the great pressure ; and 
 in February, 1773, the Court of Directors and Court of Proprietors 
 themselves had redaced the dividends to 6 per cent. 
 
106 EEGL'LATING ACT. [1773. 
 
 Cliye and others had represented to Lord North, and also 
 to the king, that the constitution of thel East-India House 
 ought to be un-democratized ; that the Court of Proprietors 
 was a bear-garden, ever full of noise, intrigue, confusion, and 
 anarchy ; and that its direct influence and action on the Court 
 of Directors was an obstacle to all good management and 
 consistent government. On the 3rd of May, Lord North 
 introduced a series of propositions, tending to a beneficial 
 change in that constitution. The principal of these (after- 
 wards embodied in a bill) were 1st. That the Court of 
 Directors should in future, instead of being chosen annually, 
 be elected for four years ; six members annually, but none 
 to hold seats for longer than four years. 2nd. That the 
 qualification stock should be 1,000, instead of 500 ; that 
 3,000 should give t^^o votes, and 6,000 three votes. 3rd. 
 That, in lieu of the mayor's court at Calcutta, the jurisdic- 
 tion of which was limited to small mercantile causes, a 
 supreme court of judicature, consisting of a chief justice and 
 three puisne judges, should be appointed by the crown, with 
 great and extended powers of cognizance over the civil and 
 criminal jurisdiction of the subjects of England, their ser- 
 vants and dependants, residing ^vithin the Company's ter- 
 ritories in Bengal. 4th. That a governor-general, with four 
 councillors, should be appointed to Eort "William, and 
 vested with full powers over the presidencies. This board 
 was to transmit regular reports of its proceedings to the 
 Court of Directors, who were, within fourteen days of the 
 receipt of their despatches, to furnish copies of them to one 
 of his majesty's secretaries of state, to whom they were 
 also to send copies of any rules and ordinations they them- 
 selves might make ; and these were, if disapproved by his 
 majesty, to become null and void. The nomination of the 
 first governor-general and members of council was vested 
 in parliament, and was to continue five years, after which 
 term those high oflices were to be filled up by the Court of 
 Directors, but still subject to the approbation of the crown. 
 
 Lastly, it was to be enacted, that no person in India, in 
 the service either of the king or of the Company, should 
 henceforth be allowed to receive any presents from the 
 native nabobs, rajahs, ministers, agents, or others; and 
 that the governor-general, members of council and judges, 
 should be excluded from all commercial pursuits and profits. 
 
1773.] SELECT COMMITTEE. 107 
 
 This "Eegulatiug Act," as they called it, was to come into 
 operation, in England on the 1st of October, 1773, and in 
 India on the 1st of August, 1774. 
 
 In the mean while, both Indian committees of the House 
 of Commons, the select and the secret, had continued their 
 occupations. The first of the two, urged on by Colonel Bnr- 
 gojiie, and others of its members, from whom candour and 
 impartiality were not to be expected, had taken a most inqui- 
 sitorial and personal turn. Lord Clive was subjected to inces- 
 sant examinations and cross-examinations; mutilated eyidence 
 was received as good evidence ; and no opportunity was lost 
 of taunting the hero mth rapacity and avarice, or of adding 
 insult to injury. It may be safely doubted, whether there was 
 one of Clive' s accusers and tormeutors that would, at Moor- 
 shedabad, have rested satisfied with the large sum he took for 
 himself when it was so easy to make it ten or twenty times 
 larger. On one occasion, when irritated in the extreme by 
 Burgoyne's select committee, and when the scenes of the 
 past were forced upon his mind and upon his vision as a 
 present reality, he vividly described his entrance into Moor- 
 shedabad, and into the rich treasury of the flying tyrant 
 Suraj-u-Dowlah : there was the new nabob, Meer Jaffier, 
 a creatTire of his making, and absolutely dependent on his 
 will ; there was a populous and opulent city offering im- 
 mense sums to be saved from a plunder which was never 
 intended ; there were the Hindu seits, or bankers, bidding 
 against each other for his favour ; there were vaults piled 
 with gold, and crowned with rubies and diamonds, and he 
 was at liberty to help himself; and then, bursting away 
 from a picture as dazzling as Sinbad's valley of diamonds, 
 he exclaimed, " By Grod, Mr. Chairman, at this moment I 
 stand astonished at my ot^nti moderation! " 
 
 On the 10th of May, 1773, BurgojTie brought up the 
 report of the select committee, which was little else than 
 an unmitigated anathema. It went over the whole of Clive's 
 early Indian history. The Black-hole and its horrors were 
 all forgotten; the cruelty, the perfidy of Suraj-u-Dowlah 
 were consigned to the same charitable oblivion ; and it was 
 represented by Colonel Burgoyne (who had no friend or 
 brother in the horrible catastrophe at Calcutta), that the 
 dethronement of that t}Tant was the greatest of crimes, and 
 the real cause of all the revolutions and mischiefs which 
 
108 CLIYE ACQUITTED. [1773. 
 
 had ensued since then. Burgoyne proposed nothing less 
 than that Chve should be stripped of his wealth, as it had 
 been extorted by military force. 
 
 The hero of Plassey made another most able speech, but 
 a speech not calculated to conciliate any party in the House 
 of Commons. He once more referred to the honours he had 
 received, not merely from the Company, but also from the 
 crown, in consequence of the very exploits and acts for 
 which they were now arraigning him like a felon ; and he 
 concluded by saying, " If the record of my services at the 
 India House, if the defence I have twice made in this 
 house, and if the approbation I have already met vdih, is 
 not an answer to the attack that has been made upon me, I 
 certainly can make none." 
 
 On the 19th of May, Chve was ably defended by Mr. 
 "Wedderburn, Mr. Eose Fuller, and others, and he again 
 most ably defended himself. The termination of all these 
 vexatious proceedings was a full acquittal, and a vote of 
 the house that Robert Lord Clive had rendered great and 
 meritorious services to his country. 
 
 But "the be all and the end all" was not there, nor could 
 depend on parHamentary motions and votes and resolutions. 
 "The Daring in War" had received his dimittimus from 
 orators' tongues, or, at the least, his mind and body had 
 been so harassed for many months, and his cruel maladies 
 so exacerbated thereby, that there no longer remained in 
 him a gleam of health, or hope, or cheerfulness. He had 
 been acquitted he had been applauded ; some of the highest 
 in rank and character at home, and some of the most Hberal 
 and intellectual abroad, testified their admiration, and ad- 
 mired him the more for the ordeal he had gone through ; 
 but he could not be comforted, he brooded over the indig- 
 nity of having been accused, not only of horrible crimes, but 
 of mean petty vices, of having been treated he the 
 Baron of Plassey by the select committee, more like a 
 sheep-stealer than a member of the house. He sought 
 some alleviation to his acute sufferings in a Aisit to Bath, 
 and then in a short excursion on the continent ; but he 
 found none. His liver was entirely deranged, his attacks of 
 bile were frequent and fearful; he suffered excruciating 
 agonies from gall-stones. He had always been subject to 
 dreadful fits of depression. It is said that, in one of these, 
 when cooped up in Fort St. Q-eorge, as a poor clerk, he twice 
 
.1774.] DEATH OF CLIYE. 109 
 
 attempted to destroy himself, and twice the pistol missed 
 fire ; upon which, it is added, he examined the pistol, saw 
 that it was well loaded, and then threw it from him with an 
 exclamation, that he must certainly he destined for some- 
 thing great or extraordinary. In the month of November 
 of the year which followed liis acquittal (1774), being at his 
 town-mansion in Berkeley-square, he had a violent access 
 of the most painful of his maladies. He had recourse to 
 powerful doses of opium. The drug did not soothe, and a 
 paroxysm of irritability was added to the paroxysm of the 
 disease ; in the course of the 22nd of that dreary month, 
 he died by his own hand. He had only just completed his 
 forty-ninth year.* 
 
 * ' Annual Register.' Sir John Malcolm, * Life of Clive.' * Par- 
 liamentary History.' 
 
110 WAEEEN HASTINGS. [1774. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 In proceeding to the choice of the first governor-general 
 of Bengal, in pursuance of the " Regulating Act," there 
 was scarcely any difference of opinion as to the person most 
 fit for the post. Long experience in India, proved capacity, 
 indefatigable industry, and other merits, all pointed to Mr. 
 "Warren Hastings, who was accordingly named by the new 
 parliamentary authority. Clive had considered him the 
 best man that could be selected, and had hastened to 
 congratulate him on the honour of being the first GtOVEE- 
 NOK-GrENERAL. The four members of council appointed 
 with Mr. Hastings, and, unhappily, each with powers nearly 
 co-extensive with his own, were G-eneral Clavering, Colonel 
 Monson, Mr. Barwell, and Mr. Philip Prancis. 
 
 Warren Hastings began his administration at Calcutta 
 under numerous disadvantages. The famine, to which allu- 
 sion has been made, occurred in 1770, under the government 
 of Cartier, and only a few months before Hastings took that 
 gentleman's place. In the summer of 1769, the periodical 
 rains had failed ; hence the earth was parched up, the tanks 
 for the purposes of irrigation became empty, the rivers 
 shrank within their beds, and the rice and other crops failed. 
 As the Hindus, on religious grounds, make little or no use 
 of animal food, they perished by thousands. It was calcu- 
 lated that, in all, from one-fourth to one-third of the teeming 
 population of Bengal was swept away. 
 
 A short time before the breaking out of the famine, Syef- 
 al-Dowla, the son and successor of Meer Jaffier, died of the 
 small-pox, and his brother, Muharek-al-Dowla, a mere boy, 
 was appointed to the musnud. By order of the Court of 
 Directors, Warren Hastings, during the nonage of the 
 nabob, reduced his annual stipend to sixteen lacs of rupees. 
 To arrange this and other difficult matters, to settle the 
 collection of the revenue, and the young nabob's household, 
 
1774.] FIRST GOVEENOR-GENERAL. Ill 
 
 Hastings made a tour in the provinces, and resided some 
 time in Moorshedabad. The dewannee, or public treasury, 
 was removed to Calcutta and placed under English manage- 
 ment, and thither also were carried the superior courts of 
 justice. Hastings clearly foresaw the high destinies of our 
 city on the Hooghly. He now wrote to a friend : " By the 
 translation of the treasury, by the exercise of the dewan- 
 nee without an intermediate agent, by the present superin- 
 tendency of the nabob's household, and by the establishment 
 of the new courts of justice under the control of our own 
 government, the authority of the Company is fixed in this 
 country without any possibility of a competition, and beyond 
 the power of any but themselves to shake it. The nabob is 
 a mere name, and the seat of government most effectually 
 and visibly transferred from Moorshedabad to Calcutta, 
 which I do not despair of seeing the first city in Asia, if I 
 live and am supported but a few years longer."* 
 
 At the same period Hastings was occupied in devising 
 means for placing both the internal trade of the^countiy and 
 the external trade of the Company upon a better footing, 
 and in making reforms or alterations among all classes of 
 the Company's servants in India. As to these reforms, he 
 complained that he had received a dangerous mark of dis- 
 tinction in being alone intrusted with their execution, say- 
 ing that the effect was, his hand was against every man, 
 and every man's against his. Like Clive, he was sowing 
 the seeds of hatred and vengeance the bitter fruit of which 
 he was to taste hereafter. And to aU these laborious and 
 trying occupations were superadded constant anxieties 
 arising out of the Company's connections with the nabob of 
 Oude and Shah Alum, and the encroachment of the Mah- 
 rattas, who occupied or overrun for uncertain seasons the 
 whole of the interior of India, from Delhi to the frontiers 
 of Oude, from the ghauts of the Camatic to the ghauts 
 behind Bombay. He appears to have had no respite from 
 care and labour.. 
 
 -4t soon became evident that twenty-six lacs of rupees 
 per annum was too great a price to pay to Shah Alum for 
 the merely ceremonial investiture of the Company in the 
 dewannee of Bengal, over which neither he, the reigning 
 jyiogul, nor bis immediate predecessors, had ever had the least 
 
 * Letter to Mr. Sykes, in Gleig's ' Life of Hastings.' 
 
112 B00TAK3 AND TAKEEES. [1774-5. 
 
 control. Hastings also taxed Shah Alum with the basest 
 treachery and ingratitude. " Of all the powers of Hindu- 
 stan," said he, " the English alone have really acknow- 
 ledged his authority : they invested him with the royalty he 
 now possesses; they conquered for him and gave him a 
 territory." * At this juncture he learned that the imbecile 
 Mogul had ceded that territor}^ (Allahabad and Corah) to 
 the Mahrattas, who were declaring their intention of taking 
 immediate possession. The nabob of Oude, as the ally of 
 the English, claimed their assistance in preventing the 
 marauders from obtaining a settlement in provinces that lay 
 in the heart of his own country, and that would bring them 
 close upon the frontiers of the Company's territories. 
 Anticipating their movements, Hastings threw a good gar- 
 rison into the important city of Allahabad. This force was 
 received with a welcome, the Mogul's deputy or governor 
 declaring that his master was no longer a free agent, but a 
 prisoner to the Mahratta chiefs, who were in the habit of 
 subjecting him to the degradation of blows when he refused 
 to sign such grants, firmans, or decrees as they required. 
 
 The healthy and fertile province of Cooch Bahar had 
 been overrun by the Bootans, a resolute and daring people, 
 who cruelly oppressed the peasantry, and proved turbulent 
 and dangerous neighbours. Hastings sent a detachment, 
 under Captain Jones, to drive out these Bootans and annex 
 the country to the English dominions. At the same time 
 his attention was called to the inroads of the Senassie 
 fakeers, an assemblage of men who united in themselves the 
 several characters of saints, living mart\Ts, prophets, jug- 
 glers, robbers, and cut-throats. Hordes of the same species 
 had long been in the habit of wandering throughout India, 
 almost stark-naked, pretending to live by alms, but stealing, 
 plundering, murdering, and committing every act of violence 
 and obscenity. A host of the kind, headed by an old woman 
 who pretended to the gift of enchantment, had defeated an 
 army of Aurungzebe, and caused that emperor to tremble 
 on his throne at Delhi. They were one of the many 
 scourges to which the country was periodically liable under 
 the imbecile government of the native princes. The pre- 
 sent swarm fell suddenly upon Bengal like a flight of 
 locusts. Dividing themselves into bodies, each two or three 
 
 * Letter to Sir George Colebrooke, as given by Mr. Gleig, * Memoirs 
 of Warren Hastings.' 
 
1773.] FEESH AEEANGEMENTS. 113 
 
 thousand strong, they rushed in search of their prey, and 
 wherever they penetrated they burned the villages, destroyed 
 the crops, and committed their unnameable abominations. 
 Five battalions of sepoys were sent in pursuit of them ; but 
 they moved at a speed that defied the pursuit of any regular 
 infantry; and Hastings, to save the Company's money, had 
 been obliged to discharge nearly all the native cavalry. 
 They were favoured by the superstition and infatuation of a 
 large portion of the population, who considered them saints 
 while committing the greatest sins, and who stood in awe of 
 the supernatural powers to which they laid claim. They 
 indeed seemed gifted with ubiquity : while reported to be 
 beyond the Bramapootra river, they reappeared in the inte- 
 rior of the province. One of their parties fell in with a 
 small detachment of newly-raised sepoys, defeated them, 
 and killed Captain Edwards as he was attempting to rally 
 his men. Another British officer, with an entire battalion, 
 followed them closely, but could never come up with them. 
 Hastings hurried on another detachment to assist in the 
 pursuit, and another to cross the track which the fakeers 
 usually took on their return. Yet, after every exertion by 
 all these corps, no great execution could be done upon the 
 marauders, who, crossing rivers and lofty mountains, got 
 back with their plunder to the wild country that lies be- 
 tween India, Tibet, and China. Their visit proved a serious 
 blow to the revenues of the country, as well from pretended 
 as from real losses. 
 
 Soon after the departure of the fakeers, Hastings set out 
 on a visit to Oude, the nabob having earnestly requested a 
 personal conference with him at Benares. He arrived at 
 that city on the 19th of August, 1773, and found the nabob 
 waiting his arrival and eager for business. Their conside- 
 rations, final resolutions, and agreements, were these : 
 
 I. The chiefs of Eohilcund, when recently attacked by the 
 Mahrattas, had made an oft'er of forty lacs of rupees to the 
 nabob of Oude for his assistance, and the nabob of Oude 
 had promised to give half of this money to the Company 
 for the services of English troops and sepoys. The 
 troops of Oude had been of little use, but the troops of the 
 Company, under Sir Eobert Barker, had cleared the coun- 
 try of the Mahrattas ; and yet the Eohilla chiefs refused to 
 pay the forty lacs, or any part of them. The Eohillas had 
 always been turbulent and dangerous neighbours to Oude, 
 
 
 
114 THE ROniLLAS. [1773. 
 
 and must keep our ally the nabob poor and in constant 
 need of English assistance, unless the two allies, by one 
 great effort, for which the nabob was willing to pay a liberal 
 price (and he knew how much the Company stood in need 
 of money), should conquer that Afghan race, who were 
 themselves but conquerors of a recent date, without any 
 right but that of the sword, and without any consideration 
 or mercy for the original and peaceful occupants of the 
 soil, who were tenfold more numerous than themselves. So 
 far from being the industrious, gentle people that English 
 parliamentary orators afterwards chose to fancy them, these 
 Rohillas were about the most predatory, barbarous, and 
 sanguinary of the Afghan tribes. " The Eohilla country," 
 wrote Hastings, " is bounded on the west by the Granges, 
 and on the north and east by the mountains of Tartary. 
 It is to the province of Oude, in respect both to its geo- 
 graphical and political relation, exactly what Scotland was 
 to England before the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It is 
 open on the south where it touches Oude. The reduction 
 of this territory would complete the defensive line of the 
 vizier's dominions, and of course leave us less to defend, as 
 he subsists on our strength entirely. It would also add 
 much to his income, in lohicJi loe should have our share. '^^^ 
 Upon all these and other considerations, Hastings consented 
 to employ an army against the Rohillas, and to unite the 
 country to Oude, the vizier nabob engaging to pay the 
 entire expenses of the war, and to pour into the empty 
 treasury at Calcutta forty lacs of rupees. 
 
 II. The ruler of Oude was anxious to recover possession 
 of Corah and Allahabad, and the Douab, which stood within 
 his frontiers, and which the poor Mogul could not maintain. 
 Eor fifty lacs of rupees twenty paid on the spot, and thirty 
 to be paid in two years Hastings transferred Corah and 
 Allahabad to Sujah Dowlah. 
 
 III. As the imauthorized residence of British subjects 
 unconnected with the Company was frequently embarrassing 
 to the Calcutta government, and gave rise to intrigues, it 
 was agreed that no Europeans whatsoever should be per- 
 mitted to reside in Oude without the knowledge and consent 
 of the Company. 
 
 ly. Cheyte Sing, the young rajah of Benares, was in- 
 
 * Letter to Mr. Sulivan. 
 

 
 1774:.] INVASION or eohilcukd. 115 
 
 eluded in some of the arrangements between Hastings and 
 the nabob of Oude; for Benares, the holy city, with its 
 dependent district, was geographically included in the pro- 
 vince of Allahabad, and JSujah Dowlah, the nabob, had long 
 aimed at the destruction of the young rajah, whom the Eng- 
 lish, by previous treaties, were bound to support. Hastings 
 therefore insisted that all the territorial rights of Cheyte 
 Sing should be confirmed to him, and that Sujah Dowlah 
 should respect his young and weak neighbour. 
 
 Owing to financial difiiculties, the vizier nabob of Oude 
 requested that the invasion of Eohilcund might be post- 
 poned ; and this was agreed to. 
 
 Eeturning to Calcutta, Hastings applied himself to the 
 internal administration of Bengal, to the establishment of 
 something like an efiicient police, to the posting of detach- 
 ments so as to prevent the incui'sions of the fakeers and 
 other robbers, to the formation of local forts in the dis- 
 tricts, to the protection of native trade and industry, to the 
 removing impolitic taxes, and fees upon native marriages. 
 Even men in India, unfriendly to this able and indefatigable 
 administrator, confessed that since his return to Calcutta as 
 governor of Bengal, in 1771, the whole country had assumed, 
 or was rapidly assuming, a new aspect. The fearful gaps 
 made in the population by famine and disease began to be 
 filled up ; frequent immigrations of quiet, laborious people 
 from other parts of India sought and found that protection 
 and encouragement under the Company's government which 
 they could find scarcely anywhere else on the vast surface of 
 Hindustan in countries exposed to the ravages of the Mah- 
 rattas, Afghans, Jauts, Decoits, Thugs, Bheels, and other 
 monsters. Bajalis, nabobs, khans, and all grandees, might 
 complain; but the native merchant, manufacturer, tiller 
 of the soil, artisan, all that we call people, were brought to 
 regard Hastings as a benefactor, and to revere his name. 
 " I could have gone," said he, " from Calcutta to Moor- 
 shedabad, and from Moorshedabad to Patna and Benares, 
 without a guard, without a sepoy, without any protection 
 but what was to be found in the good-will and afiection 
 of the natives." 
 
 Early in the year 1774, the vizier nabob, Sujah Dowlah, 
 applied for the instant marching of the English brigade 
 stationed at Allahabad, as he was now determined to invade 
 Eohilcund. Accordingly, that brigade, under the command 
 
 I 2 
 
116 EOniLLA WAR. [1774. 
 
 of Colonel Champion, received orders to move and join the 
 nabob's forces. From the middle of February to the middle 
 of April, Colonel Champion was kept waiting ; but at last 
 the vizier nabob came up with his worthless army, and the 
 open southern frontier of Eohilcund was crossed by the 
 invaders. The Eohillas were found in a good position on 
 the side of the Babul Xulla: nearly their entire force, 
 which probably amounted to about 25,000 fighting men, was 
 collected on that ground ; and they had cavalry, artillery, and 
 rockets. But, on the 23rd of April, when they were 
 attacked by the British brigade, superior discipline and 
 tactics and better arms led to the usual result. They were 
 thoroughly defeated and routed; but their valour and 
 stamina were proved by their fighting, at unusually close 
 quarters, for two hours and twenty minutes, and leaving 
 2,000 of their number on the field. Several of their sirdars 
 were slain, and among them Hafez Eamet, the head of the 
 confederacy. Tlie nabob behaved as nabobs always did in 
 battle ; he kept at a greajt distance from the English, behind 
 a river, surrounded by his cavalry and artiller}' ; he refused 
 Champion the use of some of his guns and some of his 
 cavahy, nor would he move from his lurking-place until he 
 was well assured of the enemy's total defeat. Then he and 
 his unwarlike rabble moved forward with alacrity, but it 
 was only to plunder the Eohilla camp, which Champion 
 considered as the fair booty of his brigade. " We have the 
 honour of the day," said the colonel, " and these banditti the 
 profit."* 
 
 Many cruelties and horrors were committed in this 
 Eohilla war not by the English and their disciplined sepoys, 
 who had all the fighting, but by the nabob's rabble, who 
 never fought at all not with the connivance of Hastings, 
 but in spite of his loud and repeated remonstrances. The 
 natural disposition, the habits, the policy, the cool calcula- 
 tions of the English governor, all joined in making him 
 averse to cruelty, bloodshed, and devastation. The quiet 
 Hindii inhabitants, so far from making common cause with 
 the Eohillas, their oppressors, were ready to render all the 
 services against them that their weakness and timidity per- 
 mitted ; yet the nabob's troops fell to plundering and burning 
 their villages. The necessity of clearing the whole region 
 
 * Letter to Mr. Hastings. 
 
1774.] FTZOOLA KHAy. 117" 
 
 of the Eoliilla chiefs and their bands, who neither tilled nor 
 spun, who despised every occupation except that of war or 
 plunder, was understood from the first ; but, if the nabob 
 devastated the countn% and scared away its old and peace- 
 ful inhabitants, whose industry paid the revenues, how would 
 the nabob of Oude be able to make his large payments to- 
 the Company ? Hastings enforced these considerations on 
 the commander in the field, and on Mr. Middleton, the resi- 
 dent at the nabob's court, constantly recommending them 
 to protect the poor Hindus. ISi'or did he fail to insist upon 
 a mild and proper treatment for such of the Rohilla chiefs 
 as had fallen into the hands of the vizier nabob. " Tell the- 
 vizier," continued he, " that the English manners are abhor- 
 rent of every species of inhumanity and oppression, and. 
 enjoin the gentlest treatment of a vanquished enemy."* 
 
 The Bohillas had exhausted all their strength or spirit in- 
 one sharp battle ; they never again made head in the interior 
 of the country against the English, and the rest of the war 
 consisted of skirmishes and pursuit. At Bissolulah, the 
 principal city, in the very centre of Eohilcund, the English 
 found an army of Shah Alum, who had escaped from his 
 Mahratta bondage, and had entered into a secret agreement 
 to assist the vizier nabob in this conquest, upon condition of 
 sharing in the booty, and having part of the subdued ter- 
 ritory. This force had done nothing, and had now nothing 
 to do ; yet Nureef Khan, the commander of it, demanded 
 from Colonel Champion both money and territory. Of 
 course, the khan got nothing, being too weak and cowardly 
 to help himself. Hastings and the council at Calcutta de- 
 cided that the whole of the country should and must 
 remain to Sujah Dowlah, according to their own treaty 
 with him, in which the Mogul was certainly neither named 
 nor thought of. 
 
 The fugitive Rohillas, under Eyzoola Khan, took up a 
 very strong post near the northern frontiers of the country, 
 expecting to be joined by other tribes of the great Afghan 
 family from the mountains in their rear. It was appre- 
 hended by Sujah Dowlah, that the Mahrattas might come 
 in also, and his fears induced him to open negotiations ^^dth 
 Eyzoola Khan. The English brigade was worn out by long 
 marches and short commons, and Champion and his officers 
 
 * Letter to Middleton, as given in Mr. Gleig's * Memoirs of Warrea 
 Hastings.' 
 
118 WAREEN HASTINGS. [1774. 
 
 were thorougUy disgusted with their ally, and all liis 
 concerns. A treaty was therefore hurried to a conclusion, 
 Pyzoola Khan surrendering one-half of his treasure, and 
 one-half of all his effects, to the nabob of Oude, and that 
 nabob granting him the small district of Eampore, in jagheer. 
 Some few chiefs remained with Pyzoola Khan, but the 
 majority went into other countries, to seek new settlements 
 with sword and spear. The Afghan race might almost be 
 said to be rooted out of Eohilcund. Their entire number 
 had probably never exceeded 80,000, counting all classes, 
 and men, women, and children. The Hindii population 
 transferred to the nabob of Oude was estimated at 2,000,000. 
 Just as the first Eohilla war came to this conclusion, the 
 new constitution, as framed by parliament, came into opera- 
 tion. Hitherto, Warren Hastings, as simple governor, had 
 exercised an undivided authority ; but now that he became 
 GrOVEEisroE-GrENERAL, his unity of power was to cease.* 
 
 * Rev. G. R. Gleig, ' Memoirs ; with Mr. Hastings' own numerous 
 Letters, Despatches, and Memoranda, published therein.' Mills, ' Hist, 
 of British India.* Parliamentary Papers, Evidence against and for 
 Warren Hastings, on the Commons' Charges of Impeachment,' 9 vols, 
 folio, published between the years 1786 and 1794. 
 
1774.] . THE SUrEEME COUNCIL. 119 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The members of council G-eneral Clavering, Mr. Monson, 
 and Mr. Philip Prancis arrived at Calcutta (Mr. Barwell, 
 the fourth member, had been in India long before) on the 
 19th day of October, 1774. On the following day, the ex- 
 isting government was dissolved by proclamation, and the 
 new council, consisting of the four gentlemen named, and 
 Hastings, with the rank of governor-general of Bengal, 
 took possession of its powers. Of his four colleagues, only 
 IVIr. Barwell, who from long residence had a perfect know- 
 ledge of Indian affairs, was quite acceptable to Hastings. 
 Three seemed to have come out with the predetermination of 
 opposing him in all things, and one of the three Prancis 
 hated him from the beginning with an intensity, of which Eng- 
 lish natures are seldom capable. But the "Eegulating Act " 
 had framed a Supreme Court of Justice as well as a council, 
 and among the judges who had arrived with the members of 
 this new council. Sir Elijah Impey, the senior in rank, was 
 an old and dear friend of the governor-general. They had 
 been school-fellows at "Westminster.* On account of this 
 close friendship, and through incidents of no very moral 
 kind, which brought Mr. Prancis before the Supreme Court 
 to receive sentence of damages from the lips of Sir Elijah, 
 that vindictive member of council soon hated the judge as 
 much as the governor-general. The general letter of the 
 Court of Directors, which was read at the first meeting of 
 the new council, recommended, above all things, unanimity 
 and concord among those to whom the powers of the govern- 
 ment were delegated; and it required them to do their 
 utmost in order to preserve peace in India. But unanimity 
 and concord were incompatible with a body so constituted, 
 and with notions, interests, and ^iews so diametrically 
 
 * * Memoirs of Sir Elijah Impey,* by his son, the late Elijah Barwell 
 Impey, Esq., 1 vol. 8vo. London, 1816. 
 
120 DIFFICULTIES OF nASTINGS. [1774- 
 
 opposed. The temper of Prancis alone was enougli to intro- 
 duce discord in a paradise. Besides, he, and Clavering, and 
 Monson, who had never been in India before, and who knew 
 marvellously little about the country, had come out to detect 
 and reform abuses, which the long knowledge of Hastings 
 and Barwell viewed in a different light, or with a better 
 acquaintance as to the primary causes of them, and the 
 difficulty of any sudden changes. Correctors of abuses 
 usually find more abuses than really exist ; and no class of 
 men are more intolerable than reformers. Hastings, too, 
 conscious of his own superior knowledge of Indian affairs 
 and the Indian character, and accustomed for some time to 
 an almost undivided authority, was not likely to descend 
 very willingly from a whole, to be only a fifth, or to enter- 
 tain an implicit deference to the opinions of men who had 
 passed their lives in such a different sphere. The natural 
 love of power, and the intimate and unselfish conviction that 
 such a system was the only one suited to the native princes, 
 who had no idea of a divided rule, had led him to act upon 
 advice given to him by Clive, and, at least in his political 
 negotiations, to assume a high and almost single autho- 
 rity. The members of the new council began their open 
 quarrel upon the transactions in Oude and the Eohilla war. 
 They asserted, by implication, that Hastings had embarked 
 in that war for private and sordid motives, and tliat his 
 entire connection with Sujah Dowlah had been directed by 
 fraud and selfishness. As far as money was concerned, these 
 aspersions were most unjust. Hastings was a poorer man 
 now than when he quitted an inferior employment at INIadras. 
 He had made savings, and gathered large contributions, and 
 perhaps, in some cases, neither the economy nor the gain 
 had proceeded upon the strictest principles of justice ; but 
 he had made them solely for the Company's benefit, and 
 mostly at the Company's express command. He was above 
 the sordid motives imputed to him : he was, as many other 
 men have been and are, constitutionally indifferent to money 
 for himself. In 1772, when he assumed the simple governor- 
 ship of Bengal, he found empty coffers, and a large and costly 
 military force to maintain. The famine and its awful con- 
 sequences choked up the sources of the revenue, while the 
 Court of Directors at home were falling into debt, and 
 exhorting him by every ship to remit them money. Long 
 afterwards he said, "When I took charge of the govern- 
 
I 
 
 1774.] PHILIP FEAXCIS. 121 
 
 ment of Bengal, in April, 1772, I found it loaded with 
 debt ; in less than two years I saw that debt completely- 
 discharged, and a sum in ready cash to the same amount 
 in the public treasuries."* It thus becomes easy to con- 
 ceive to what uses he had applied the lacs of rupees obtained 
 from Sujah Dowlah and other native princes. 
 
 As Francis this name must be put first, for he was ever 
 the most active, and by far the most able of the three - 
 Clavering, and Monson, constituted the majority of the 
 council, wherein, by the "Eegulatmg Act," the vote of the 
 majority w as decisive, they assumed all the powers of govern- 
 ment, and, for a time, reduced Hastings, with his adherent 
 Barwell, to the condition of a cipher. They recalled Mr. 
 Middleton from Oude ; they displaced other able servants 
 who had been trained under Clive and his great successor ; 
 they proceeded to undo nearly all that Hastings had done ; 
 they turned the government into an anarchy, and spread 
 amazement and consternation among the natives. They 
 appeared to have frightened Sujah Dowlah to death. That 
 prince died a few months after their arrival, dictating in 
 his last moments a letter to Hastings, to implore liis pro- 
 tection to his son. The son, who took the name of Asoft-ul- 
 Dowlah, succeeded without opposition to Oude and its depend- 
 encies, which now included Eohilcund. But the new council 
 allowed him not a moment of tranquillity, calling upon him 
 incessantly for money. Through their new resident, Mr. 
 Bristow, they compelled the young nabob to accede to an 
 iniquitous treaty. By this treaty, the Company guaranteed 
 to Asoff-ul-Dowlah the possession of Corah and Allahabad ; 
 but the nabob, in return, ceded to the Company the 
 
 TEREITORY OfChETTE SiNG, THE RAJAH OF BeNARES, WHICH 
 WAS NOT HIS TO CEDE, AND WHICH HAD BEEN SOLEMNLY 
 GUARANTEED TO THE RA.TAH BY HASTINGS. The reveUUe 
 
 of Cheyte Sing's territory, thus alienated, was estimated at 
 22,000,000 of rupees ; but, as this took nothing out of the 
 pocket of the young nabob of Oude, he was bound in the 
 same treaty to discharge all his father's debts and engage- 
 ments whatsoever with the Company, and to raise greatly 
 the allowance to the Company's brigade. Hastings indig- 
 nantly refused to sanction this treaty, which, nevertheless, 
 met the approbation of the Court of Directors. 
 
 * Warren Hastings, * Memoirs relating to the State of India.' Lon- 
 don, 1787. 
 
122 CONQUEST OF SALSETTE. [1773. 
 
 The supreme council of Calcutta, as provided by the 
 " Eegulating Act," asserted their authority over the other 
 presidencies, and required from each of them a full report of 
 its actual condition, political, financial, and commercial. 
 
 The political state of Bombay, which had long been quiet, 
 and removed from the struggles of war, was at this moment 
 sufficiently disturbed, for the council there had entered 
 upon the stormy and puzzling sea of Mahratta politics. 
 The first temptation had been the rich island of Salsette, 
 that lay in their immediate neighbourhood. In 1778, after 
 various other attempts had failed, advantage was taken 
 of the confusion and civil war which ensued on the assas- 
 sination of Narrain Rao, and the election of a new peishwa 
 of the Mahrattas. A considerable force, sent against Sal- 
 sette, stormed the principal fort, and then took quiet pos- 
 session of the island ; to secure this conquest, and to obtain 
 some territory in the neighbourhood of Surat, the Bombay 
 presidency concluded a treaty with Eagoba, one of the 
 aspirants to the musnud. Eagoba made the desired grants, 
 and received his price in English troops and sepoys, with 
 whom he made sure of beating all his competitors. The 
 presidency sent Colonel Keating, with 500 European in- 
 fantry, 80 European artillery, 1,400 sepoys, and 160 lascars, 
 with a field-train, and some heavier pieces, to assist Eagoba, 
 who had himself a large army of horse.* On the 18th of 
 May, 1775, Keating, on the plain of Arras, repulsed the 
 attack of one of the Mahratta confederacies ; but he lost a 
 considerable number of men and officers, and found his 
 movements impeded by a mutiny in Eagoba' s camp. That 
 chief, however, got together some money, paid his troops, 
 and bought over many of his enemies ; and in the month 
 of July, the road to Poena, the Mahratta capital, seemed 
 open to him and his English allies. 
 
 At this point, the council at Calcutta struck in ; and they 
 did so, without temper, honour, or decency. They ordered 
 the Bombay presidency instantly to recall their troops, and 
 they sent Colonel Upton to Poena. They censured all the 
 negotiations and operations of the presidency, determining, 
 at the same time, that Salsette, and the other territories 
 which had been acquired by them, were to be kept for the 
 Company. Upton's instructions were to treat with such of 
 
 * Forbes, ' Oriental Memoirs.' Mr. Forbes was at this time private 
 secretary to Colonel Keating, the commanding officer. 
 
1775.] A >'AT1YE COALTTIOK. 123 
 
 the cKiefs of the Mahratta confederacy as the supreme coun- 
 cil of Calcutta in their \^'isdom considered as likely to 
 prevail ; but Upton was also furnished with a letter from the 
 said council to Hagoba, in case he should prove the stronger. 
 If the confederac}" succeeded, the letter might be burned ; if 
 they should be defeated, it would serve as an introduction to 
 negotiations Tvith Eagoba. The pertinacity of the Malu'atta 
 chiefs, confederated against Eagoba, in demanding the imme- 
 diate restoration of Salsette,Bassein, and every inch of terri- 
 tory we had acquired, soon induced the supreme council to 
 determine that the peishwa recognized by the presidency of 
 Bombay, was to be recognized by them also, as the rightful 
 sovereign of the Mahrattas, and that the cause of Eagoba 
 was to be supported "with the utmost vigour, and with 
 a general exertion of the whole power of the English arms 
 in India." Upon this, the confederates, hostile to Eagoba, 
 agreed to yield Salsette, and the small islands near to it, to 
 the English, seeing that they would not be satisfied with 
 less ; and no sooner was this settled, than the ruling majority 
 of Calcutta agreed to abandon the cause of Eagoba, and give 
 up their claims to Bassein, etc. A treaty to this effect was 
 concluded by Colonel Upton ; and then Eagoba, knowing 
 that his life was in danger, prayed for an as^'lum in Bombay. 
 That presidency granted his prayer ; but the supreme council 
 sent orders from Calcutta, that they were not to receive him, 
 as such a measure might give umbrage to the confederacy with 
 whom the treaty had been concluded; and Eagoba was 
 therefore condemned to lead a vagabond life. Yerily, Fran- 
 cis, Clavering, and Monson, were proper men to moralize on 
 the political conduct of Clive and Hastings ! 
 
 While these events were passing in Western India, 
 other hosts of Mahrattas descended into the valley of the 
 Granges, and plundered part of the dominions of the young 
 nabob of Oude. Eumours also arose that there was a new 
 coalition between the Mogul, the Mahrattas, the Sikhs, the 
 Eohillas, and other Afghan tribes, for the conquest of the 
 whole of Oude, and the invasion of Bengal. It was no 
 wisdom or policy on the part of the supreme council that 
 broke up this project ; coalition was dissolved by quarrels 
 among its members and by want of money. If their united 
 forces had advanced rapidly, our Indian empire might have 
 tottered, for there was neither wisdom nor courage in the 
 dominant majority in council ; the natives were bewildered, 
 
124 THE RAJAH NUNCOMAR. [1775. 
 
 and fast losing their reliance on us, and the army was dis- 
 contented and dispirited. 
 
 Francis, Clavering, and Monson could think of little else 
 than of the means of ruining Hastings. They calumniated 
 him, they raked up information against him out of the dirt of 
 Calcutta, and they encouraged the greatest villains of the 
 province to stand forward as his accusers.* They brought 
 forward the arch-devil of Bengal, the notorious Rajah Nun- 
 comar avowed by all parties to be the greatest villain in all 
 India to charge the governor-general with having accepted 
 bribes. But Nuncomar came under the grip of English law, 
 which the "Begulating Act" had now established in the 
 country ; he was tried by a most respectable jury, who found 
 him guilty of an old forgery, and by English law he was con- 
 demned to be hanged. The trio who had set him on made 
 not the slightest attempt to save him ; on the contrary, 
 they kept back a petition which the rajah had addressed to 
 the Supreme Court and, as the law then stood, Nuncomar 
 was justly executed.f 
 
 If the trio in council deprecated war with the native powers, 
 they did so not from any sense of its injustice, but from their 
 calculations that the war would cost more than the prizes of 
 victory would be worth. Without being at war, they tried to 
 make all the subjected and allied parts of India pay war taxes. 
 While the governor-general was spending in the public ser- 
 vice the moderate private fortune he had accumulated, Philip 
 Erancis, a man new to the country, who had never known 
 either toil or danger, was hoarding and scraping, jobbing, 
 speculating, trading, and resorting to all those means which 
 enabled him to return to Europe with a very large fortune. 
 
 But on the25th of September, 1776, the majority in council 
 was reduced to an equality by the death of Colonel Monson, 
 There thus remained only two on either side, but the cast- 
 ing vote of the governor-general gave him the superiority. 
 Dissensions and manceu\Tes in Calcutta, and misunderstand- 
 ings in the Court of Directors in England, fiir too numerous 
 
 * Letter to Sulivan, dated February 12th, 1775, as given by Mr. 
 Gleig, in * Memoirs of Warren Hastings.' 
 
 f I hold that this view of the Nuncomar case is fully made out by 
 the documents quoted by Mr. Elijah Barwell Impey, in his memoirs of 
 his father. But the question had been settled many years before the pub- 
 lication of Mr. Impey's book, by Sir Elijah's own triumphant defence 
 at the bar of the House of Commons. 
 
1777.] TEENCH WITH THE MAnKATTAS. 125 
 
 to relate in an epitome of Indian history, then ensued. The 
 disputes rose so high, that the sword of civil war was half 
 unsheathed in the streets of Calcutta. But General 
 Clavering, a man of the sword, and of an impetuous temper, 
 was made to quail before the firm, unflinching civilian War- 
 ren Hastings. At length Colonel Monson's place was filled 
 by Mr. Wheler, who, though he came out expecting to be 
 governor-general himself, consented to hold an inferior post. 
 Wheler commonly voted with i'rancis ; but before that 
 party could recover confidence, it was again reduced to a 
 minority by the death of General Clavering. 
 
 Hastings had now the preponderancy. This was fortu- 
 nate, as the circumstances of the times Required all his 
 energy and skill. Most of the Mahratta chiefs who had been 
 parties to the treaty with Colonel Upton were weary of 
 their bargain ; fresh intrigues and combinations were form- 
 ing, a French ship had put into one of the Mahratta ports, 
 and a French agent was living at Poena, and exercising 
 great influence in that capital. The presidency of Bombay 
 wrote alarming letters to Calcutta, and recommended a new 
 alliance with Eagoba, in order to anticipate the designs of 
 the French and the Mahratta chiefs. Hastings had long 
 been convinced that our greatest danger in India would pro- 
 ceed from a union of the French with the Mahrattas, and that 
 any attempt of that kind ought to be met on the instant. 
 
 Without hesitation, Hastings proposed in council, that 
 every possible assistance in men and money should be given 
 to Eagoba and his ally Baboo, and that an army should be 
 sent from Calcutta to Bombay. Francis and Wheler pro- 
 tested ; but in vain. Ten lacs of rupees were immediately 
 forwarded to Bombay, by bills ; and on the 23rd of February, 
 orders were issued for assembling the forces at Culpee. If 
 the army went by sea, they would have to go round nearly 
 the whole of the immense peninsula of India, and it was 
 not the proper season for such a voyage, nor were there 
 transports to carry the troops, or ships of Avar to give them 
 convoy. " Let the army march by land," said Hastings. 
 This was a bold idea, that had not yet presented itself to the 
 mind of any Anglo-Indian soldier or statesman. Francis 
 and Wheler, and many others, said the governor-general was 
 mad. But Hastings had studied the capabilities of the 
 native troops, and had a high reliance on their steadiness 
 and powers of endurance ; and he had long wished for an 
 
 i 
 
126 A WOKDERPUL 3IARCH. [1778. 
 
 opportunity to show the might of the Company to some 
 of the princes and potentates of the interior, who, from the 
 remoteness of their situation, had hitherto remained strangers 
 to it. Some good British officers, whom he consulted, saw 
 no impossibility in marching through hostile or unknown 
 regions, from the banks of the Granges to the Grulf of Cam- 
 bay. Taking all responsibility on himself, the governor- 
 general gave the word ' advance.' 
 
 The army was composed of six native battalions, a corps 
 of native cavalry furnished by the nabob of Oude, and a com- 
 pany of artillery ; altogether, amounting to 103 European 
 officers, 6,234 native troops, with 31,000 followers, includ- 
 ing the bazaar, carriers of baggage, servants of officers, and 
 families of sepoys ; and this host had to march upwards 
 of 1,000 miles through countries where nearly every kind 
 of obstacle had to be overcome. The command was in- 
 trusted to Colonel Leslie, who did not prove worthy of 
 executing so bold and brilliant a conception. Except the 
 officers, there were no British or Europeans of any other 
 nation. The army commenced its march on the 12th of 
 June, 1778. It had not proceeded far, when intelligence 
 was received, that war had been declared between Erance 
 and England. Prancis and AV^heler insisted that the army 
 should he recalled ; but Hastings insisted that it should go 
 on, and that the river Hooghly, Calcutta, and all Bengal, 
 could be very well defended without it. Clive himself could 
 not have shown more resoluteness or more rapidity than did 
 Hastings on this trying occasion. He seized Chanderna- 
 gore, and all the restored Erench factories in Bengal ; he 
 sent orders to the presidency of Madras to occupy Pondi- 
 cherry but, in infraction of the last treaty of peace, Pondi- 
 cherry had been re-fortified, and could not be taken without 
 a siege : he threw up strong works near Calcutta ; he col- 
 lected ships and improvised a regular marine establishment ; 
 he raised nine battalions of sepoys, and a niunerous corps 
 of native artillery ; and, being thus at ease in this quarter, 
 he directed his attention to the other parts of India. 
 
 Colonel Leslie had been instructed to conciliate where 
 he could, and to fight his way through where he could not. 
 Hastings had previously sent letters and presents to the 
 rajah of Berah and other princes, through whose territories 
 the troops must march. The army met vtith a feeble resist- 
 ance, in crossing the river Jumna, from a Mahratta chief 
 
1779.] CONFLICTS ^YITII THE MAnEATTAS. 127 
 
 called Ballajee. This chief also engaged the rajah of Bon- 
 dilcund to oppose it as it advanced up the country. But 
 the rajah and the Mahrattas were beaten and routed, and by 
 the middle of July, Leslie was at Chatterpoor, having been 
 joined by a brother of the rajah, who claimed the musnud, 
 and by several other Bondilcund chiefs. Gro where they 
 woidd in India, the English found disputed successions and 
 mad factions to tempt their ambition, and furnish means for 
 its gratification. Contrary to the advice of Hastings, Leslie 
 entangled himself in the contests of the two brothers. 
 Having reached Eajaghur, a principal city of Bondilcund, 
 the "Country of Diamonds," on the 17th of August, he 
 halted there for a long time, and entered into various private 
 negotiations. But the delay is in part attributable to the 
 indecision of the presidency of Bombay, under whose orders 
 he had been told to consider himself from the moment he 
 had passed the Jumna. 
 
 Leslie, therefore, remained where he was in Bondilcund, 
 justifying his inacti\dty by showing that a force which was 
 to advance from Bombay to meet him had not taken the 
 field. When he had loitered away four months, busied in what 
 Hastings called '" paltering work," the governor-general 
 recalled him, and gave the command of the army to Colonel 
 Goddard. It is possible that Leslie might have been 
 brought to account at Calcutta for some of his acts and 
 private bargains ; but he died on the 3rd of October, several 
 days before the letter of recall could reach him. Goddard, 
 a much more active and enterprising officer, was released 
 from the authority of the presidency of Bombay, and in 
 structed to judge and act for himself. He forthwith quitted 
 Bondilcimd, and, taking the road through Malwa, he con-^ 
 tinned his march a long Avhile in peace, ease, and plenty, 
 without experiencing any of the many impediments which 
 Leslie had anticipated. He soon crossed the jNTerbudda, and 
 reached the city of Nagpoor. By the 1st of December, 
 Goddard had established friendly relations with the Mah- 
 rattas of Berar. Now he received despatches from the 
 Bombay presidency, acquainting him that they had at last 
 put an army in motion for Poona, and expected that he would 
 meet it in the neighbourhood of that city. 
 
 This Bombay force, 4,500 strong, under Colonel Egerton, 
 advanced boldly through the ghauts, ai riv^ed at Condala, and 
 by the 4th of January, 1779, were in full marcli for Poona. 
 
 
 
128 EEYEESES AND DISOEACE. [1779. 
 
 Loose bodies of Mahratta horse kept skirmishing and retreat- 
 ing, but Colonel Egerton could nowhere see the friendly 
 Mahratta army which Eagoba (once more in close alliance 
 with us !) had assured him would repair to his standard. 
 Ragoba, who was accompanying Egerton with a very small 
 force, was taken to task ; but he represented that the 
 wavering Mahratta chiefs were not likely to join until the 
 English should have obtained some decisive advantage. 
 Egerton, therefore, kept advancing till the 9th of January, 
 when he was only sixteen miles from Poena, in which 
 neighbourhood he was sure to meet Goddard in a very few 
 days. But here a halt was suddenly ordered, for a large 
 army of Mahratta horse was seen in front. Unfortunately 
 for the credit of the expedition, the Bombay govennnent 
 had sent two civil commissioners into the field with Egerton. 
 The civilians allowed themselves to be overcome by unmanly 
 fears, and, upon pretext that the subsistence of the troops 
 would be very precarious if they advanced they had still 
 in camp provisions for eighteen days! they ordered a 
 retreat. The Mahratta army followed them, cut to pieces 
 nearly 400 men, and carried off the greater part of their 
 baggage and provisions. The two commissioners fell into a 
 state of helplessness and despair ; and even Colonel Eger- 
 ton declared it to be impossible to carry back the army to 
 Bombay. The three deserved hanging, and two of them 
 (the civil commissioners) were well nigh inciirring the risk 
 of a worse fate in a Mahratta prison. A deputation was 
 sent to the enemy to know upon what terms they would 
 condescend to permit the quiet march of the English back 
 to the coast. The Mahratta chiefs demanded that Eagoba 
 should be delivered up to them. With this demand. Colonel 
 Egerton and the commissioners complied, excusing the 
 breach of honour and hospitality, by alleging that Eagoba had 
 opened a correspondence with the enemy. When the Mah- 
 rattas had got Eagoba into their hands, they asked another 
 price for permitting the retreat, and this was nothing 
 less than a new treaty, by which the English shoidd agree 
 to give up all the acquisitions they had made in that part 
 of India since the year 1756, and send orders to Colonel 
 Goddard to return peaceably to Bengal. Egerton and the 
 commissioners did as they were commanded, and signed a 
 treaty to this effect. The Mahratta chiefs then demanded 
 hostages, intimating that they must be men of importance. 
 
1779-80.] COLONEL GODDAED. 129 
 
 The irritated army recommended that the two commis- 
 sioners should be delivered over to the harbarians ; but it was 
 finally arranged, that two other civilians should be sent to 
 the Mahratta camp. The dishonoured army was then told 
 it might pursue its march to Bombay, without fear of mo- 
 lestation. 
 
 In the mean while, Goddard was advancing upon Poona, 
 in the full confidence that lie should meet Egerton and his 
 forces near that city. But when he reached Boorhampoor, 
 980 miles from Calcutta, Goddard was brought to a halt 
 by perplexing letters and advices. By one letter from 
 the field-commissioners he was told that he must retrace 
 his steps ; by another from the same commissioners he was 
 told that he must pay no attention to what they had said ; 
 but neither the commissioners nor Egerton gave him an 
 account or any intelligible hint of what had befallen their 
 Bombay army. In this state of doubt, Goddard remained 
 at Boorhampoor till the 5th of [February, when he learned 
 the real state of afiairs. Happily he was no Egerton, and 
 had no commissioners with him. He resolved not to be 
 bound by a treaty made by fools and cowards, who had no 
 right to include him in their disgrace. He would bravely 
 continue his march to the western coast, avoiding Poena, 
 and making direct for Surat, where he would be in an 
 English settlement, with the sea open to Bombay. But 
 Surat was nearly 250 miles off", the disposition of the inter- 
 vening country very doubtful, and a great and increasing 
 army of Mahratta horse was hanging on his rear. His deci- 
 sion and rapidity, the discipline and orderly conduct of his 
 tive Bengal infantry, coidd alone save him from destruc- 
 n or dishonour.* But he and his army were preceded by 
 he sweet odour of a good name. In the course of their 
 long and toilsome marches from Bondilcund, no plunder- 
 ing, no excesses, no insults or wrongs of any kind had been 
 permitted. Hence, the country people flocked to supply 
 them with provisions, and to render such information 
 and services as they could. From Boorhampoor to ^ the 
 ast his route lay in tlie most fertile and best-cultivated 
 Ids of Ayestem India, thickly dotted with open villages 
 nd defenceless towns ; but the same morality was kept up, 
 
 * For the formation and gradual improvement of these valuable troops, 
 the reader is referred to Captain Williams's ' Historical Account of the 
 Rise and Progress of the Bengal Native Infantry.' 8vo. London, 1817. 
 
 K 
 
 
 m 
 
130 MAIIIIATTA WARFAEE. [1780. 
 
 the ai'my touclied nothing without paying for it, and was 
 consequently befriended and always well provided by the 
 natives. Goddard and his sepoys performed the 250 miles' 
 march in nineteen days, and entered Surat amidst acclama- 
 tions. They had achieved a triumph more valuable than any 
 victory ; they had left a moral impression which could not 
 soon be effaced, and which was scarcely overrated by Hast- 
 ings. "Be assured," wrote the governor-general to one of 
 the directors, " that the successful and steady progress of a 
 part, and that known to be but a small part, of the military 
 force of Bengal from the Jumna to Surat, has contributed 
 more than, perhaps, our more splendid achievements to aug- 
 ment our military reputation, and to confirm the ascendant 
 of our influence over aU the powers of Hindustan. To them, 
 as to ourselves, the attempt appeared astonishing and imprac- 
 ticable, because it had never before been made or suggested. 
 It has shown what the British are capable of eflecting."* 
 
 Colonel Groddard was promoted to the rank of general, 
 and was ordered to take upon himself all future wars or 
 negotiations with the Mahrattas. Eagoba, that man of 
 many adventures, escaped from his confinement at Poona, 
 and took refuge with the English in Surat. Groddard pro- 
 posed an amicable treaty with the Poona confederacy, upon 
 the basis that they should annul the dishonourable treaty 
 extorted from Egerton and the commissioners, and renounce 
 all connection with the Trench. The Mahratta chiefs 
 required as a preliminary that Bagoba should be given up, 
 and Salsette restored. Goddard would have been blown from 
 the mouth of a cannon rather than consent to such condi- 
 tions. He took the field at the beginning of January, 1780. 
 In a few days he reduced the fortress of Dubhoy and carried 
 by storm the important city of Ahmedabad, the ancient 
 capital of Goozerat. He was recalled in the direction of Surat 
 by intelligence that a Mahratta army, 40,000 strong, under 
 the two great chiefs, Scindia and Holkar, was approaching 
 that city. On the 4th of March he was close up with this 
 army, and would have attacked it that very night if the 
 Mahrattas had not liberated the two English hostages and 
 sent them to his camp with a vakeel or agent to open 
 new negotiations. Einding that the Mahrattas were only 
 seeking to gain time until the setting in of the rains, 
 
 * Letter to Mr. Sulivan, as given by Mr. Gleig. 
 
1780.] STOllMING OF GWALIOE. 131 
 
 Groddard tore up their papers and put his troops in motion. 
 As their army was all cavalry, Scindia and Holkar were 
 enabled for many days to avoid an attack ; but, on the 3rd of 
 April, between night and morning, he, with a select part of 
 his army, surprised them in their camp and put them to the 
 rout. Their flight left him undisputed master of all the 
 country between the mountains and the sea. In the mean 
 time Warren Hastings had formed an alliance with an Hindu 
 prince, commonly called the raiuia of Gohud, who possessed 
 an extensive hilly country between the territories of the 
 great Mahratta chief Scindia and the kingdom of Oude ; 
 and Captain Popham, with a small force, had been detached 
 from Bengal to assist the ranna in expelling a Mahratta 
 invasion. Popham, a brave, active officer, worthy of co-ope- 
 rating with Groddard, had taken the field at the beginning 
 of the year, had driven out the Mahrattas from the dominions 
 of the ranna, had crossed Scinde, had followed the Mah- 
 rattas into their own territory, and had taken by storm their- 
 fortress of Lahar. Hastings would have greatly reinforced. 
 Popham ; Francis protested ; but another detachment was 
 sent to join Popham. Before it had time to arrive, Popham, 
 with extraordinary daring, took by escalade the fortress of 
 Grwalior, one of the very strongest in all India, built upon a 
 lofty and almost perpendicular rock, and at that time 
 defended by a numerous garrison. The brave young Bruce, 
 who led the escalading and storming party, was one of a 
 family insensible to danger ; he was brother of Bruce, the 
 Abyssinian traveller. Upon the fall of Grwalior, the Mah- 
 rattas abandoned all that part of the country. 
 
 The opposition to this brilliant campaign of Captain 
 Popham was about the last pubHc act in India of Mr. PhiHp 
 Francis. A truce or concihation had been effected between 
 the governor-general and this discordant member of council, 
 Francis agreeing to cease or moderate his opposition, and 
 Hastings agreeing to concede to Francis a larger share in 
 the distribution of places of honour and profit. But no truce 
 could be of long duration between such contracting parties. 
 No sooner had Mr. Barwell, the supporter of the governor- 
 general in the council, taken his departure for England, than 
 Francis renewed his opposition, and again endeavoured to 
 thwart the campaign of Popham, and every project that lay 
 
 firest the heart of the governor-general. Irritated in the 
 reme, Hastings, in answering a minute of council, wrote : 
 k2 
 
1'32 DUEL AVITH FRANCIS. [17S0. 
 
 " I do not trust to Mr. Francis's promises of candour, con- 
 vinced that he is incapable of it. I judge of his public con- 
 duct by his private, which I have found to be void of truth 
 and honour." Although Francis well merited the reproach, 
 he could not do less than challenge the governor-general, 
 who shot him through the body. The wound, thought to be 
 dangerous, did not prove mortal. But Francis, wlio had 
 **' feathered his nest," resigned his place and returned home 
 a few months after the duel, to the incalculable advantage of 
 our interests and honour in India.* 
 
 * Rev, G. R. Gleig, 'Memoirs of Warren Hastings.' Major Wilks, 
 * Sketches of the South of India.' ' Wars in Asia,' by an officer of 
 Colonel Baiilie's detachment, London, 1780. 
 
1780.] WAR WITH MYSORE. 133 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The pride and confidence of the Mahrattas had been 
 lowered by Groddard and Popham, when the Mysoreans 
 again took the field and threatened the entire subversion of 
 the English power on the coast of Coromandel. 
 
 Eor the space of seven years Hyder Ali had been con- 
 certing schemes with the French at Pondicherry, improving 
 and increasing his army, and preparing the nerves of war by 
 squeezing his subjects and plundering his neighbours. The 
 treasury of Mysore was certainly well filled, and all the 
 ^veight which money could give was on the side of Hyder, 
 when, in the summer of 1780, he quitted Seringapatam, and 
 ])oiu*ed through the ghauts with 15,000 drilled infantry, 
 iO,000 peons, 28,000 cavalry, 2,000 artillery and rocket- 
 iiien, and 400 Erench and other European adventurers. 
 There was a complete staflf of French ofiicers to guide the 
 operations. The artillery exceeded 100 pieces of all 
 calibres. 
 
 To meet this immense force, the presidency of Madras 
 had an empty exchequer, a divided council, an army of 
 6,000 men, mostly sepoys ; and these troops, wholly unpre- 
 pared, were scattered over a wide tract of country. As for 
 the forces of their ally, the nabob of the Carnatic, there was 
 no reliance to be put in them : they ran away, or they 
 deserted to Hyder so soon as his army defiled through the 
 ghauts. The Mysoreans captured and plundered Porte 
 Xovo on the coast, and Conjeveram, close to Trichinopoly, 
 and kindled fires that were seen by night from the top of 
 Mount St. Thomas, close to Madras. That presidency sent 
 to Calcutta to implore the governor-general to forward 
 
 Fthem help, and, above all, money. With money all would go 
 
 roll, but without money the Coromandel coast would be 
 
 lost, and a death-blow given to the British empire in India. 
 
 Hastings knew these truths, and he filled a purse for Madras 
 
131 DEFEAT OF COLONEL BAILLIE. [1780. 
 
 as best he could. Before his money, a French armament 
 arrived on the Coromandel coast. 
 
 The presidency of Madras gave contradictory orders to 
 the officers commanding their scattered army, and there 
 appears to have been no concert or good understanding 
 among the commanders of their forces. Colonel Baillie 
 allowed himself to be surrounded near Conjeveram by 
 Hyder's main body. His weak battalions defended them- 
 selves most gallantly, and for many hours, and they would 
 have fought on still, if Baillie had not gone forward, waving 
 his white handkerchief, to ask for quarter, and had not 
 ordered his men to lay down their arms. The termination 
 of the affair was a cowardly butchery of one-half of the 
 English who had survived the carnage of the battle, and a 
 horrible captivity to the rest.* 
 
 Just before this unequal battle began, Sir Hector Monro, 
 with another division of the Madras army, was within a 
 short march of Hyder's rear. Had Monro come up, the 
 Mahrattas must have been defeated ; but it was pleaded in 
 excuse of his reticence, that his rice-bags were empty, and 
 his troops half starved. As the money which Hastings was 
 collecting in Bengal had not yet arrived, the excuse may 
 liave been founded on truth. Upon learning the dreadful 
 <3atastrophe of Baillie, Sir Hector abandoned his tents and 
 baggage, threw his heavier guns into a tank, and fled to 
 Madras. A great part of the country was again laid waste, 
 and within a few weeks, AYandewash, Chingliput, Vellore, 
 and Arcot were either captured or closely besieged. 
 
 But for Hastings, the game was up in the Carnatic and 
 the Northern Circars. He soon sent fifteen lacs of rupees 
 to Madras as a present supply for the army, with a promise 
 that more money should be forthcoming. His missives and 
 agents were sent flying through the country to procure it 
 at Moorshedabad, at Patna, at Benares, at Lucknow, in 
 every place where the governor-general had a claim, or could 
 invent one for all considerations gave way in his mind to 
 the paramount duty of preserving the British empire in the 
 east. The inert governor of Madras was recalled, and Sir 
 Eyre Coote was invited to take the command and the entire 
 
 * Colonel Wilks, ' Historical Sketches of the South of India,' &c. 
 * Wars in Asia,' by an officer of Col. Baillie's detachment, 2 vols. 8vo. 
 London, 1788. ' Tippoo Sultan, Memoirs of,' by an Officer in the E. I. 
 Company's service, 8vo. Calcutta, 1819. 
 
1781.] MAECH OF PEAESE. 135 
 
 management of the war. Peace was concluded with the 
 Mahratta Scindia, and the brave and alert Popham was called 
 down from the Jumna. 
 
 The veteran Coote took with him from Calcutta 500 
 choice British troops, 600 lascars, and between 40 and 50 
 gentlemen volunteers ; for, seeing that further reinforce- 
 ments would be required in the Carnatic, and well knowing, 
 since Groddard's progress to Surat, that the native troops 
 might be trusted on the longest marches, Hastings, early in 
 the ensuing year, 1781, started Colonel Pearse from Cal- 
 cutta with five small regiments of native infantry, some 
 native cavalry, and a miniature train of artillery, to find or 
 force his way through Cuttack, the Northern Circars, and 
 half of the Carnatic, a distance of more than 1,100 miles, 
 and through a country cut up by many rivers, which were 
 all to be crossed where broadest and deepest, or nearest 
 their mouths. Pearse and his gallant Bengal detachment 
 behaved quite as well as Goddard and that little native 
 army ; they overcame all obstacles, made friends on the 
 route, reached Madras at a most critical juncture, and were 
 eminently useful in that quarter, particularly in the attack 
 on the French lines at Cuddalore, in 1783. " There are no 
 difficulties," said Hastings, "which the true spirit of mili- 
 tary enterprise is not capable of surmounting."* 
 
 in the mean time. Sir Eyre Coote had taken the field 
 against the Mysoreans, with 1,700 Europeans and about 
 5,000 native troops. He marched to recover "Wandewash, 
 which had been the scene of his greatest exploit. Terrified 
 at his name, Hyder Ali abandoned "Wandewash, raised 
 several of his sieges, and seemed on the point of flying back 
 through the ghauts. But at this moment, a Erench fleet 
 came to anchor off" Pondicherry, and Coote was obliged to 
 encamp on the hills behind that city. On taking Pondi- 
 
 * These words were contained in one of the last General Orders Hast- 
 ings issued to the army of Bengal. They were addressed to Goddard's 
 corps, which had returned home after five years' absence, and most active 
 service. 
 
 When Colonel Pearse's detachment, which had been reduced by service 
 from 5,000 to 2,000 men, returned to Bengal, after an absence of four 
 years, Hastings treated them with all possible honour and distinction : 
 he visited them, he talked to them, and his personal conduct towards both 
 the European officers and the natives gave grace to his public measures. 
 A lasting impression was made on the minds of all. Others were stimu- 
 lated to future exertions by his present conduct. 
 
 i 
 
136 IITDER ALI IN THE CARNATIC. [1781. 
 
 clierry (after a siege) at the breaking out of this war with 
 France, Sir Hector Monro had partly destroyed the fortifi- 
 cations, and had put a very small garrison in the town. 
 Even this garrison had been withdrawn at the beginning of 
 Hyder's present invasion. The French officers had given 
 their parole, the inhabitants had been protected and allowed 
 to continue their trade ; but the temptation was too great, 
 and when it was seen that the English were losing ground, 
 and known that a great armament was coming from France, 
 they had clapped the English resident in prison, flown to 
 arms, enlisted sepoys, and collected provisions for an army 
 in Karangotty, at a convenient distance from Porto Xovo. 
 
 Coote now disarmed the inhabitants of Pondicherrv, and 
 marched away to destroy their depot. Hyder, emboldened 
 by the presence of the French fleet seven ships of the line 
 and three frigates had descended to the coast, and he now 
 moved on the right flank of the English, with the evident 
 intention of protecting the depot, and keeping open his 
 communications with the fleet. At one time, the two armies 
 were close to each other, and Coote told his men that the 
 day of victory had arrived. But Hyder would not accept 
 the challenge to battle; and very soon he moved rapidly 
 back into the interior, despondent and terror-stricken at 
 the sudden departure of the fleet from Pondicherry. With 
 the old apprehension of the approach of a superior EngHsh 
 force, the French set sail for the Mauritius, on the 15th of 
 February, 1781. Coote could not follow the IMysorean 
 army, for a sickness broke out in his camp, and the countiy 
 had been so wasted that he could find no forage for his 
 cattle. 
 
 Penetrating into Tanjore, Hyder ravaged that beautiful 
 district. His son Tippoo made a rush at Wandewash, and 
 even laid siege to that place. Sir Edward Hughes, with an 
 English squadron, destroyed Hyder's infant navy in his own 
 ports of Calicut and Mangalore, and about the middle of 
 June arrived at Madras with some reinforcements. 
 
 On the 18th of June, Coote attacked the fortified pagoda 
 of Chillambaram, near Trichinopoly, about thirty miles S.W. 
 from Cuddalore, and was repulsed with very considerable 
 loss. This affair gave Hyder such confidence, that he came 
 again down to the coast, and encamped at Cuddalore. He 
 took up good ground, and made lines and formidable re- 
 doubts, after the plans drawn for him by French officers. 
 
1782.] coote's campaign. 137 
 
 He had three whole days for these operations ; but, during 
 that time, Sir Edward Hughes landed men and guns, pro- 
 visions and ammunition, and early in the morning of the 
 fourth day the 1st of July Coote, advancing from Porto 
 Xovo, fell upon his host of 80,000 with 7,000 men, forced 
 his lines, carried his batteries, and gave him a thorough 
 defeat. Leaving more than 3,000 dead upon the field, and 
 raving and tearing his clothes, Hyder fled on a fleet horse, 
 and was soon out of sight with all his cavalry. Coote had 
 no cavalry to pursue him. He was next heard of at Arcot, 
 whither he had recalled Tippoo from Wandewash. He 
 began to have a correcter notion of the spirit and resources 
 of his enem}^ "The defeat of many Baillies," said he, 
 " will not destroy these English. I can ruin their resources 
 by land, but I cannot dry up the sea." He sore regretted 
 having allowed himself to be drawn into the war by French 
 councils ; and he bitterly complained of having been deluded 
 by expectations of a great Erench force. He determined, 
 however, to risk another battle, for the defence of Arcot. 
 The ground he chose was the very spot where Baillie's 
 detachment had been annihilated, and which he therefore 
 considered a lucky spot. He was again defeated ; but this 
 time Coote's army sustained a severe loss. This was on 
 the 27th of August. On the 27th of September, another 
 battle was fought in the pass of Sholinghur, near Yellore. 
 Here Hyder was routed with terrible loss ; and our fortress 
 of A^ellore, one of the keys of the Carnatic, almost reduced to 
 extremities by famine, was relieved and saved. The rains, 
 the monsoon floods, and the rising of the rivers, put an end 
 to any further extensive operations ; but before Coote retired 
 into cantonments, Chittore, Palipett, and other places we had 
 lost, were recovered. 
 
 During the campaign, on the 22nd of June, Lord Ma- 
 cartney, an able and excellent man, had arrived at Madras as 
 governor of that presidency. His lordship brought intelli- 
 gence of the declaration of war between England and Hol- 
 land ; and his first care was to gain possession of all the 
 Dutch factories or settlements on that coast. This was 
 done with admirable rapidity. Sadras and Pulicat surren- 
 dered without fighting, and Xegapatam yielded to a bom- 
 bardment. The prize at the last-named place, in arms, 
 ^^varlike stones, and merchandise, was of great value, and 
 
138 DEFEAT OF COL. BEATHWAITE. [1782. 
 
 operations Lord Macartney had only some gentlemen volun- 
 teers, some of the Madras militia, and sailors, and a few- 
 marines taken out of our men-of-war. 
 
 jN'othing more remained in that quarter to take from the 
 Dutch; but on the other side of Polk's Strait was the 
 island of Ceylon, all access to which the Dutch had most 
 jealously guarded for more than a hundred years, and there 
 they held the town and famed port of Trincomalee. Lord 
 Macartney resolved to add these to the list of conquests. 
 Admiral Hughes, taking on board only 500 land-troops, 
 sailed from ]N"egapatam on the 2nd of January, 1782, and 
 by the 11th of the same month the English were masters of 
 the town and port one of the most important harbours in 
 all India, the most secure place of refuge for ships surprised 
 by storms, and so conveniently situated with reference to 
 our settlements on the Coromandel coast, that a ship may 
 reach it from Madras in two days. 
 
 Colonel Brathwaite, after assisting Lord Macartney in 
 the reduction of Negapatam, had returned into Tanjore with 
 the view of recovering some of the fortresses of that country 
 which had been taken by Hyder and his son Tippoo, rather 
 by bribery than by force of arms. By the same arts, Brath- 
 waite was now deceived and misled by his Tanjorean allies ; 
 and w^iile encamped on the left bank of the Cavery, on the 
 18th of February, he was surprised, enveloped, and de- 
 stroyed, by Tippoo and a Trench corps, after maintaining a 
 most unequal struggle from sunrise to sunset. The circum- 
 stances of Brathwaite' s defeat resembled those of Colonel 
 Baillie's : he had only 100 English, 1,500 sepoys, and 300 
 native horse ; while Tippoo had 10,000 cavalry, 10,000 in- 
 fantry, 20 pieces of artillery, and 400 Europeans, com- 
 manded by Erench officers. The Erench decided the long 
 and obstinate contest by charging our exhausted sepoys with 
 the bayonet. The massacre of the prisoners was prevented 
 by the humanity and courage of the Erench officers, who 
 were seen risking their own lives, and cutting down Tippoo' s 
 savages to save the wounded and defenceless English. The 
 few survivors of this bloody field among whom was Colonel 
 Brathwaite himself were soon immured in the horrible 
 dungeons of Seringapatam. This disaster was scarcely 
 counterbalanced by successes obtained on the yerj same 
 day over Hyder Ali on the Malabar coast. 
 
 The regular cavalry of Madras the first arm of the kind 
 
1782.] MADEAS CAYALEY. 139 
 
 we had in India was originally raised by our ally Mohammed 
 Ali, the nabob of the Carnatie. The first corps embodied 
 into a regiment under the command of European officers 
 had served in the campaign against the Mysoreans in 1768. 
 From 1771 to 1776, this cavalry force was greatly aug- 
 mented ; but then most unfortunately it had been allowed 
 to decline both in numbers and in efficiency. It was through 
 our weakness in this arm that Hyder and Tippoo had 
 gained their advantages, and had so often escaped our pur- 
 suit. Towards the close of this present war, these cavalry 
 corps were strengthened and improved ; and in 1784, when 
 the war was finished, they were formally transferred, with 
 the English officers attached to them, from the nabob's to the 
 Company's service. Erom that moment all the mutinies 
 among them, caused by the intrigues of a venal court and 
 irregular payments, ceased altogether, and for a period of 
 more than sixty years their career has been one of faithful 
 service and brilliant achievements. Among their brave 
 subahdars, who live in the traditions of our native armies, 
 and whose name and fame are preserved in the history of 
 British India, Secunder Beg, Cawder Beg, and Sheik Ibra- 
 him, were the most remarkable.* 
 
 * * Quarterly Review,' vol. xviii. Sir John Barrow, ' Account of 
 the Public Life of the Earl of Macartney.' Colonel Wilks, ' Historical 
 Sketches of the South of India.' * Memoirs of the late Wars in India.' 
 Captain Williams, * Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the 
 Bengal Native Infantry.' Rev. G. R. Gleig, * Memoirs of Warren 
 Hastings.' 
 
M 
 
 110 WAE IX THE CABXATIC. [1782. 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 But the war of the Carnatic was now to rage by sea as 
 well as by land ; and Bussy, the Clive of the Erench, was 
 returning to take the command on the field of his early 
 exploits and glory. The French government sent out 
 Admiral SufFrein with ships and troops, SufFrein had an 
 adventurous voyage. Among the Cape de Verd Islands, he 
 encountered the sqnadron of Commodore Johnstone, who, 
 after an indecisive battle, followed him as far as the Cape of 
 Good Hope, and who probably might have spoiled his voy- 
 age if he had not preferred capturing five rich Dutch East- 
 Indiamen in Saldanha Bay. Johnstone returned home with 
 his prizes ; but a part of his squadron, with transports 
 having on board British troops for India, followed in the 
 track of Admiral Suffrein. The Erench put into the Isle of 
 Erance, where they were joined by more troops, and by several 
 other ships. The English, whose crews were sickly, stopped 
 at the Isle of Johanna some twenty-four days. Erom these 
 two new starting-points Johanna and the Isle of Erance 
 the Erench had a quicker and more fortunate passage 
 than the English. Elaving captured on his way the Han- 
 nihal, a fifty-gun ship, which had been separated from the 
 rest of the English squadron, Suftrein reached the Coroman- 
 del coast early in January, with his ships all safe, and with 
 3,000 land-troops on board, two-thirds being veteran E'rench 
 soldiers, and the other third Caftres, and all under the com- 
 mand of Bussy. 
 
 Admiral Sir Edward Hughes was at this moment engaged 
 in reducing [or settling Trincomalee. Our squadron from 
 England was not long behind the Erench. Separating into 
 two divisions, one division ran for Bombay under the 
 impression that the Erench armament was destined for 
 that neighbourhood, and the other went in quest of Admiral 
 Hughes without knowing where he was stationed. The first 
 
K 
 
 
 17S2.] BATTLES AT SEA. 141 
 
 of these divisions readied Bombay on tlie 22nd of January, 
 having part of the British troops on board under the com- 
 mand of Colonel Humberstone Mackenzie. All was quiet in 
 that neighbourhood ; but, after some hesitation, Mackenzie 
 boldly resolved to attempt a diversion on the Malabar side 
 of Hyder's dominions, and on the 18th of February he 
 landed his troops at Calicut. He had with him scarcely 
 1,000 men; but there was already a detachment of Bombay 
 sepoys on that part of the coast iinder Major Abingdon, 
 who had compelled Cahcut to surrender on the 12th of 
 February ; and when these forces were united, Mackenzie 
 was quite strong enough to dri^^e before him a Mysorean 
 army, to take several towns and fortresses, and to create a 
 panic in the mind of Hyder, who was under the necessity 
 of weakening his army in the Carnatic, in order to check 
 the English in Malabar. 
 
 Meanwhile, Sir Edward Hughes, leaving a small garri- 
 son in Trincomalee, had returned to Madras on the 8th of 
 Ecbruary, without encountering the very superior force of 
 Suffrein, although he had passed very near it. With equal 
 good fortune, the part of the squadron from England which 
 had separated from the rest on the western coast, and 
 which had on board 1,000 or 1,200 British troops, ran past 
 the Erench and joined Hughes at Madras on the 9th. Sir 
 Edward now counted nine sail of the line ; but six of these 
 ships were foul and damaged from long service in the 
 Indian seas. On the 15th Suffrein appeared off Madras, 
 with twelve ships of the line and six frigates. The Erench 
 admiral had expected to find Hughes with only six ships 
 of the line. He Avas a brave man ; but the positive orders 
 of his government were to act with extreme caution, 
 s their finances could not bear the equipping of another 
 eet for the East. Therefore, Suffrein, instead of coming 
 o action, bore away to the southward. Hughes weighed 
 and followed him. On the 16th, the English ships that 
 were clean and coppered came up with and captured six 
 il of Suffrein' s convoy, one of these sail being a large 
 rench transport, loaded with shot, powder, and guns, and 
 having on board many officers, and 300 soldiers. Suffrein, 
 Hughes had anticipated, wore round to protect the rest 
 _ f his convoy. During that night the hostile fleets came 
 close together, and on the following morning they came into 
 action. Inferior as was their force, the English severely 
 
142 M. BrssT AND Tippoo. [1782-3. 
 
 punished the French ships, and after a short but sharp 
 action, Suftrein bore away for Porto IS'ovo, where the Myso- 
 reans had a footing, and where the French were presently 
 joined by Tippoo, fresh from the slaughter of Colonel 
 Brathwaite's division in Tanjore. As Hughes had been 
 obliged to make for Trincomalee, in order to repair his 
 damaged masts and spars, Suifrein quietly landed at 
 Porto Novo M. Bussy, with his Frenchmen and Caifres, 
 artillery and stores. It was soon found that M. Bussy was 
 not the man he had been twenty years before. He united 
 his forces with the army of Tippoo ; but they performed no 
 exploit till the beginning of April, when they captured 
 Cuddalore a convenient station for the French fleet. 
 
 On the 8th of April, Hughes, who had refitted and who 
 had escorted to Madi'as a fleet of our Indiamen, found him- 
 self almost within gun-shot of Suffrein ; he pursued his 
 course to Ceylon, to execute his more immediate object, 
 which was to strengthen the garrison at Trincomalee ; but 
 he was closely followed by the French, who brought hitn to 
 action on the morning of the 12th, when his ships were on 
 a dangerous lee shore. The combat, beginning at noon 
 and lasting till dark, was hot and bloody, each side losing 
 from 500 to 600 men in killed and wounded ; but, after aU, 
 it was a drawn battle, Hughes reaching his port of destina- 
 tion, and Sufirein bearing up for the Dutch harbour of 
 Bathcola. 
 
 From Cuddalore, Bussy and Tippoo marched upon "Wan- 
 dewash. Coote, though now worn out by age, and suiFer- 
 ing from a recent apoplectic attack, advanced rapidly 
 to the relief of that place, and on the 24th of April, en- 
 camped on the very spot where he had defeated Lally and 
 Bussy in the year 1760. He had been reinforced by some 
 of the fresh British troops which had been landed by the 
 division of our squadron in the month of February. Instead 
 of accepting the battle he offered, Bussy and Tippoo re- 
 treated before Coote. The English had then threatened 
 the strong fort of Amee, where Hyder had deposited plun- 
 der and provisions. The old Mysorean advanced in person 
 for the defence of the place, and fought a loose battle, in 
 which he sustained some loss ; but, while he was facing 
 Coote, his son Tippoo succeeded in carrying off" the plunder 
 and provisions from Amee. 
 
 Bussy now retreated towards Pondicherry, Hyder put 
 
1782-3.] DEFEAT OF M. SUFFEEI^f. 143 
 
 himself in quarters near the coast, and Tippoo and a strong 
 French detachment hurried away in the direction of Calicut. 
 On the Malabar coast the affairs of Hyder seemed going 
 to ruin, for the Nairs or Hindu chiefs, who had been cruelly 
 oppressed by the Mysoreans, were rising in arms and joining 
 the English under Colonel Mackenzie. 
 
 At this critical juncture, when experience had shown him 
 that, even with the aid of his Trench allies, it was very doubt- 
 ful whether he could maintain his ground in the Carng-tic, 
 Hyder was thrown into utter dismay by learning the result 
 of Hastings' successful policy, or the conclusion of a treaty 
 between the English and the Mahrattas. He expected 
 every moment to have the Mahratta confederacy upon him ; 
 and on a former occasion the Mahrattas alone had been more 
 than a match for his Mysoreans. At the same time, he 
 suspected and dreaded the Erench, whom he was deter- 
 mined, on no account, to admit in any force into Mysore. 
 He was always fancying that the Mahrattas were falling 
 upon his country ; he was haunted by visions of conspiracy 
 and murder, and his health, which had been declining be- 
 fore, was quite broken by his anxieties. He however per- 
 mitted himself to be persuaded by M. Bussy that the war 
 in the Camatic was not yet hopeless, and that means 
 might be found to counteract Hastings, and win over the 
 fickle Mahrattas ; and while the cunning old man had amused 
 Sir Eyre Coote, and kept him in a state of inactivity, by 
 intimating that, he might accede to the governor-general's 
 treaty with the Mahrattas and become a party to it, he was 
 prepared to co-operate with M. Bussy in an attack upon 
 iS'egapatam. 
 
 The success of the powers contending on shore mainly 
 depended on the operations of the French and English 
 fleets. On the 3rd of July, another drawn battle was fought 
 between Suffrein and Hughes, after which the Erench went 
 to anchor at Cuddalore, and the English at Madras. Suf- 
 frein was the first to be ready for sea, and making again 
 for Ceylon, and being joined on that coast by two more 
 ships of the line, fresh from Europe, and with land-troops 
 on board, he made a dash at Trincomalee. The weak 
 garrison surrendered on the 31st of August, and on the 2nd 
 of [September, Admiral Hughes had arrived. Preferring 
 fighting with sea-room to being attacked in the bay, Suf- 
 frein came out, and another battle, far more desperate than 
 
141 PAMIXE IX THE CAENATIC. [1783. 
 
 either of the preceding ones between him and Hughes, took 
 place, the French having sixteen sail of the line, and the 
 English t^Yelve. As night set in, the French ran back to 
 Trincomalee, and in such confusion, that one of their best 
 ships ran ashore and was lost, and two others missed the 
 mouth of the bay, and fell down the coast. The slaughter 
 on board the French ships had been unprecedented ; in his 
 own ship, which was crowded wdth people, SufFrein counted 
 380 in killed and wounded : his total loss in killed and 
 wounded exceeded 1,000. 
 
 Admiral Hughes, annoyed at the loss of tlie town of 
 Trincomalee, returned to Madras, where he found Sir Eyre 
 Coote determined to make an attack upon the French 
 lines at Cuddalore, though almost deprived of the use of 
 his limbs by another paralytic seizure. Coote wanted the 
 admiral to remain and co-operate, but the admiral said that 
 he could not stay with aiiy safety to his ships during the 
 monsoon. There w^ere some bickerings about his going (he 
 sailed on the 15th of October, and got weU out to sea on 
 that day) ; but it proved to be a most happy thing that he 
 w'as gone. In the coiu-se of that night, the well-known 
 roar of the coming monsoon was heard at Madras, and the 
 surf began to shake the coast ; and by the next morning 
 the strand was covered wdth wrecks or fragments of mer- 
 chant ships that had stayed behind when Hughes took 
 his departure. With these ships had perished all the rice 
 and other provisions of Coote' s army. There had been 
 scarcity before, but now there was famine. Thousands 
 of the poor natives of the Carnatic, who had fled from 
 Hyder to seek refuge in Madras, were the first to feel 
 the horrors ; calling upon the English for help, which the 
 English had not the means of giving, they died by hundreds ; 
 and they soon had fellow-sufferers. The roads that led to 
 the town, and the streets of the town itself, were strewed 
 with the dead and dying. It is said that 10,000 poor souls 
 perished before supplies of rice could be obtained from 
 Bengal and other parts. 
 
 Four or five days after the departure of Sir Edward 
 Hughes, Sir Eichard Bickerton put into Madras Eoad with 
 some ships of war and land-troops from England ; but, 
 having no provisions to spare after his long voyage, and 
 considering it to be at once his duty and the only mode 
 of securing his ships menaced by the monsoon and by 
 
1783.] BATTLE or PANiAxr. 145 
 
 Suffrein's vast superiority to join the admiral, lie put again 
 to sea, and made for Bombay. Shortly after his departure. 
 Sir Eyre Coote, more dead than alive, was embarked for 
 Calcutta. 
 
 The command now devolved on Greneral Stuart, who sent 
 500 men to reinforce our garrison at ]N[egapatam, 400 Euro- 
 peans to co-operate with the Bombay and Bengal forces 
 under Goddard (who was preparing to invade Mysore), and 
 300 Europeans to strengthen our forces in the Circars. But 
 both Bussy and Suffrein became quite inactive. They did 
 not attack JSTegapatam when the garrison was weak ; they did 
 not attempt to intercept the small squadron of Bickerton ; 
 they made no attempt against Madras when it was famine- 
 stricken and in panic ; and they allowed the place to be 
 revictualled from the Circars and from Bengal. The health 
 of Hyder was now desperate, and Tippoo was at a distance 
 on the Malabar coast with ample work in hand for his 
 20,000 Mysoreans and 400 Frenchmen. Colonel H. Mac- 
 kenzie, who had made for Himself a strong party in Malabar, 
 was pressing on IMysofe, and was preparing for the siege of 
 Palagatcherry, not many marches from Seringapatam, when 
 the approach of Tippoo constrained him to fall back upon 
 the coast. The English drew up at Paniany, a sea-port 
 town about thirty-five miles from Calicut. Here Tippoo 
 attacked them on the 28th of jS'ovember, and sustained 
 himself a terrible defeat. Just after this reverse, Tippoo 
 received intelligence of his father's death ; and it be- 
 hoved him to look after his inheritance, for he had 
 brothers and cousins. He therefore left the Malabar army 
 to secure the musnud and the treasury at Seringapatam. 
 Having done this and seen his father interred, he hastened 
 to join the main army in Mysore, scorning all overtures 
 for a peace with the English. This was at the end of Decem- 
 ber. On the 4th of January (1783), Greneral Stuart took 
 the field against him. The immense Mysorean army, 
 though joined by 900 French veterans, 2,000 disciplined 
 sepoys, 250 Caffres, and twenty-two French field-pieces, 
 retreated before Stuart, whose entire force consisted of 
 about 14,000 men but of that number nearly 3,000 were 
 first-rate British troops. Tippoo crossed the river Arnee 
 in disorderly haste, and recalled his garrisons from Arcot 
 and other places. It became evident that he was evacu- 
 ating the whole of the Carnatic. He was not, however, 
 
 L 
 
146 GEN. MATHEWS AT BEDXOEE. [1783. 
 
 flying so mucli from Stuart, as flying to defend his own 
 dominions, now again seriously menaced by the English. 
 
 Soon after the retiring of Tippoo from the Malabar 
 coast. Colonel Humberstone Mackenzie carried his forces 
 to the coast of Canara, to co-operate with a part of the army 
 of Bengal, in reducing some of the richest provinces or 
 dependencies of Mysore. He reached his point in the 
 month of January, having displayed skill, precision, and 
 courage. Unhappily, General Mathews, who had arrived at 
 Bombay from England, with king's troops, came and took 
 the command over him. The fort of Onore was taken by 
 storm, the range of rocks which runs between the coast 
 and Bednore were scaled, the steep ghauts, though defended 
 at intervals by batteries, were cleared by the bayonet, and 
 on the 26th of January, the rich capital of Bednore sur- 
 rendered to the English. Most of the other forts in the 
 country surrendered at or before a summons ; but Anan- 
 pore and Man galore held out. Ananpore was carried by 
 storm, and Mangalore, situated on the coast, surrendered as 
 soon as a breach was made. This career of conquest was 
 checked by the meanness and avarice of General Mathews, 
 who wanted to keep all the spoil to himself, and to give 
 nothing either to the British or to the native troops 
 who, for several months, had received not a single rupee of 
 pay. Colonel Macleod, Colonel H. Mackenzie, and Major 
 Shaw, left the army and repaired to Bombay, to lay their 
 complaints before the governor and council.* After their 
 departure, Mathews behaved like a madman ; he scattered 
 his army all over the country in contemptible mud forts ; he 
 sent the brave 42nd Highlanders back to the coast ; and he 
 fixed his head-quarters in the city of Bednore, without 
 laying in a stock of ammuiution and provisions, or doing any- 
 thing to strengthen the fort. He was in this state of stupid 
 security when Tippoo, on the 9th of April, appeared in the 
 
 * The council agreed that Mathews should be superseded, and Colonel 
 Macleod, raised to the rank of brigadier-general, sent back to Bednore to 
 take the command. Humberstone Mackenzie and Major Shaw accom- 
 panied General Macleod ; but on their voyage along the coast they were 
 attacked, in a weak, small vessel, by five Mahratta pirates, who killed or 
 wounded nearly every Englishman on board. Major Shaw was despatched 
 outright; Colonel H. Mackenzie died of his wounds, and General Mac- 
 leod was carried into Gheriah. The general, however, was liberated from 
 his captivity, and soon appeared with an am ament on the Malabar 
 coast. 
 
17S3.] BEENADOTTE AT CUDDALOEE. 147 
 
 neiglibourliood with tlie great army which he had with- 
 drawn from the Carnatic. Mathews threw himself into the 
 fort, and there capitulated to Tippoo, on the last day of April. 
 He had been promised very honourable terms, but the Myso- 
 rean, instead of allowing him and his troops to retire with 
 the honours of war to the coast, bound them all with chains 
 or ropes, and sent them to his dungeons in Mysore. Tippoo 
 then went through the ghauts and down to Mangalore, in 
 which the 42nd and a few other troops had thrown them- 
 selves. This was an important place, the harbour being the 
 best on the coast of Canara ; and about the middle of May, 
 Tippoo and his French allies invested it. This siege detained 
 them for months from more important services, and, after 
 all, Mangalore was not taken. 
 
 The departure of the Mysoreans from the Carnatic had left 
 Greneral Stuart no enemies in that country except the French 
 and their sepoys, who remained behind their fortified lines at 
 Cuddalore. Sir Ejve Coote had returned to the coast, to re- 
 sume the chief command and expel these French, but a third 
 fit had proved fatal, and he had died on the 26th of April, three 
 days after landing at Madras. Stuart lost time, and when, 
 on the 13th of June, he attacked their lines, the French had 
 made themselves so strong, that he was repulsed with loss. 
 
 On the very next day. Sir Edward Hughes appeared in 
 the ofiing to co-operate in the attack on the lines of Cuddalore, 
 but he was closely followed by M. Suifrein. The two admi- 
 rals tacked and manoeuvred during six or seven days ; but, 
 on the 20th of June, they came into action. As it grew 
 dark, the two old antagonists separated, each with a good 
 number of killed and wounded on his decks ; and thus 
 indecisively ended the fifth and last engagement between 
 Hughes and Suffrein. On the 22nd, however, the French 
 ships managed to get into the harbour of Cuddalore, 
 ^vhere Suffrein landed every man he could spare to assist 
 y\. Bussy in defending the lines against Stuart. Encou- 
 raged by this accession of strength, Bussy attempted several 
 sorties and surprises, which, however, were not very success- 
 ul. In one of them, a good many Frenchmen were wounded 
 
 d taken prisoners. Among them was a brave young 
 
 rgeant, whose youth, gallantry, and superior manners 
 
 attracted the attention of Colonel AVangenheim, who was 
 
 serving under Stuart, with a corps of Hanoverians. The 
 
 kind-hearted German officer caused the young man to be 
 
 l2 
 
 
 
lis PEACE WITH THE TEENCII. [1783. 
 
 conveyed to liis own tent, where he was treated with every 
 possible kindness. That wounded young sergeant was 
 Charles John Bemadotte, afterwards general of the French 
 Republic, prince and marshal of the empire, prince of Ponte- 
 orvo, crown prince of Sweden, and, as his climax, Charles 
 John XIV., king of Sweden and Norway, &c. * 
 
 A few days after this sortie, when Stuart was expecting 
 reinforcements, and preparing at last for a desperate assault 
 on the Cuddalore lines, f news reached Madras that peace 
 had been concluded between France and England. 
 
 M. Bussy gladly agreed to a cessation of hostilities by 
 sea and land, and sent to invite Tippoo to be a party to 
 these pacific arrangements. 
 
 The Mysorean was ruining himself in ineffectual attempts 
 to take the town and half-ruined fort of Mangalore. He 
 showed no anxiety for peace, as more than a month passed 
 before M. Bussy received any answer to his letter. His 
 tone even then was high ; the English must restore to him 
 everything they had taken from him or his father. Lord 
 Macartney sent three commissioners to treat. Tippoo con- 
 tinued his siege of Mangalore. ]S^or were military opera- 
 tions against him suspended by the English. Colonel Fullar- 
 ton, an excellent officer, who had succeeded the unfortunate 
 Brathwaite, and who had been moving in the country beyond 
 Tanjore, had taken the important fortress of Daraporam, 
 which opened one of the roads to Seringapatam ; and having 
 destroyed its fortifications, he left a garrison in Dindigal, 
 another important fortress which he had taken by storm, 
 and. he made other arrangements to keep open his com- 
 munications, and facilitate his return towards the heart of 
 
 * More than twenty years after this incident, when Bernadotte took 
 possession of Hanover as a conqueror, he met the kind-hearted veteran, 
 then General Wangenheim, and showed to him his grateful recollection 
 of what had passed in front of the lines of Cuddalore. 
 
 t General Stuart's conduct had given universal dissatisfaction. As 
 soon as the truce was concluded with M. Bussy, the governor and council 
 of Madras unanimously resolved that he should be deprived of the com- 
 mand. Stuart insisted that the council could dispose only of the com- 
 mand of their sepoys, and that he, as an officer in his majesty's service, 
 had a right to retain the command of the king's troops. He spoke loudly 
 of using force against force. Decisive steps were necessary, and Lord 
 Macartney took them. He despatched his private secretary (the late Sir 
 John Barrow, we believe), and the town adjutant, with a party of sepoys, 
 to capture the general in his villa near Madras. Stuart was carried to 
 the fort, and in a day or two shipped off for England. 
 
1783.] WAR WITH TIPPOO. 149 
 
 Mysore, when the time should come. For the present, 
 Fullarton had another line of march to pursue. Hostilities 
 being terminated between the French and the Enghsh, Lord 
 Macartney reinforced him with about 1,000 Europeans, and 
 four battalions of sepoys, and instructed him to resume 
 the plan of a campaign which had been conceived by him- 
 self, and interrupted by Greneral Stuart, who had called 
 him back to assist in the attack on the French hues at Cud- 
 dalore : he was to move against the southern coast-possessions 
 of Tippoo, before trying the road to Seringapatam. 
 
 After reducing the numerous Polygars of Tinivelly, who 
 had thrown off" their allegiance to the Company at the com- 
 mencement of Ilyder's invasion, and had been ravaging the 
 country from Madura to Cape Comorin, and after chas- 
 tising the hill Cooleries, who had been committing horrible 
 excesses, Fullarton, with 16,000 fighting men, steadily kept 
 his course. He was without money or any means of supply^ 
 except such magazines of the enemy as he might be enabled 
 to capture. He was, however, well provided with artillery, 
 shot, and gunpowder, which had been collected from the 
 southern garrisons ; and the rajah of Travancore, who had 
 given a cordial support to Colonel Humberstone Mackenzie, 
 engaged to furnish some stores and provisions in the event 
 of his moving against the southern coast. A friendly cor- 
 respondence was also opened with the Zamorin, or ancient 
 Hindu sovereign of Calicut, and with the other Malabar 
 rajahs, whom Hyder had dispossessed and cruelly treated- 
 All these princes or chiefs, eager for repossession and re- 
 venge, afforded what little aid they could. Other parties, 
 less interested in the overthrow of Tippoo, occasionally 
 furnished stores and provisions, and took bills upon the 
 presidency of Madras, in payment. But Colonel Fullartoo 
 adopted other measures, which contributed in a much greater 
 degree to facilitate his progress, by gaining the good-will and 
 esteem of all parties. He treated the people with the utmost 
 gentleness and kindness, having always a compliment or good 
 word to say to them, whether they were princes or peasants ; 
 he gave up some paltr}'- duties which former commanders 
 had been accustomed to le\y upon all articles sold in the 
 bazaar or market of the army ; he completely checked plun- 
 dering, by hanging two or three of the first offenders ; and 
 most of all he paid the greatest respect to the deep-rooted 
 religious prejudices of the Hindus, and he enforced that re- 
 
 
 
150 ON THE MALABAR COAST. [1783. 
 
 spect on the European soldiery, who were too apt to ridicule 
 the worship, and laugh at the grotesque idols of the country. 
 This toleration was extended even to the poor Pooleahs of 
 Malabar, who worshipped monkeys, and pampered those 
 creatures with sacrifices, and who were, themselves, treated 
 as foul, obscene beasts, by the Hindiis. If a Nair met a 
 Pooleah on the highway, he cut him down like a noxious 
 animal. It was therefore the custom for a Pooleah, when 
 travelling, to give a loud howl, and to run to a tree and 
 climb up it, as he saw any Hindu approaching. The Eng- 
 lish conciliated the poor savages, who could be very useful 
 in the woods and forests they inhabited. Eullarton also 
 made a material change in the mode of marching, which had 
 hitherto been by files, so that a large army was often many 
 miles in length, with little communication between the dis- 
 tant parts of the line. At the same time he established, by 
 means of the natives, an admirable system for getting intelli- 
 gence, the want of which precaution had led to many dis- 
 asters in this war ; and so complete and effective was his 
 system, that statements were always procured, not only of 
 the military force of the enemy, but also of the grain 
 deposited anywhere within 200 miles of his front or flanks. 
 
 Por a short time, Eullarton halted in the neighbourhood 
 of Daraporam, waiting for intelligence from the three com- 
 missioners, whom Lord Macartney had despatched to Tippoo ; 
 but, on the 16th of October, when he was officially informed 
 that the Mysorean, instead of listening to terms of peace, 
 had recommenced active hostilities at Mangalore, he took 
 immediate measures to resent the insult, and bring the 
 tyrant to reason. 
 
 Eullarton' s mind, and that of the council at Madras, had 
 been divided between two plans 1. To march right across 
 the peninsula, through an enemy's country, 500 miles in 
 extent, to the relief of Mangalore. 2. Or, to advance upon 
 Seringapatam, and either overthrow the dynasty of Hyder in 
 their capital, or compel Tippoo to hurry from the coast, in 
 order to save that capital. He determined upon the latter 
 movement, though not by the direct road, which offered no 
 intermediate place of strength in which to lodge stores and 
 provisions for the prosecution of his undertaking, or in 
 which to secure a retreat in case of a reverse. But there 
 was a more circuitous route which presented this essential 
 recommendation, and several other military advantages. 
 
1783.] AN ADMIRABLE MAECK. 151 
 
 Palagatclierry, nearer to the coast, had been rebuilt by 
 Hyder, and was considered one of the strongest fortresses 
 in India : the mountains, bounding the pass which it com- 
 manded, were covered by thick forests, through which there 
 was no passage, and the plain below, a long and wide extent 
 of rice-grounds, was crossed and intersected, like a chess- 
 board, by the Paniany river, and might be defended by a 
 small body of infantry against all Tippoo's cavalry. The 
 fort further commanded the only practicable road between 
 the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar : it opened the means 
 of supply from Travancore, Cochin, Calicut, and other 
 places ; its occupation by the English would afford con- 
 fidence to the Zamorin and the other chiefs, who, from 
 Cochin to Goa, were all struggling to shake off the My- 
 sorean yoke, and it would leave Pullarton liberty to disguise 
 his movements, and to march upon Seringapatam by the 
 route of Coimbatoor and the pass of Gudjereddy, or by the 
 sea-coast route to Calicut, and thence through the pass of 
 Dalmacherry. The colonel therefore determined to cap- 
 ture Palagatcherry ; and on the 18th of October he began his 
 march one of the most remarkable in military history. 
 Carrying several little forts on his way, he soon reached the 
 high grounds of Palatchy, whence the streams run east and 
 west to the Coromandel and Malabar seas. Beyond this point, 
 his progress was slow and most difficult, for he had to force 
 his way through a forest twenty miles in depth, with frequent 
 torrent-courses and deep ravines within it. These ravines 
 had to be filled up before it was possible to drag the heavy 
 guns across them ; innumerable large trees which obstructed 
 the passage, required to be cut dowTi and drawai out of the 
 track, and then the whole road had to be formed before the 
 carriages of the army could pass. Pourteen days were spent 
 in these arduous labours, and in getting the materials of the 
 army through that dense forest ; and, to increase the toil 
 and discomforts, a tremendous rain began as our people first 
 entered the woods, and never ceased till they had cleared 
 their way through them. The ravines were filled mth 
 water, the bullocks lost their footing, and the soldiers were 
 obliged to drag the guns and the carriages nearly the 
 whole distance. Difficulties and operations like these 
 elevate the character of the Indian service ; and they were of 
 frequent occurrence, Goddard and Pearse, for example, in 
 their long marches from Bengal to the Carnatic, had often 
 
 
 
152 SPLENDID CAMPAIGN [1783-4. 
 
 to make tlie road by which they were to advance, and the 
 sepoys to yoke themselves to their cannons, tumbrils, and 
 baggage-waggons. 
 
 On the 5th of IS'ovember, FuUarton crossed a branch of 
 the Paniany river, occupied the open town of Palagatcherry, 
 and commenced a fire on the fort. But it was the 9th 
 before the hea^y battering-train was brought up " after a 
 succession of toils," says the colonel, "that would appear 
 incredible if related in detail."* On the night of the 15th, 
 Tippoo's garrison called out for quarter, and delivered up a 
 place capable of making a long resistance. The English 
 fomid in the fort 50,000 pagodas in money, a very large 
 supply of grain, much artillery, powder and shot, and other 
 necessary stores. During all these operations, Fidlar- 
 ton maintained his correspondence with Brigadier- G-eneral 
 Macleod, now at Cannanore, and with Colonel Campbell, 
 who commanded in Mangalore, telling them of his gradual 
 approach to their coast, and calling upon them for a joint 
 movement, and an advance in full force against Seringapa- 
 tam. But Campbell was still cooped up by Tippoo, who 
 madly persevered in his siege of Mangalore; Telicherry could 
 spare no artillery or stores, and Macleod had no bullocks. 
 Pullarton therefore gave up the notion of proceeding by 
 the sea-coast to Calicut, and took the route that led by 
 Coimbatoor to the pass of Grudjereddy. He was annoyed 
 on his march by a large body of Tippoo's cavalry, who 
 threw rockets ; but, on the 26th of November, he sat down 
 before the fort of Coimbatoor, which surrendered before he 
 could finish a battery. Here, too, he found a great quantity 
 of grain, ammunition, and stores. Money there was none ; 
 but the adjacent fields, productive of rich crops, promised 
 abundant resources for the future. Coimbatoor, though a 
 place of no military strength, was important from the reve- 
 rence in which it was held by the Hindu population, as the 
 ancient capital of a rajahship, where no Mussulman con- 
 queror had ever penetrated, and where the old gods of India 
 had not been disturbed. There, temples and pagodas were 
 erect and undefiled ; the idol Ganesa, with human body and 
 elephant's head, sat on his throne, and wreathed his litlie pro- 
 boscis ; the goddess Saraswati bestrode her peacock, with tail 
 
 * ' An Account of the Military Operations in the Southern Parts of the 
 Indian Peninsula, during the Campaigns of 1782, 1783, and 1784.' 
 by Willicm Fullarton, of Fullarton, M.P. 
 
1783-4.] or col. fullaiitox. 153 
 
 glittering with gems ; the goddess Devi held her unbroken 
 lotus ; and Brahma, with his four heads and two pair of 
 hands, had not a limb injured, or a feature defaced. * 
 
 Every ancient rajah now flew to arms, or made prepara- 
 tions for war ; all the Hindus between the ghauts and the 
 sea, encouraged by the failures and losses of Tippoo before 
 Mangalore, were in open revolt, or ripe for it ; and in the 
 country above the ghauts, in the very centre of Mysore, 
 Fiillarton's friendly Brahmins had excited the HindQs, who 
 were far more numerous even there than their Mussulman 
 conquerors, and who engaged to render all the assistance 
 they could to the English. The Coorga rajah, a powerful 
 chief, under the mountains which separate the Malabar 
 country' from Mysore, was actively asserting his indepen- 
 dence ; and General Macleod, strong in Europeans and 
 artillery, moved from point to point, generally by sea, to 
 keep up this flame all along the coast. Nor were these all 
 the enemies that were girding in Mysore ; for G-eneral Jones 
 was at the same time advancing on the Cuddapah country, 
 or northern and inland possessions of Tippoo, where his 
 power was ill-established and his government abhorred. 
 
 "The army under my own direction," says EuUarton, 
 ' was, perhaps, the strongest force belonging to Europeans 
 that had ever been employed in India. The countries we 
 had reduced extended 200 miles in length, aftbrded provi- 
 sions for 100,000 men, and yielded an annual revenue of 
 600,000, while every necessary arrangement had been 
 made for the regular collection of these resources. The fort 
 and pass of Palagatcherry secured our western flank, and 
 the intermediate position of General Macleod' s army between 
 Palagatcherr}'- and Tippoo' s main army at Mangalore, toge- 
 ther with the singular combination of ravines, rivers, and 
 embankments, that intersect the Malabar comitries, and the 
 mountains that divide them from Mysore (the passes through 
 which were occupied by our friends the disaflected rajahs), 
 rendered it almost impracticable for Tippoo to move in that 
 direction against our own acquisitions. To attack them by 
 a movement through the passes of the ghauts, on the eastern 
 flank towards Salem and Erode, supposed a circuit of 500 or 
 600 miles from the position of Tippoo' s army before Manga- 
 
 r. BUs movements, therefore, against these acquisitions, 
 * Edward Moor, * Hindu Pantheon.' 
 
154 CONQUESTS or FULLAETON. [1783-4. 
 
 could only be attempted by tbe central pass from Mysore at 
 G-udjereddy, which is not fifty miles in front from Coimba- 
 toor ; and the possession of that pass assured us an imme- 
 diate access to the capital of Tippoo's kingdom, commanding 
 a communication with our new acquisitions, and with the 
 Company's southern provinces."* 
 
 Tullartonwas on the point of pushing forward to Tippoo's 
 capital with every assurance of success, when, on the 28th of 
 November, he received the commands of the English com- 
 missioners, who were treating of peace, not only to desist, 
 but also to evacuate immediately all the forts and posts he 
 had taken, and to retire within our own limits. Feeling 
 himself at liberty neither to disregard this peremptory com- 
 mand, nor to obey it to the extent of its literal signification, 
 he stopped his marching order, and remained at Coimbatoor 
 for further advices. No true soldier could abandon such a 
 scheme as he had formed, at the very moment when the 
 prospect of success was brightest, without a bitter pang. Ten 
 days of march would have brought Fullarton under the 
 walls of Seringapatam ; ten more days would, at that time, 
 have sufiiced for the reduction of that capital ; the events 
 of twenty-five years might have been anticipated, an ines- 
 timable amount of money and of blood might have been 
 saved, the power of the British in the whole of the south 
 of India might have been established, and a quarter of a 
 century won to the cause of order and tranquillity. But 
 Pullarton had to feel the bitter pang. About the middle of 
 December, he received another letter from the commissioners 
 repeating their former instructions, and also the minutes 
 of a consultation from the government of Madras, directing 
 him to fulfil the order of unqualified restitution, as the 
 preliminary of negotiations with Tippoo Sultaun. Upon 
 this the army of the south began to retrace their steps to- 
 wards Tanjore and Trichinopoly, to the dismay and grief of 
 the poor fZamorin and the other Hindus who had openly 
 committed themselves with the revengeful Tippoo. FuUar- 
 ton had scarcely begun his backward march, when events 
 occmred which must have made the council and commis- 
 sioners regret the positive orders they had sent to him. 
 
 Those commissioners were treated like wretched hostages, 
 and kept in the camp of the Mysorean, while he prosecuted 
 
 * * View of the English Interests in India,' etc. 
 
1783-4.] SIEGE OF MANGALOEE. 155 
 
 the siege of Mangalore. At one time they were commanded 
 to send Colonel Campbell orders to evacuate that place ; at 
 another time they were personally threatened with the 
 tjTant's vengeance ; and at all times their letters were inter- 
 cepted, and they were debarred from everything like free- 
 dom of communication. 
 
 Mangalore was contemptible as a fortified place, and 
 would have been scarcely defensible at all except by troops 
 like the 42nd, and an unyielding commander like Colonel 
 Campbell. When the siege commenced, the garrison con- 
 sisted of about 700 British troops and 3,000 sepoys ; while 
 Tippoo^s force was estimated at 50,000 horse of all kinds, 
 30,000 foot, 600 Erench infantry under the command of 
 Colonel Cossigny, and a medley force of Frenchmen, Dutch- 
 men, and Portuguese, under the command of an ofilcer of 
 the king of France ; having, among them all, nearly 100 
 pieces of artillery. One broad breach was made after 
 another the paltry fortifications on the northern side were 
 almost levelled but every time the besiegers attempted 
 to storm, they were driven back at the point of the 
 bayonet. That weapon was also employed in frequent sorties 
 made by the gamson, wherein batteries were taken, guns 
 spiked, and great slaughters committed. By an unpardon- 
 able negligence, sufficient supplies were not thrown into the 
 place, and its gallant defenders were beginning to feel the 
 approaches of famine, when news arrived of the conclusion 
 of peace in Europe, and in the Carnatic. M. Cossigny, 
 after vainly endeavouring to prevail upon the obstinate 
 Tippoo to join in the treaty, withdrew with his regular 
 French troops ; but several French officers, with all the less 
 regular European forces, remained with the besiegers. 
 
 After many other cannonades and some most fruitless 
 attempts at storming, the Mysorean cCHsented to a cessation 
 of hostilities. By the armistice Tippoo agreed to allow Colonel 
 Campbell to purchase provisions in the country for his 
 famishing troops. But the tyrant, who never kept an agree- 
 ment, forbade the country people, under penalty of ears and 
 noses, to sell anything to the English. Thus the garrison 
 were reduced to the uncleanly diet of horse-flesh, rats, mice, 
 frogs, snakes, and carrion birds. It is said, that they even 
 shot and ate the jackals that descended by night in packs 
 from the woods to devour the bodies of the dead. 
 
 Affairs were in this state at Mangalore on the 22 nd of 
 
15G SIEGE OF MANGALOEE. [1784. 
 
 November, when an English squadron appeared oiF the 
 town. The ships were hlled with the troops of General 
 Macleod, who, in his anxiety to co-operate with the native 
 chiefs along the Malabar coast, committed the monstrous 
 absurdity of taking Tippoo's word, and making a fresh 
 agreement about provisions with him ; after which he sailed 
 away without landing any supplies. This new agreement 
 was observed like the former one. Instead of permitting 
 the English garrison to purchase wholesome food, Tippoo 
 allowed them to procure nothing but some damaged stores, 
 so fetid and foul that the very dogs would not eat them. 
 General Macleod returned to Mangalore, but it was only to 
 commit a fresh folly in again taking the word of Tippoo. 
 This was on the 31st of December, or about a fortnight 
 after Colonel EuUarton, on the renewed instances of the 
 Madras council, had turned his back upon Seringapatam, 
 and commenced his retrograde movement. Colonel Camp- 
 bell had soon occasion to acquaint Macleod, that he and his 
 ships were no sooner gone than the Mysorean again began 
 to starve the garrison. The general then sent a letter accus- 
 ing Tippoo of broken faith. The Mysorean replied in a letter 
 written by one of his Erenchmen " It is one lie, or meu- 
 songe." This fired the blood of the Highlander, and he 
 wrote again " Permit me to inform you, prince, that this 
 language is not good for you to give, or me to receive ; and 
 that if I was alone with you in the desert, you would not 
 dare to say these words to me." 
 
 Campbell and his heroic garrison were now suffering the 
 double calamities of disease and famine. Two-thirds of the 
 men were sick and helpless, and those that remained on 
 duty could scarcely drag themselves along under the weight 
 of their muskets and cartouch-boxes. The number of deaths 
 was great for so smail a force, and increasing daily. It 
 must have naturally occurred to Colonel Campbell, that 
 there was no use in keeping that single and by no means 
 good position, when all the rest of the coast and country 
 was to be given back to the enemy ; and at last, on the 
 23rd of January, 1784, after sustaining a siege and blockade 
 of more than nine months, he agreed to quit Mangalore 
 upon honourable conditions. Tippoo had lost before those 
 rotten walls, by war, sickness, and desertion, nearly one-half 
 of his army. But the tyrant considered the place as a 
 charm, or talisman, on the possession of which the fortunes 
 
1784.] PEACE ^t:tii tippoo. 157 
 
 of his lioiise depended, and he was made so happy by enter- 
 ing into it, that for once he kept his engagements, and 
 allowed Colonel Campbell, with his troops and baggage, 
 sick and wounded, to march unmolested to Telicherry. At 
 that place Campbell died soon after, worn out by the fa- 
 tigues and sufterings he had undergone. Before this time 
 General Mathews, who had capitulated at Bednore, had 
 been deliberately murdered in prison, together with several 
 of his officers. 
 
 Mangalore was scarcely evacuated, and Eullarton had not 
 reached the old boundaries, when he received orders from 
 Madras, to prepare for a recommencement of hostilities 
 against Tippoo, and to regain, if possible, possession of 
 Palagatcherry, which had been left in the hands of the Za- 
 morin. But before any succour could be sent to him, that 
 Hindu prince was surrounded by Tippoo's troops, Avho scared 
 him and his adherents out of the fort, by sacrificing a num- 
 ber of much-venerated Brahmins, and exposing their bleed- 
 ing heads upon tall poles. Palagatcherry was therefore to 
 be regained only by a fresh siege. PuUarton began imme- 
 diately to advance with the main body of his army ; and he 
 was again flattering himself with the hope of being the 
 conqueror of Seringapatam, when he received intelligence 
 that preliminaries of a peace had been exchanged between 
 the commissioners and Tippoo Sultaun, and along with this 
 intelligence orders from the commissioners to evacuate the 
 country. 
 
 The commissioners, the governor and council of Madras, 
 every man in India, knew that there was no confidence 
 to be placed in the faith, humanity, or moderation of the 
 'tiger" for such, being translated, was the appropriate 
 name of the tyrant and they must have foreseen the blood- 
 shed and devastation which awaited the wretched Hindus of 
 Coorg, Canara, and Mysore, whom we had drawn into our 
 alliance calamities which soon proved to be tenfold more 
 terrible than tlie expulsion of the Eohillas from Eohilcund, 
 and befalling a people incomparably more gentle and interest- 
 
 Rg than those robbers and soldiers of fortune ; but the 
 jgotiations Avere held to be justified by the tenor of instruc- 
 )ns and orders received from the British government, and 
 om the Court of Directors, by the state of our political 
 lations in Europe, and by the impoverished condition of 
 the Company's territories. Yet, most assuredly. Franco 
 
 
 
158 TIPPOO'S CRUELTIES. [1784. 
 
 would not liave gone into a new war solely to defend Tippoo ; 
 and, as for poverty, Fullarton had shown that an army might 
 be well supported in the enemy's country without money or 
 any further supplies from the Company. The retention of 
 the districts which Pullarton had conquered would, by their 
 revenues alone, have soon paid the expenses of another 
 campaign ; and that campaign, if conducted by an officer 
 like Pullarton, must have finished the bloody story of Tippoo 
 Sultaun. It was, however, that tyrant's destiny to be left 
 to scourge his kind, and to renew his contest with the Eng- 
 lish, when again encouraged by the French. 
 
 The treaty of peace was finally concluded on the 11th of 
 March, upon the condition of a restitution by both parties, 
 of all that they had gained in the war. The tales told by the 
 English prisoners of war, whom Tippoo now liberated from 
 his abominable dungeons, excited horror and a lasting indig- 
 nation, with a desire of vengeance. 
 
 The most dishonouring circumstance to us was the 
 abandonment of our friends and allies, the Malabar Hindus. 
 The cruelties exercised upon those helpless gentle people 
 were continued through several years, and were sharpened 
 and made more dreadful by a mixture of religious fanati- 
 cism, which for ages had been rarely known among the 
 Mahometans in India. In 1788, Tippoo paid a visit to Cali- 
 cut, where he found the natives living peaceably in pleasant 
 and picturesque habitations, scattered over the country, 
 among palm-trees and groves of the tall-growing talipot. 
 He compelled them to quit those habitations and reside in. 
 villages of forty houses each. The very next year, he re- 
 turned to the country vidth a great army, destroying idols, 
 pagodas, and temples, and threatening to exterminate " the 
 infidels of Malabar." The whole of [that unhappy coast, 
 and all the regions which EuUarton had overrun and con 
 quered, were over-taxed, tormented, and most barbarously 
 oppressed, so long as we remained at peace with Tippoo. 
 
 In other respects, and compared with the danger and de- 
 spondency in the Carnatic at the beginning of the war, or 
 with the result of the national contests in America, even 
 this was a most honourable and advantageous peace. Many 
 errors of judgment were committed in the conduct of the 
 war, and the vices of jealousy, selfishness, and rapacity were 
 too frequently visible both in council and in camp ; never- 
 theless, taken as a whole, the campaigns were highly credit- 
 
17S4.] HASTINGS SATES IlfDIA. 159 
 
 able to the abilities, perseverance, and valour of EngHshmen. 
 The extent of their operations was something magnificent ; 
 it embraced the two sides of the vast triangle of India, from 
 the mouths of the Granges to the Grulf of Cambay, and in- 
 land it nearly traversed the base of the triangle. Countries, 
 hitherto known to us only by name, were penetrated and 
 explored from end to end. Impressions were made that 
 time and partial miscarriages would not obliterate. As 
 Warren Hastings had all along desired, the Indians were 
 convinced that no obstacles were insurmountable to the 
 steady perseverance of the British ; and the British learned, 
 for the first time, the entire dependence that might be 
 placed in the constancy and courage of their sepoys. 
 
 Thus the East was saved, when our empire in the "West 
 was lost. AVhat efiect would have been produced in Europe, 
 or what panic, degi'adation, or despair, would not have been 
 felt in england, if the loss of our Indian empire had been 
 added to that of our thirteen provinces of North America !* 
 
 * Colonel Wilks, * Historical Sketches of the South of India.' Cap- 
 tain Schomberg, 'Naval Chronology.' ' Annual Register,' for the years 
 1781, 1782, 1783, and 1784. Sir John Barrow, * Account of the Public 
 Life of the Earl of Macartney.' Colonel FuUarton, * View of the English 
 Interests in India,' and his ' Account of the Military Operations in the 
 Southern Parts of the Peninsula,' etc. Forbes, ' Oriental Memoirs.' 
 Dubois (I'Abbe), ' Moeurs, Institutions, et Ceremonies des Peupies de 
 rinde.' 2 vols. 8vo. Pan*, 1825. Moor, * Hindii Pantheon.' For some 
 valuable remarks on our Indian army, read Sir John Malcolm, Appendix 
 to ' The Government of India.' London, 1833. 
 
IGO nXAIfCIAL DimCULTIES. [178-1. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 India was saved, and our dominion therein greatly 
 extended. But the expense of the war had, at one time, 
 been tremendous, and the Company being in embarrass- 
 ments at home, the far greater part of the money could 
 come only from Bengal. Warm as is my admiration for the 
 character of Warren Hastings, with the evidence before 
 me I cannot doubt tliat he occasionally put some burthen 
 upon his conscience to procure the sinews of war. But, 
 after a long consideration, and a mature reconsideration 
 of this ponderous mass of evidence, and a more familiar 
 acquaintance with some who were most familiar with the 
 great governor-general, and in possession of many of liis 
 private and confidential letters, I cannot believe that he 
 was even once guilty of any serious state crime or any act 
 of absolute cruelty. The Carnatic must be rescued, India 
 must be saved, cost what it might. Eor these great ends, 
 such were the intenseness of purpose and the enthusiasm of 
 the man, Hastings would have coined his own body and soul 
 into rupees, had such a process been practicable, at the 
 moment of crisis, when the Mahrattas, Hyder Ali, and the 
 French had their talons on the C?rnatic. He determined 
 that money should be raised by whatever decent means lay 
 in his power. 
 
 Some of the neighbouring princes who owed their political 
 existence to English arms, and who were entirely dependent 
 upon the government of Calcutta, were known to possess 
 hidden treasures of great amount. As they would not pay 
 voluntarily, and as no time was to be lost, the governor- 
 general and his council adopted the plan of squeezing them. 
 The first to whom they applied the pressure was Cheyte 
 Sing, the rajah of Benares, who owed his existence as a 
 prince directly and entirely to Hastings. Erancis, Clavering, 
 and Monson had transferred his dominions to the nabob of 
 
1781.] ^ASTI^'GS at be>^akes. IGl 
 
 Oude, but Hastings liad secured liim in possession, upon 
 condition of his paying a fixed sum to the Company. At 
 the breaking out of the war, the governor-general demanded 
 more money as an "extraordinary contribution," for which, 
 in due time, allowance was to be made to the rajah. Cheyte 
 Sing (whose dominions and life were surely forfeited if the 
 anti-English coalition succeeded) might have made a much 
 greater advance, but he grudgingly and at intervals paid 
 down only 60,000. The next demand made upon him was 
 not for money, but for troops. The governor-general, lower- 
 ing his first demand, said he would be satisfied with 1,000 
 men. Cheyte Sing collected 1,000 ragamuffins. Hastings 
 did not want such fellows ; what he wanted was money. At 
 the same critical moment, Cheyte Sing was detected in an 
 insidious correspondence with the enemies of the English, 
 and was observed to assume an air of insolence and inde- 
 pendence. "I was resolved," says Hastings, "to draw 
 from his guilt the means of relief to the Company's dis- 
 tresses."* 
 
 The governor-general set out for Benares, the capital and 
 residence of Cheyte Sing, and so little did he anticipate 
 danger, that he took with him little more than his usual 
 body-guard, and conducted Mrs. Hastings, who accompanied 
 him, as far as Monghir. Cheyte Sing came eastward as far 
 as Buxar to meet the governor-general, and lay his turban 
 upon his lap, a token of entire submission.f AViththe rajah 
 in his train, the governor-general entered Benares on the 
 14th of August, 1781. Cheyte Sing was then taken seriously 
 to account, and, as he replied evasively and somewhat im- 
 pertinently, Hastings gave Mr. Markham, his resident at 
 Benares, orders to arrest the rajah at an early hour on the 
 morrow. Markham (a son of Dr. Markham, archbishop of 
 York) performed this service with only two companies of 
 sepoys, and without any opposition or outcry. But the 
 arrest kindled a flame, which endangered Hastings, and, in 
 his person, the fortunes of the English in India. 
 
 Cheyte Sing had a strong party among his own subjects. 
 Benares was the most holy city of Hindustan, being to the 
 Hindus what Mecca is to the Mahometans, or what Jeru- 
 salem was to the Jews ; it contained a great population, 
 
 * Mr. Hastings's own * Narrative of the Transactions at Benares,' etc. 
 + MS. Correspondence of Sir Elijah Impey, including confidential 
 letters to Sir Elijah from Mr. Warren Hastings. 
 
162 EEYOLT AT BENAEES. [1781. 
 
 who pretended to a superior sanctity merely from tlie place 
 of their residence ; it was thronged by santons, fakeers, 
 pilgrims, and devotees from all parts of India. It was this 
 continual concourse of devotees that tended to fill the 
 rajah's treasury. These pilgrims, who had travelled far to 
 wash off their sins in the Ganges where it was holiest, and 
 to offer their prayers and oblations in Benares, resented the 
 insult offered in that sacred city to the acknowledged ruler of 
 it, himself an Hindu of ancient race, and a great frequenter 
 of temples and pagodas. It appears that fakeers and fanatics 
 led the van. 
 
 Scarcely had Markham seized the rajah, when there arose 
 from the narrow crowded streets of Benares the roar of 
 tens of thousands of angry voices, and the noise produced 
 by a rushing multitude. The devotees were all ai-med. The 
 rajah had not been removed from his palace, but left there 
 with only two companies of sepoys placed over him as 
 a guard. Thither 'the living streams flowed and concentrated 
 from all parts of the city. Such was the security of the 
 English managers, that the sepoys had been left in the 
 palace with their muskets and bayonets, but without any 
 cartridges. "When Hastings saw the danger, two other com- 
 panies were sent to carry ammunition and support them ; 
 but this small force got lost and buried in the crowd, and, 
 in attempting to open their way to the palace, they were 
 massacred almost to a man. Tliis over, the furious multitude 
 fell upon the two sepoy companies at the palace, and mas- 
 sacred them likewise. The English officers died, with their 
 swords in their hands ; a heap of their assailants were slain, 
 and only a very few of those sepoys escaped. During the 
 confusion Cheyte Sing ran out of the palace by a wicket- 
 gate, which opened on the steep bank of the G-anges, and, 
 letting himself down by a string formed of turbans tied 
 together, he threw himself into a boat and escaped to the 
 opposite side of the river. 
 
 If, instead of running away, Rajah Cheyte Sing and his 
 people had fallen upon Hastings, the consequences could 
 scarcely have been doubtful, for at the moment the governor- 
 general had only fifty sepoys at hand for the defence of his 
 house. Hastings himself said afterwards "If Cheyte Sing's 
 people, after they had effected his rescue, had proceeded 
 to my quarters, instead of crowding after him in a tumultu- 
 ous manner, as they did, in his passage over the river, it is 
 
1781.] A MASSACEE. 163 
 
 probable that my blood, aud that of about thiriy English 
 gentlemen of my party, would have been added to the 
 recent carnage."* 
 
 But even when the first fury of the populace was spent, 
 and the rajah had proved by his flight that he was afraid of 
 extreme measures against Hastings, the situation of that 
 small party of English in Benares remained very critical. 
 They were blockaded on all sides, they had scarcely any 
 money with them, and they had not provisions even for 
 a single day. But Hastings's courage, decision, and promp- 
 titude never forsook him. The rajah, though still collecting 
 forces on the other side of the Ganges, sent to offer apolo- 
 gies for the slaughter which had occurred. The governor- 
 general did not deign to answer him. In the morning he 
 was joined by a few faithful sepoys, and he called up another 
 small body that were cantoned at Mirzapoor, on the other 
 side of the Granges, sending them orders to march against 
 the palace of Hamnaghur (just opposite to Benares), in which 
 Cheyte Sing had taken up his temporary abode. In order 
 that his fleet messengers might get through the blockading 
 rabble without losing their despatches, he wrote in the 
 smallest hand on small slips of paper, which were rolled up 
 and put into quills. AVhen these Indians travelled, they were 
 accustomed to lay aside their enormous gold ear-rings, and 
 put quills into the orifices of the ears to prevent their closing 
 up ; thus no notice would be taken of the pieces of quills 
 containing the governor-general's earnest caUs for imme- 
 diate succour : for, so little had this storm been apprehended, 
 that Mrs. Hastings, Sir Elijah Impey, the chief justice, and 
 Lady Impey, were travelling up the country to join the 
 governor-general at Benares. It was most fortunate for 
 Hastings that Sir Elijah was on this day at only a short 
 distance from the city ; for his life-long friend, besides being 
 an eminent lawyer, was a man of decision and courage, and 
 in possession of great influence with all classes of the natives. 
 Upon receiving his quill,t Impey made every possible or 
 imaginar}" exertion to send sepoys and friends to the 
 rescue. Hastings always acknowledged that he owed his 
 escape chiefly to the prompt measures taken by Sir Elijah ; 
 
 * * Narrative.' 
 
 t Mjr friend, the late Miss Marion Impey, a daughter of the judge, 
 preserved this quill, and the tiny despatch that was in it, among her Indian 
 relics and mementos. 
 
 m2 
 
161 FLIGHT OF HASTINGS [1781. 
 
 and Sir Elijah, alluding to these occurrences, was in the 
 habit of quoting, 
 
 " Quod Thebse cecidere, meum est."* 
 In the course of the day about 400 sepoys were collected 
 round the governor-general's quarters ; but in the after- 
 noon, the officer in command of the sepoys that had rapidly 
 advanced from Mirzapoor, upon receiving their quill, im- 
 prudently attempting to carry the palace of Eamnaghur, 
 which was fortified, without having any artillery with him, 
 got engaged in the narrow streets leading to it, was repulsed 
 with considerable loss, and was himself killed. This incident 
 gave fresh courage to the fanatical multitude, and induced 
 Hastings to have recourse to a hurried retreat from Benares. 
 The rabble of tlie town reviled the governor-general in 
 these doggrel rhymes : 
 
 " Hathi par houda ! ghora par zeen, 
 Jaldi jao, jaldi jao, Warren Hasteen ! " 
 
 "Which may be translated 
 
 Horse, elephant, houda, set off at full swing. 
 Run away, ride away, Warren Hasting.f 
 
 But "Warren Hastings did not run far. It was under 
 cover of night that he fled from Benares, and, with that 
 usual good fortune which is attendant on courage and pre- 
 sence of mind, " Virtutis Fortuna comes," ;J: before day, he 
 reached in safety the strong fortress of Chunar, built on a 
 rock, which rises several hundred feet above the Granges, 
 and is situated about seventeen miles below Benares. His 
 flight, of course, gave still further encouragement to the 
 insurgents ; the enthusiastic fakeers spread themselves over 
 the country, the preaching Brahmins harangued in the 
 temples, the sacred monkeys, swinging in their golden cages, 
 made signs and grimaces prophetic of the triumph of the 
 x)ld religion ; the whole of the district rose in arms, people 
 began to flock in from the adjoining territories of Oude and 
 Bahar, vowing that they would protect the rajah and the 
 holy city. 
 
 The numbers and the momentary spirit of the Hindus, 
 who thus surrounded him, animated for a moment the 
 
 * ' Memoirs of Sir Elijah Impey,' by the late Elijah Barwell Impey, 
 and information given by Mr. Impey in ' Our Indian Empire.' 
 t * Memoirs of Sir Elijah Impey,' p. 234. 
 Ij: The appropriate motto of the Duke of Wellington. 
 
1781.] TO CHUIfAE. 165 
 
 weak and timid soul of Cheyte Sing ; lie put himself at the 
 head of the insurgents, appealed by a sort of manifesto to 
 the neighbouring princes, and, it is said, even spoke of 
 driving the English out of all that part of India. An 
 immense native force was by this time collected between 
 Benares and the rock of Chunar. 
 
 Notwithstanding his ingenious precaution, several of 
 Hastings's letters miscarried; but most of them reached 
 their destinations, and were obeyed with that rapidity which 
 the exigencies of the case required. Money was sent to him 
 from Lucknow, the capital of Oude, and troops, quitting 
 their various cantonments, concentrated under the rock of 
 Chunar. At this crisis everything depended on the fidelity 
 of the sepoys, for there were hardly any troops in the 
 country but these ; and the sepoys were, for the most part, 
 men of the same race and country as those against whom 
 they were to act, were, many of them, natives of Benares or 
 the surrounding district, and, as such, had been wont to 
 consider Cheyte Sing as their legitimate prince. It is per- 
 haps only in India that the natural sympathies and passions 
 of men have ever been so subjugated by discipline and other 
 artificial means. But the event proved that Hastings was 
 right in relying on their unalterable fidelity to their standard 
 or their salt, and on their attachment to the military point 
 of honour as greater than any they bore for their country 
 or kindred, their native prince, or even their religion. Xot 
 a corps showed any reluctance to engage the rajah and tlie 
 people of Benares, not a single case of desertion occurred ; 
 and the insurrection, which might speedily have become a 
 far-reaching revolution, was put down by these sepoys. 
 On the 29th of August, a considerable body of Cheyte 
 Sing's people, who had advanced to a small fort not far 
 from Chunar, were routed and compelled to leave all their 
 rice and baggage behind them ; and, on the 3rd of Septem- 
 ber, a stiU larger body were defeated with the loss of their 
 artillery ; on the 15th other corps were put to flight ; and 
 on the 20th the pass of Sukroot and the large and fortified 
 town of Pateeta were forced, cleared, and taken by the 
 sepoys commanded by Major Popham. It has been said 
 that the insurgents fought bravely in some of these affairs ; 
 but this was not the case either at Sukroot or Pateeta, in 
 both of which places they were favoured by situation. I 
 have in my possession a note to Mr. Hasthigs, wTitten iu 
 
166 DEPOSITIOlf OF CIIEYTE SING. [1781. 
 
 pencil by Major Popliam, on the 20th of September, imme- 
 diately after the fighting. The major tells the governor- 
 general that two or three rounds fired from a single cannon 
 put them all to flight ; that very few of his sepoys had been 
 killed, and not an officer hurt ; that the enemy sustained 
 great loss in their flight, &c. In a very short time nothing 
 could be seen of the force, which had been estimated at 30,000 
 men; " and in a few hours," adds the governor-general, 
 speaking as the servant of kings, " the allegiance of the 
 country was restored as completely, from a state of uni- 
 versal revolt to its proper channel, as if it had never 
 departed from it."* 
 
 The rajah Avith his family and a few attendants fled pre- 
 cipitately to Bidjeeghur, the principal stronghold of the 
 Benares princes, and about fifty miles from the capital. To 
 that capital the governor-general returned triumphantly, 
 issuing a proclamation and an amnesty for all except 
 Cheyte Sing and his brother. No time was lost in sending 
 troops to Bidjeeghur. The poor rajah had not courage to 
 await their arrival : he fled in the night to find refuge, and 
 an exile from which he never returned, among the rajahs 
 of Bondilcund. In his haste, in his anxiety for his own 
 safety, by means of a flight too rough and rapid for ladies, 
 he left behind him his wives, his mother, and all the females 
 of his family, w^ho were taken prisoners on the 9th of 
 JN'ovember, when the fort of Bidjeeghur surrendered by 
 capitulation. According to Hastings, the rajah had carried 
 ofl' wdth him an immense sum of money, besides jewels of great 
 price ; but current rupees to the amount of about 250,000 
 "were found in the old castle. This money w^as appro- 
 priated by the troops, who for some five months had 
 received little or no pay. 
 
 In the meanwhile the governor-general, considering a 
 puppet rajah necessary at Benares, had selected a young 
 nephew of Cheyte Sing to fill that part. The tribute to the 
 Company was raised to forty lacs of rupees, the governor- 
 general took the entire jurisdiction and management of 
 the city and country into his own hands ; even the mint, the 
 last vestige of sovereignty, was taken from this boy-rajah and 
 put under the control of the Company's resident at Benares. 
 
 * Rev. G. R. Gleig, ' Memoir of Warren Hastings.' Mr. Hastings's 
 own letters, memoranda, and other papers given in these volumes, are of 
 great value and interest. 
 
1781.] THE BEGFMS OP OUDE. 16'?' 
 
 By this revolutiou an addition of about 200,000 per 
 annum was made to the revenues of the Company ; but of 
 ready money there was none, and money must be procured 
 somewhere, or the French would triumph in the Carnatic, 
 and all India would be lost. 
 
 Asoph-ul-Dowla, nabob of Oude, stood indebted, on 
 the Company's books, in nearly one million and a half 
 sterling. Like Cheyte Sing, the rajah of Benares, he was 
 entirely dependent on the Company, and on the protection 
 of their troops, against the plundering Mahrattas and 
 Eohillas. Xay, without our sepoys he could not have resisted 
 his own disaffected turbulent subjects, nor have collected 
 a rupee of revenue. Instead of paying his debts, he spent 
 his money in luxury and extravagance, and in the erection of 
 gorgeous edifices". The nabob had been repeatedly warned 
 that money must be forthcoming, that without money to 
 sustain the war there would be no safety either for him or 
 for the English. He was journeying between Lucknow and 
 Benares, to meet the governor-general, when he received 
 the startling intelligence that Benares was in a state of 
 insurrection, and that Cheyte Sing was in the field with an 
 army. He did not retrace his steps to Lucknow, as might 
 have been expected, but continued his journey to Chunar, 
 haying learned that Hastings was in that fortress, and that 
 the British sepoys had been called thither from all points. 
 It was the cowardice, not the fidelity of the nabob that 
 was suspected ; many of his subjects, and even some mem- 
 bers of his own family, were assisting Cheyte Sing; but 
 Asoph-ul-Dowla clearly foresaw that, however numerous they 
 might be, the undisciplined insurgents could never make a 
 stand against our faithful and highly-disciplined sepoys. On 
 the rock of Chunar, before his troops came up, and while the 
 furious insurgents were gathering round him, the governor- 
 general calmly negotiated with the nabob. Asoph-ul-Dowla 
 protested that he had no treasure to bestow, but that two 
 great ladies in his dominions had far more money than they 
 ought in justice to be possessed of These two begums, 
 whose names afterwards so resounded in St. Stephen's 
 Chapel and in "Westminster Hall, were, one the mother of 
 the late Nabob Sujah Dowla, the other his wife, and the 
 parent of the reigning nabob. It was said that great doubts 
 might be entertained as to the validity of Sujah Dowla's 
 testamentary bequests ; that the will under which the 
 
168 THE BEGTJMS. [1781-2. 
 
 begums claimed had never been produced ; and that the 
 deceased nabob could not lawfully alienate the treasure and 
 territory or jaghires of the state, which of right belonged 
 to his successor on the musnud. It was proved that the 
 two begums had promoted insurrection in Oude, and had 
 encouraged the partisans of Cheyte Sing immediately after 
 the massacre of our sepoys and officers in Benares. Weak 
 detachments of the Company's troops had been attacked bj 
 the retainers of the begums. These last facts were sworn 
 to, as well by British officers and other Englishmen as by 
 natives. The facts w^ere indeed, at the time, notorious, 
 although years after they were denied in the British parlia- 
 ment by men who were seeking to ruin Hastings, for the 
 means he had employed to save our Indian empire.* 
 
 It was agreed between Asoph-ul-Dowla and Hastings that 
 the two begums should be dispossessed of a portion of their 
 immense estates, and that the nabob should have and hold 
 the jaghires taken from them ; that the begums' hidden 
 treasures should be seized, and the money paid over to the 
 Company in partial or entire discharge of the debt which 
 he owed it. The treaty of Chunar was signed on the 
 19th of September. The nabob charged himself with the 
 execution of the processes for getting the lands for himself, 
 and the rupees for the Company. He returned to Luck- 
 now, his capital, and from that city he presently went to 
 Pyzabad, the residence of the begums. Those two ladies 
 were very tenacious of their money ; their servants were 
 uncommunicative were rigidly secret the hidden treasure 
 w\as not to be foimd ! neither promises nor threats had any 
 effect upon the two eunuchs who were in all the begums' 
 secrets, and who were making money by employing their 
 great capital. Severe and unjustifiable measures were 
 resorted to, not hy Hastings, hut hy Asoph-ul-Dowla, to 
 extract a confession; and, by slow degi-ees, money was 
 extorted from the two eunuchs of the household to the 
 amount of about 500,000. As this fell far short of the 
 estimated amount of the treasure, other acts of severity 
 were practised. Although the two begums and their two 
 agents had few virtues and very little claim on the sym- 
 
 * 'History of the Trial of "Warren Hastings,' 8vo. London, 1796. 
 * Evidence against and for Warren Hastings on the Commons' Charges of 
 Impeachment,' 9 vols, folio. London, 1786-94. See also ' Memoirs of 
 Sir Elijah Impey,' by his son. 
 
^ 
 
 1782-4.] EXPENSES or the war. 169 
 
 pathies of the people of the country, these acts are not to 
 be justified ; but it was proved that the reports of them 
 drawn up by the prosecutors of Hastings were monstrously 
 exaggerated. Nearly a quarter of a century after the 
 imprisonments and alleged tortures, in the year 1803, 
 Lord Valentia found, at Lucknow, well, fat, and enormously 
 rich, Almas Ali Khan, on whose sufferings Mr. Burke had 
 been so indignant and so pathetic. After all the cruel 
 plunderings he was said to have undergone, this eunuch 
 was supposed to be worth half a million sterling. He was 
 upwards of eighty years of age, six feet high, and stout in 
 proportion ; he had been an active and intriguing courtier, 
 and a rigorous tax-collector; he was now almost in his 
 dotage, and the nabob was eagerly looking for his inheritance. 
 The younger of the two begums, over whom so many tears 
 had been shed in England, was also alive and hearty and 
 very rich ! * 
 
 Whatever sums were procuring at Fyzabad were remitted 
 by the nabob to Hastings, and were by him immediately 
 applied to the support of the ruinous wars in the Carnatic ; 
 to the operations on the side of Bombay, and to subsidies 
 for keeping the Mahrattas quiet. But for the money thus 
 obtained and thus applied, no man in his senses will now 
 doubt that India must have been lost. 
 
 The two last years of his administration in India formed 
 by far the happiest period [of the public life of Warren 
 Hastings. The peace with Prance, which paralyzed the 
 most powerful of the native princes, enabled him to get the 
 whole country into a state of tranquillit}^, which had not been 
 known for some ages. It also enabled him to extend the 
 British influence in several new directions, and to confirm 
 it in others. Notwithstanding some great exploits, like 
 Rodney's victory and EUiot's defence of Gibraltar, the war 
 had been more dishonourable to England than any in which 
 she had been engaged in modem times ; America was lost, 
 -disasters had attended her flag almost everywhere, except 
 in India, where her power and reputation were far greater at 
 the end than they had been at the beginning of hostilities. 
 ~or was it a vain boast in Hastings to say^ " This is my 
 work ! Whatever else I have done, I have done this I 
 have rescued the Carnatic when at the last gasp ; I have 
 
 * See Lord Valentia's ' Voyages and Travels to India, Ceylon, the Red 
 Sea,' etc. ; and ' Memoirs of Sir Elijah Impey.' 
 
170 IIASTITfGS EESIG^'S. [1784. 
 
 presen-ed and extended the British empire in the East ! " 
 No one in India, either native or British, doubted the fact. 
 In tlie supreme council all opposition ceased or became of 
 the mildest kind, and the records and protests of Clavering, 
 Monson, and Francis, were read with astonishment and in- 
 dignation, and with the intimate conviction that, if their 
 schemes had been followed, India would have been lost like 
 America. Yet, at this very time, the vindictive, venomous 
 Francis was preparing, in England, the means of impeach- 
 ing and ruining the governor-general. 
 
 In the month of March, 1784, Hastings went through 
 Benares to Lucknow, and there spent five months in great 
 tranquillity, but busied all the time with the ministers of the 
 nabob, and the agents of other native princes. He recom- 
 mended measures of government which would increase 
 revenue without oppressing the people, and which would 
 promote agriculture, trade, and general tranquillity. This, 
 he knew, would be his last journey up the country. He 
 did not return to Calcutta until November, having spent a 
 considerable time at Benares, where the restoration of tran- 
 quillity and order was perfect. He now prepared to quit 
 India. 
 
 As far back as the month of March of the preceding year 
 (1783), which was not only previous to the passing of Mr. 
 Pitt's bill, to which his resignation has sometimes been very 
 erroneously attributed, but even previous to the bringing in 
 of Mr. Eox's biU, the governor-general had requested the 
 Court of Directors to name his successor. Before under- 
 taking his late journey to Lucknow, which was also many 
 months before the news of Pitt's India bill could reach 
 India, he had sent home Mrs. Hastings, whose health was 
 declining ; and no one who knew his devote dness to his wife 
 could doubt, that in parting from her, he liad fully made up 
 his mind to resign the government, and foUow her as soon 
 as possible. He now UTote to inform the directors, that he 
 was coming to England, and that, as a successor had not 
 been appointed by them, his duties would be discharged 
 pro tempore by Mr. Macpherson, senior member of council. 
 So soon as it was publicly known that he was about to quit 
 the government, which he had held for thirteen years, nu- 
 merous addresses were got up, and presented by all classes ; 
 by military officers, by the civil servants of the Company, 
 by factors and traders, and by natives of all ranks, as well 
 
1784.] HIS CHAEACTEE. 171 
 
 as by Europeans. He had been a benefactor to the people 
 of Bengal, who always regarded him with warm good-will, 
 and who had conceived a romantic or superstitious admira- 
 tion of his prestige, or fortune, of his commanding yet 
 conciliating manners, and of the splendour and pomp with 
 which, for state purposes, he always surrounded himself. 
 The natives, indeed, regarded him in no other light than 
 in that of their sovereign ; and not a few shed tears at the 
 thought of losing him. As to the civil ser\'ants of the Com- 
 pany, many of them owed to him their appointments or 
 promotions, and all, having been brought frequently into 
 close contact with him, had been impressed by his com- 
 manding] ability and marvellous rapidity in the despatch of 
 business ; but the enthusiastic admiration and aifection of 
 the army for a mere civilian was more extraordinary. They 
 had been won by Hastings's original and bold military concep- 
 tions at the commencement of the war, by the flattering con- 
 fidence he always reposed in the troops, and by the honours 
 and distinctions with which he treated them on all proper 
 occasions. Thus, about this time, when the corps of Colonel 
 Pearse, which performed the memorable march from Calcutta 
 to Madras, and which now returned, after an absence of five 
 years, reduced from 5,000 to 2,000 sepoys, he heaped every 
 distinction npon them ; he visited them in their camp ; he 
 conversed with men and ofiicers ; he told them that they had 
 done wonders ; he examined their accoutrements and arms, 
 which had been proved in many battles, as well with 
 veteran French as with native Indian troops ; and he passed 
 the corps in re^dew. Dressed in a plain blue coat, and with his 
 head uncovered, he rode along the lines, producing as much 
 excitement and enthusiasm as the most successful of generals 
 could have done, though attended by all that dazzles and 
 delights the eyes of soldiers, or all the " pride, pomp, and 
 circumstance of glorious war." One of his last pubhc acts 
 was the issuing of a general order to the Bengal army, 
 expressing in forcible language his sense of its past services, 
 and affirming (what I have already quoted) that there are no 
 difficulties which the true spirit of military enterprise is not 
 capable of surmounting. It was this conduct that endeared 
 Hastings as much to the army as to the other branches of 
 the service. The dark faces of the sepoys looked darker at 
 his departure. Veterans scarred with wounds were seen 
 weeping, and voices which meant to shout broke down into 
 
172 HASTINGS IN ENGLAND. [1785. 
 
 a flebile note and a wailing. When, on the 8th of February, 
 1785, he delivered up the keys of office, and walked down 
 a private man to the place of embarkation, his friends and 
 admirers formed a complete avenue from the palace to the 
 water side, standing on either side of his path ; many- 
 barges escorted him far down the Hooghly, and some 
 reluctant friends did not leave him until the pilot left 
 the ship, far out at sea. During his voyage, which was 
 unusually short for those times, he amused himself with 
 reading and with wTiting verses. He translated that well- 
 known ode, wherein the Roman poet expresses his philoso- 
 phic indifference to wealth and worldly grandeur, and his 
 love of an humble retirement, with an ease not to be pur- 
 chased by jewels nor by gold. And of gold Hastings had com- 
 paratively but little. It has been calculated that he might, 
 with ease to himself, have brought home from two to three 
 millions sterling ; what he did bring was less than 130,000Z. 
 ^was less than the fortunes which had been made by Mr. 
 Barwell and other members of the council less than the 
 gleanings of many an inferior servant of the Company 
 far less than what the patriotic Philip Francis had made in 
 six years ; and Hastings, who had been thirteen years 
 governor-general, had been altogether more than thirty 
 years in India ; nor would he have had even this moderate 
 fortune, if it had not been for the forethought and manage- 
 ment of his wife, who accepted presents which he refused, 
 and saved money in private corners, w^hich he would have 
 spent in the public service, or in embellishing the city of 
 Calcutta, or in paying for scientific expeditions to the 
 unknown countries bordering on India, or in supporting the 
 almost regal splendour of his establishments. He landed at 
 Plymouth in the month of June, and posted up to London 
 and to court, confident of a good reception. 
 
 He was not disappointed ; the king and queen received 
 him and Mrs. Hastings most graciously ; the Court of Di- 
 rectors received him in a solemn sitting, and the chairman 
 read a vote of thanks for his great achievements, which had 
 been passed without one dissenting voice. He knew that 
 Francis had been for years plotting, writing, and publishiug 
 against him ; and he also knew that in the session of parlia- 
 ment which had recently been prorogued, Mr. Burke, who had 
 been completely won over by Francis, had given notice of a 
 motion very hostile to him. But when Lord North, after 
 
1785.] SIR PHILIP PRANCIS. 173 
 
 a thousand menaces, and at least a hundred set speeches 
 from Burke and Pox, had not been impeached for losing 
 America, was it possible to anticipate that they would 
 impeach him for saving India ? He believed that his 
 country would reproach him as little as he was reproached 
 by his own conscience. In a letter two or three months 
 alter his arrival in England, he said, " I find myself every- 
 where and universally treated with evidences, apparent even 
 to my own observation, that I possess the good opinion of 
 my country."* 
 
 Yet in the coiu*se of the next session of parliament the 
 Commons resolved to impeach both Mr. AYarren Hastings 
 and his friend Sir EHjah Impey, the chief justice, who had 
 returned to England as far back as the month of June, 1784, 
 and who had not hitherto been molested. Erancis had 
 complete possession of Burke's ear; and Erancis, ever 
 >since his return from the East, in 1781, had devoted bis 
 uncommon energy and cunning, the whole of his extra- 
 ordinary abilities, his whole life and soul, to the blackening 
 of the Indian administration. I assume, as a proven and 
 now altogether indisputable fact, that Su' Philip Erancis, 
 and none other, was the author of the notorious " Letters 
 of Junius." The venom which had been spread in those 
 noisome letters, in former days, when Erancis was only a 
 poor clerk in the AVar Office, over the duke of G-rafton, the 
 duke of Bedford, Sir AVilliam Draper, the good king, and 
 others, was now all concentrated upon Hastings and Impey. 
 The ex-member of council at Calcutta was impelled, by 
 ambition and revenge, two of the strongest of human 
 passions, and both of them more violent and intense in the 
 heart of Erancis than they are often found to be in English 
 human nature. Erancis' s ambition was to become governor- 
 general of India, and to add to the great wealth which he 
 had already accumulated there. How his demoniacal pas- 
 sion of revenge was excited against Hastings, who, be it 
 remembered, had almost killed him in a duel, has been suffi- 
 ciently shown ; and how that evil passion was roused against 
 Impey, may be explained in a very few words. Sir Elijah, 
 as chief judge, had several times rebuked the fiery spirit 
 of the leader of the factious council, and had, by legal 
 measures, upset some of his daring projects ; that Impey had 
 
 I 
 
 Rev. G. R. Gleig, ' Memoir. 
 
174 HASTINGS IMPEACHED. [1786. 
 
 been the school-fellow, and early friend of Hastings, was 
 by itself enough to make him odious in the eyes of Francis ; 
 but, in addition to all these grounds of hostility, there was 
 this memorable circumstance Fhilip Francis, wlio dearly 
 loved his money, had, during his residence in Calcutta, made 
 himself amenable to a civil prosecution, and it had heen the 
 duty of Sir Elijah Impey to pronounce upon him a sentence 
 inflicting heavy damages ! ! * 
 
 Being heard in his own defence at the bar of the House 
 of Commons, on the 4th of February, 1788, Sir Elijah 
 Impey so completely and triumphantly exculpated himself 
 from the first of the six charges brought against him the 
 trial and execution of the rajah Nuncomar that that charge 
 was let drop, and he never heard anything more of the other 
 five charges. Sir Elijah published the speech he had de- 
 livered at the bar, in an octavo volume, mth a copious 
 appendix of documents and vouchers ; and the speech and 
 the publication (which have been scandalously overlooked 
 by various recent ^Titers on Indian history) ought to have 
 given an eternal quietus to at least that section of Francis's 
 malice, and Burke's misapprehension ; yet, in spite of both, 
 and in spite of Sir Elijah's acquittal, the Nuncomar charge 
 continued to be pressed against Hastings, who could not be 
 guilty singly, and whose innocence was as completely proved 
 by the triumphant defence at the bar of the house, and by 
 the book, as was the innocence of Sir Elijah himself. 
 
 The parliamentary votes for the impeachment of Hastings, 
 the impeachment itself, the examination of witnesses, and 
 of documentary evidence, and the grand trial in West- 
 minster Hall, were dragged out to the wearisome length of 
 nine years ; and then, on the l7th of April, 1795, the great 
 governor-general was declared Not Gtuilty upon every 
 charge. 
 
 He was acquitted : but, if his honour and character 
 were cleared, his purse, in a worse sense, was cleared also ; 
 and for some time there seemed a chance of his con- 
 cluding his eventful career on the debtors' side of some 
 English prison. Besides the enormous expenses of the trial, 
 the sums paid to Law, Plumer, Dallas, and his other 
 lawyers, he had thought himself obliged to incur heavy 
 charges in printing and publishing, and in retaining pam- 
 
 * * Our Indian Empire.' 
 
i 
 
 1795.] ACQUITTED. 175 
 
 plileteers and newspaper writers, in order to liead the torrent 
 that Francis and his part}^ directed upon him. Several 
 men who had been indebted to Hastings for the means of 
 acquiring the large fortunes they had made in India, basely 
 took money from him for their services in England ; and 
 some of them, who lent him money in his hour of need and 
 distress, became importunate, hard-hearted creditors. He, 
 himself, always maintained that his expenses ought to be 
 repaid by the nation ; and Mr. Pitt had spoken in the House 
 of Commons about a proper indemnification, if the charges 
 should not be made good. But certain friends, having no 
 confidence in parliamentary generosity in a case like his, 
 applied to the East-India Company; and on the 7th of 
 March, 1796, it was announced at a general court in the 
 East-India House, that the Board of Control, and the 
 Court of Directors, had agreed to grant to Mr. Hastings 
 an annuity of 4,000 for twenty-eight years and a half. 
 Nothing was determined respecting the -reimbursement of 
 his law expenses: but, in order to relieve him from his 
 embarrassments, a sum of 50,000 was lent to him by the 
 Company, for eighteen years, and without interest. He 
 survived his acquittal twenty-four years ; and, in his last 
 years, honours and distinctions were showered upon him. 
 The University of Oxford conferred the honorary degree 
 of doctor of laws; the prince regent added his name to 
 the list of privy councillors, and in that same year (1814), 
 the allied sovereigns being in England, the prince presented 
 Mr. Hastings to the emperor of Eussia, and to the king of 
 Prussia, as one of the greatest men of this country. In his 
 82nd year, however, he was again in pecuniary difficulties, 
 for he had outlived the period for which his annuity had 
 ' een fixed. 
 
 Is there no undeciduous boon in store 
 
 T'immortalize the patriot of fourscore ? 
 
 Say from her duty shall the realm recede ? 
 
 Reap her son's labours, and withhold the meed ? 
 
 Ah ! whence, Britannia, whence that grudging hand ? * 
 
 But the grudging hand of the nation would not be 
 opened, and he who saved and enlarged our Indian 
 empire was obliged to appear before the directors as a 
 
 * Elijah Barwell Impey, A.M., student of Christ Church, a ' Gratu- 
 latory Poem, suggested by the Commemoration at Oxford,' June 30, 
 1813. 
 
176 DEATH OF lIASTIIfaS. [1818. 
 
 suitor ; and tliey, after some delay, agreed to continue the 
 annuity for the term of his natural life. He died on the 
 22nd of August, 1818, in the 86th year of his age. 
 
 Among the numerous merits and the great deeds that 
 will preserve his name in the history of British India, and 
 in the history of his own country, must be mentioned the 
 noble encouragement he afforded to liberal studies and scien- 
 tific researches. As well by his example as by his munificence, 
 he gave an impulse to learning in the indolent atmosphere 
 of Bengal. Every young ofiicer or vn-iter of the Company 
 who successfally applied himself to the studies of the native 
 languages and literatures, or to the geography, or to the 
 natural history of India, found in him a friend and gene- 
 rous patron. He acquired a deep knowledge of Persian 
 and Arabic literature ; and though he did not learn that 
 mysterious and jealously-guarded language himself, he was 
 the first that succeeded in gaining the confidence of the 
 pundits, or hereditary priests of India, whereby he obtained, 
 for other English scholars and students, the key to Sanscrit, 
 and to the secrets of the ancient Brahminical theology and 
 jurisprudence. It was under his protection that the Asiatic 
 Society of Bengal commenced its career ; and it was during 
 his administration that Englishmen really began to acquire 
 that knowledge of India, and the character, habits, and 
 institutions of the people, without which our anomalous 
 empire could not have been maintained for any length of 
 time.* 
 
 * Rev. G. R. Gleig, 'Memoirs.' James Mills, ' History of British 
 India,' as edited by Professor Horace Hayman Wilson. London, 1840. 
 Professor Wilson's notes, and his numerous corrections of Mr. Mills's 
 text, are particularly recommended to the attention of the student. 
 
1783-4.] HOME LEGISLATION^. 177 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Peetiously to the return of "VYarren Hastings from India, 
 very material changes had been made in the Company's 
 charter, and in the rules and regulations for governing 
 our Eastern dominions. In 1783, Mr. Fox brought in his 
 famous, but unfortunate East-India bill, which would have 
 placed nearly all the patronage of the Company in the hands 
 of the ministers of the cro^vTi; that is, in the hands of any 
 government that could command parliamentary majorities ; 
 and such vast patronage would have given the means 
 of swelling majorities. Had Mr. Eox's bill been passed, 
 the coalition ministry of that day, unpopular as it was, and 
 unpalatable to the king, might long have retained power ; 
 but the bin was lost, and led immediately to the breaking 
 up of that ministry, and to the introduction of Mr. Pitt as 
 premier of a new cabinet. On the I4th of January, 1784, 
 Mr. Pitt moved for leave to bring in a bill " Eor the better 
 Government and Management of the Affairs of the East- 
 India Company." At its second reading, this bill was also 
 lost. But, on the 25th of March, Pitt, thoroughly sup- 
 ported by the king, dissolved parliament. The general 
 election went greatly in favour of the young prime minis- 
 ter ; and, the new parliament, which assembled on the 18th 
 of May, passed Pitt's Indian biU into a law on the 13th of 
 August. 
 
 This bill instituted the Board of Control, by which, ever 
 since, the government of India may be said to have been 
 directed. This board of commissioners was invested " with 
 a superintendence and control over all the Britisli territo- 
 rial possessions in India, and over the aftairs of the Com- 
 pany in England." 
 
 The bill did not, like Mr. Pox's bill, claim the nomina- 
 tion of the members of this controlling power for the House 
 of Commons, but left it solely to the crown, it did not 
 
 n 
 
178 THE BOAKD OF COXTEOL. [1784. 
 
 abolish the two existing Courts of Directors and Proprietors, 
 as Eox had proposed to do, but it created a secret com- 
 mittee, which was to absorb nearly the whole of the 
 diminished power that was left to the directors, and it 
 greatly curtailed the powers of the Court of Proprietors. 
 It enacted that every individual who had held any office 
 of trust in India should, on his return home, disclose 
 the amount of the fortune he brought with him, and it 
 provided a new tribunal for the trial and punishment of 
 offences liable to be committed in India, or " for the prose- 
 cuting and bringing to speedy and condign punishment 
 British subjects guilty of extortion, and other misde- 
 meanors, while holding offices in the service of the king or 
 Company, in India."* The Board of Control was to be 
 composed of six commissioners, all members of the privy 
 council, chosen by the king, of whom the chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, and one of the principal secretaries of state, 
 were to be two ; and, in absence of the chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, and the principal secretary, the senior of the 
 remaining four was to preside. 
 
 As neither of the two great functionaries named were 
 ever likely to find time for a constant attendance, the whole 
 business soon rested with that senior, known by the name 
 of the president of the Board of Control, who is, essentially, 
 a secretary of state for the Indian department. In the 
 act, however, the authority was vested in the plural 
 number in commissioners. These commissioners were 
 not to interfere in commercial matters, but in all other 
 matters their power was most extensive. They were vested 
 with a control and superintendence over all civil, military, 
 and revenue officers of the Company, and the directors were 
 obliged to lay before them all papers relative to the manage- 
 ment of their possessions, and to obey all orders which they 
 received from them on points connected with their civil or 
 mihtary government, or the revenues of their territories. 
 The commissioners were obliged to return the copies of 
 papers which they received from the directors, in fourteen 
 days, with their approbation, or to state at large their 
 reasons for disapproving of them ; and their despatches, so 
 approved or amended, w^ere to be sent to India, unless the 
 
 * This clause, though remodelled and softened, soon became a dead 
 letter. The British subjects in India took the alarm as well they might 
 and poured in petitions against it. 
 
1784.] ME. Pitt's bill. 179 
 
 commissioners should attend to any representations of 
 the Court of Directors, respecting further alterations in 
 them. 
 
 T^e Court of Directors had no power to send any orders 
 regarding their civil or military government, without the 
 sanction of the commissioners ; but these might (if the di- 
 rectors neglected to send true copies of their intended 
 despatches, upon any subject, within fourteen days) send by 
 themselves orders and instructions relative to the civil or 
 military concerns of the Company, to any of the presi- 
 dencies of India ; and these instructions the Court of 
 Directors were, in such case, bound to forward. If the 
 commissioners forwarded any orders to the Court of Directors 
 on points not relating to the civil or military government, 
 or to the revenues of the territorial possessions of the Com- 
 pany, the directors might appeal to the king in council. 
 In all cases of secrecy, and particularly such as related to 
 war or peace with the native powers of India, the commis- 
 sioners had the power of sending their orders to the local 
 government of India, through a secret committee of the 
 Court of Directors, which committee, by the act, coidd in 
 this case only be considered as the vehicle of the instruc- 
 tions to the local authorities of India. The chief govern- 
 ment in India was to consist of a governor-general, and a 
 council of three, of whom the commander-in-chief of the 
 forces, for the time being, was to be one, and to have 
 a voice and precedence next after the governor-general ; 
 but, the said commander-in-chief was not to succeed as 
 governor-general, in the event of a death or vacancy, unless 
 by a special appointment of the Court of Directors. 
 
 The constitution of the government of the subordinate pre- 
 sidencies of Madras and Bombay was the same as at Bengal, 
 and at both the governor had, like the governor-general, a 
 casting vote in council. But these two minor presidencies 
 were placed completely under the rule of the governor- 
 general in council, on all points connected with their rela- 
 tions or negotiations with the country powers, peace or war, 
 and the application of their revenues and military forces. 
 These subordinate presidencies were strictly prohibited 
 from making war or peace without orders from the governor- 
 general at Calcutta, or from the Court of Directors, or the 
 secret committee at home, except only in cases of sudden 
 emergency or imminent danger, when it would be ruinous 
 If 2 
 
180 MR. Pitt's bill. [1784. 
 
 or unsafe to postpone suet hostilities or treaties. The 
 supreme government at Calcutta was to be intrusted with 
 the power of suspending the governors of Madras and 
 Bombay, in case of any disobedience of orders ; but the 
 power of M'ar and peace was now to be restrained at Cal- 
 cutta, it being declared by this act that, as the pursuit of 
 schemes of conquest was repugnant to the wish, to the 
 honour, and the policy of the British nation, it was not 
 lawful for the governor-general in council, without the 
 express authority of the Court of Directors, or of the secret 
 committee, to commence hostilities, or to enter into any 
 treaty for making war against any of the native princes 
 or states in India, or into any treaty guaranteeing the 
 dominions of such princes or states, except when hostilities 
 had been commenced, or preparations actually made for the 
 attack of the British nation in India, or of some of the 
 states and princes, whose dominions the British nation 
 was engaged by subsisting treaties to protect and defend. 
 The right of recall was vested in the crown * the king 
 was to have power to recall the governor-general, or any 
 other officer of the Company ; and, if the Court of Directors 
 did not within two months nominate to vacancies which 
 might occur in any of the principal charges or employments, 
 such as governor-general, governor, commander-in-chief, 
 
 * The directors were soon made to feel that this right of recall was 
 pretty nearly tantamount to the right of nomination. In the month of 
 October, 1784, before Pitt's bill was two months old, the directors 
 appointed Mr. Holland, an old servant, who had long been at Madras, 
 and was reputed to have ability, integrity, and an extensive knowledge of 
 the country, to succeed Lord Macartney in the government of that part 
 of India, in case of his lordship's resignation, death, or removal. The 
 Board of Control objected to the choice. Tlie Court of Directors per- 
 sisted in their appointment, and intimated that the Board of Control were 
 meddling in a matter that did not belong to them, inasmuch as by the 
 late act the power of appointing to such places rested with the directors. 
 Hereupon the Board of Control said: *'Ifthe reasons which we have 
 adduced do not satisfy the Court of Directors, we have certainly no right 
 to control their opinion." But at the same time they informed Mr. 
 Holland that if he accepted the appointment, and went to India, he would 
 be recalled the moment he got there. This settled the dispute ; and 
 Mr. Dundas was allowed to nominate Sir Archibald Campbell, who, 
 whatever were his other qualifications, had the merit of being Dundas's 
 friend. It was at a period subsequent to this that the power of recall was 
 given also to the Company. How this power was exercised by the board 
 without the consent of ministers, in the case of the earl of EUenborough, 
 is a recent event, and fresh in public recollection. 
 
1784.] ME. Pitt's bill. 181 
 
 or member of coimcil, then the crown became possessed of 
 the right to make such nomination. 
 
 The patronage of India, by this bill, was left in the 
 directors, but with material deductions : for the king was to 
 name the commander-in-chief, who was always to be second 
 in co^ ncil ; and the governor-general, governors of Madras 
 and Bombay, and members of all the three councils, were 
 subject to the approbation of the king, who was to have the 
 power of recalling any or all of them. The secret com- 
 mittee was to be chosen by the directors, and not to exceed 
 the number of three. By the clause in which the Board of 
 Control was authorized in all cases requiring secrecy to 
 transmit their orders through this secret committee of 
 three, without communicating them to the Court of 
 Directors, and to receive answers under the same conceal- 
 ment, the Board of Control and the said committee of 
 secrecy could interrupt and suspend, as often as they thought 
 proper, the power of the Court of Directors. In fact, as 
 far as related to all the higher functions of government in 
 India, the Court of Directors was reduced to three, and 
 these three, in conjunction with the president of the Board 
 of Control, formed the executive.* 
 
 * Act of Parliament. P. Auber, * Rise and Progress of the British 
 Power in India.* Sir John Malcolm, ' Sketch of the Political History ofi' 
 India.' Mills, ' History of British India,* Professor Wilson's edition^, 
 with notes and corrections. 
 
182 THE SEIKS. [1785. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 On the departure of Mr. Hastings, in 1785, Mr. Mac- 
 pherson, senior member of council, acted as governor- 
 general until the arrival of Lord Cornwallis. In Che 
 interval the Mahrattas, under their great chieftain, Madajee 
 Scindiah, captured the city of Agra. 
 
 At this time the fanatical Seiks made overtures for 
 the friendship of the Company. A person, in the cha- 
 racter of a merchant, waited upon Mr. Anderson, who 
 was in the Mahratta camp, and after offering to sell him 
 some cloths, represented that he had some jewels to show 
 him in private. On their retiring, the sham merchant 
 discovered himself to be a confidential servant of Dooljah 
 Sing, a great Seik chief, who had lately arrived in the camp. 
 He stated that his master was desirous of forming a friend- 
 ship and connection with the English, as he entertained 
 great apprehensions of the Mahrattas, and that an armed 
 body of 30,000 Seiks had crossed the Sutlej, and taken up 
 a position between Panniput and Delhi. But Scindiah 
 Bwore by his sword that he had no intention of war, and 
 the Seik negotiation with the English came to nothing.* 
 
 Shortly after this, the Seiks entered into a treaty with 
 Scindiah, and undertook to supply him with 5,000 of their 
 cavalry, to serve in the war which he was determined to 
 wage against Tippoo Sultaun. The Seiks received the 
 promise of a rich jaghire ; but, as the war was very unsuc- 
 cessful, they never got it. 
 
 Our knowledge of the vast peninsula over which we were 
 gradually extending our sway, was at first acquired piece- 
 meal, and by slow degrees. During Mr. Macpherson's 
 brief government, two contributions were made to this in- 
 formation. 
 
 * Peter Auber, M.R.A.S., ' Rige and Progress of the British Power ia 
 India.' 
 
1785.] SIR cnAELES malet's JOL'EKEY. 183 
 
 Mr. Malet, afterwards Sir Charles Malet, bart., of the 
 Bombay civil service, was selected by the supreme govermnent 
 for the" office of resident at Poonah. He received instruc- 
 tions to repair to Calcutta, in order to confer on the general 
 state of Mahratta politics. " Influenced by a desire to extend 
 the geographical knowledge of Hindustan already possessed 
 by the Company, he proceeded by the route of Oojeen, a 
 tract then unkno\Mi to European travellers, where he arrived 
 on the 10th of April, having left Bombay on the 27th of 
 January preceding, without encountering any difficulty, or 
 meeting with the slightest impediment; a progress, how- 
 ever, which, would be considered somewhat tedious at the 
 present day, for a distance of 479 miles. He described 
 Oojeen as erroneously laid down by Eennell. After giving an 
 account of the fort of Bheroodghur, about two miles distant 
 from Oojeen, he proceeded a mile and a half further, where 
 he discovered a very large gloomy edifice of peculiar strength, 
 and still in very good repair, erected on an artificial island, 
 fonned for the purpose by a division of the stream of the 
 Sessera, and connected with the western bank by a bridge 
 of sixteen arches. In the western stream, which he con- 
 sidered to be an artificial one, were a surprising multitude of 
 various apartments, constructed on a level with the water, 
 and in the midst of it, the water being conveyed round them 
 in various channels into reservoirs contrived for its reception, 
 whence fit was conveyed by proper inlets from the bed of 
 the river, into which it was again discharged by little artificial 
 cascades. It was stated to have been built by Sultan ISTasic- 
 ul-deen-Gighee, who ascended the throne of Malwa in the 
 year of the Hijrah 905, and reigned eleven years. He was 
 represented as cruel and oppressive ; he had contracted an 
 intolerable heat in his habit by eating fixed quicksilver, 
 and found so much relief within these watery abodes, from 
 their coolness, that he spent the whole of his time there, 
 where he also carried on the business of his government. 
 The works were stated to be three hundred years old."* 
 
 Mr. Anderson, vsTiting to the council at Calcutta, from 
 Allahabad, described the Company's armies as ha\-ing for a 
 series of years crossed and re-crossed a canal cut from the 
 Jumna, which includes the town and fortress of Allahabad, 
 without its being known that such a communication existed. 
 *' During the last few days I was at that quarter," said he, 
 
 * P. Auber. 
 
184 PEINCE OF wales' ISLAND. [1785. 
 
 " I casTiallv lit, to my utter astonishment, upon this canal, 
 wliieli Shiijah Dowla caused to be excavated in 1764, either 
 to obstruct the enterprises of the approaching English, or to 
 impede the invasion of the Abdallees, of both of which he 
 was then apprehensive. Of all the strongholds I liave met 
 witli in India, Allahabad appears to be the best calculated for 
 a provisionarv magazine, for a military station for our frontier 
 troops, and for their retreat in case of any untoward event. 
 Possessing this, our forces would become little hable to check 
 or repulse."* 
 
 Of late, there had been a great number of duels fought in 
 India between officers and civil servants of the Company. 
 These duels were not confined to young men, or to the 
 inferior ranks of the two services ; IVIr. Hastings had fought 
 Philip Prancis, and wounded him ; Lord Macartney, gover-- 
 nor of Madras, had fought with Mr. Sadlier, a member of 
 council, and had been wounded by him ;t and Mr. Macpher- 
 son, now acting as governor-general, had been challenged 
 by Major Brown, on the Bengal estabUshment, for some 
 oifence taken at Mi'.Macpherson's proceedings in his station 
 as governor-general. The frequency of these events induced 
 the Court of Directors to pass a unanimous resolution, 
 reprobating the practice, and determining to dismiss from 
 the Company's service every party who should presume to 
 c-hallenge a member of the government, or any other officer, 
 on accoimt of matters arising out of the discharge of official 
 duties. 
 
 Prince of Wales' Island, in the Straits of Malacca, was 
 taken into our possession during Mr. Macpherson's adminis- 
 tration. The necessity of having a port where British ships 
 might meet the Eastern merchants, and the necessity of a 
 windward station for refreshment and the repair of the 
 king's ships, as well as those of the Company, were the 
 principal reasons with the government in obtaining that 
 settlement, through Captain Light. Some reductions Avere 
 made in the civil ser\dce, which had become somewhat over- 
 
 * Peter Auber, * Rise and Progress of the British Power in India.' 
 t On his return to England, Lord Macartney Lad to fight another duel. 
 This was witli General Stuart, whose conduct in the Carnatic, and espe- 
 cially at Cuddalore, had been very severely, and, it should appear, very 
 justly criticised. His lordship was again wounded. But this wound, 
 inflicted in a field near Kingston, in Surrey, did not prove that Stuart 
 had done his duty as a soldier and commanding officer at Cuddalore, in 
 the East Indies. 
 
1786.] NATIVE TROOPS. 185 
 
 crowded with writers and young men, wlio liad little to do, 
 and who in many cases were ill qualilied to do that little. 
 Measures were taken for the discharge of all arrears to the 
 army ; and it was declared to be a leading principle of the 
 Company's goyernment, that the pay of the soldier ought 
 never to be in arrear; while there was a rupee in the 
 treasury, the soldier was to be paid, every other article of 
 expenditure being postponed to that consideration, Regula- 
 tions were also made for the relief or better maintenance of 
 invalided native officers and sepoys, by allotting to them lands 
 to cultivate, in proportion to their respective ranks, within 
 the districts under Boglepoor. Thus population would be 
 increased, and a considerable portion of those extensive 
 districts brought "under cultivation. Other means, well 
 adapted to secure the continuance of the attachment of our 
 native troops to their British officers and to the service, 
 were adopted from time to time. It will not be necessary 
 for me to detail all these. I prefer quoting, for the benefit 
 of our young officers, the following passage, which was 
 written thirty- two years ago, and the truth and value of which 
 have been many times proved during that long interval. 
 
 " It is by treating the sepoys with kindness and consider- 
 ation, by stimulating their pride, and by attending, in the 
 most minute manner, to their feelings and prejudices, that 
 we can command, as has been well observed, ' their lives 
 through the medium of their affi^ctions ;' and so long as we 
 can, by these means, preserve the fidelity and attachment of 
 that portion of the population of our immense possessions 
 in the East, which we arm to defend the remainder, our 
 empire may be considered as secure."* 
 
 Much good had been done during this short administra- 
 tion, and on resigning his functions, at the arrival of the 
 newly appointed governor-general, the unanimous thanks 
 of the Court of Directors were voted to John Macpherson, 
 esq., for his meritorious conduct during the time he had 
 presided in the supreme government, and to the other 
 members of the council at Calcutta.f 
 
 * ' Quarterly Review,' vol. xviii. 
 
 t Acts of Parliament. Mills, ' History of British India,' Professor 
 Wilson's edition. Sir John Malcolm, ' Sketch of the Political History 
 of India.' Peter Auber, Rise and Progress of the British Power in India.' 
 
186 ADMINISTEATIOy OF [1786. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 LoED CoEKWALLis, the second governor - general of 
 India, and the first who united to his office that of com- 
 mander-in-chief of the forces, landed at Calcutta on the 
 12th of September, 1786, and, after taking the usual oaths, 
 assumed charge of the government. Notwithstanding the 
 unfortunate way in which he had ended the American war, 
 his lordship was still considered as an able general; and 
 there seemed to be great advantages to be derived from 
 intrusting the government of India to a tried soldier, and 
 from uniting the highest civil with the highest military 
 power. Lord Cornwallis was high-minded, disinterested 
 in money matters, mild and equitable in temper, anxious 
 to do good and prevent e\i\, steady and persevering in his 
 application to business, and particularly distinguished by 
 his sincere desire to maintain peace and promote the 
 welfare of our Indian subjects. Both the parliament and 
 the Company had recommended that no more wars should 
 be undertaken for extension of territory, and that leagues 
 and alliances with the restless native powers should be 
 avoided. His lordship himself certainly went to the Granges 
 with the intention and the hope of avoiding wars of con- 
 quest, and of keeping the whole of British India, and the 
 states dependent upon it, in a happy condition of undis- 
 turbed peace. It was a pleasant vision ; but it soon vanished. 
 His lordship found himself constraiaed to act, in politics 
 and war, and with reference to the native princes, in much 
 the same manner as Mr. Hastings had acted. 
 
 There were, however, several material differences between 
 the present situation of Cornwallis and the late situation of 
 Hastings. Pitt's India bill of 1784 was now in full opera- 
 tion, and it was improved and strengthened by three amend- 
 ing acts passed in 1786, and by the declaratory bill of 
 1788. These acts did much to set aside the vacillating, 
 
1786.] LOED COEFWALLIS. 187 
 
 and frequently rash and contradictory policy of the Court of 
 Directors, and to vest the government of British India 
 substantially in the home British government. Pitt's bill 
 gave to the Board of Control the powers of war and peace, 
 and relieved the governor-general from many of those 
 heavy responsibilities under which Hastings had laboured. 
 In some matters, there was still a want of unity of power 
 and intention ; but, under the Board of Control, or with the 
 direction of one of the secretaries of state, the corres- 
 pondence with the governor-general and council, and other 
 authorities in India, became very different from what it had 
 been when directed solely by a few trading directors sitting 
 in Leadenhall-street, as a secret council or committee : it 
 became more clear, more consistent, more honourable, and 
 elevated. In AYarren Hastings's time it had often been a 
 dark and disgraceful riddle, difficult to be understood, and 
 easy to be misinterpreted. Moreover, the general situation 
 of affairs in India was infinitely less difficult and perplexing 
 now than it had been, and Hastings, by breaking the only 
 European power capable of contending with us, and by con- 
 solidating the empire which the great Clive had foimded, 
 had rendered comparatively easy the task of all his suc- 
 cessors. The power and prestige of the French in India 
 were annihilated; and although they made some feeble 
 efforts to re-erect the system of M. Bussy, by renewing the 
 struggle in Hindustan, they never again became formidable 
 in that part of the world, their efforts being checked by 
 their great devolution, and their energy and ambition 
 being employed in other channels by the republican and 
 Bonapartean wars. 
 
 By the three bills passed in 1786, several parts of that of 
 1784 were explained and amended, and the powers of the 
 governor-general were at once enlarged, and better defined, 
 than they were in Hastings's time. The governor-general 
 was vested with a discretionary right of acting, in extraor- 
 dinary cases, Vkdthout the concurrence of the supreme coun- 
 cil at Calcutta, being held solely and personally responsible 
 for any consequences which might ensue from the measures 
 adopted under such circumstances. This went to do away 
 with that divided authority, and that almost constant colli- 
 sion between the governor-general and the council, which 
 had tormented and tortured Hastings, and which, more than 
 once, had placed in jeopardy our dominion in Hindustan. 
 
188 Tippoo suLTArN. [1789. 
 
 Under Cornwallis there could be no sucli men or, no 
 member of council could do such deeds as Francis, Claver- 
 ing, and IMonson. The success which attended the new 
 governor-general in India was also promoted by the high 
 consideration he eujoyed in England. "His rank and 
 character, while it placed him above the influence of the 
 ministers of the crown, or the fear of the Court of Di- 
 rectors, commanded a respect from the civil and military 
 servants of the Company, which, added to the increased 
 powers with which he was vested, freed him from every 
 shadow of opposition. He was enabled, from the same 
 causes, to stimulate to exertion, by the distinction which 
 his personal favour bestowed, the first talents in India, and 
 to combine the eiforts of every ambitious and honourable 
 mind in the support of the measures of his administra- 
 tion." 
 
 Lord Cornwallis was strengthened in almost every way 
 during three years of tranquillity, and his government in 
 India had acquired consistency and regularity before any 
 serious conflict commenced. The principal event which 
 occurred during his administration, was the war with Tippoo 
 Sultaun. On tlie 29th of December, 1789, Tippoo stormed 
 the lines of the rajah of Travancore, a prince who was 
 acknowledged to be under the protection of the English 
 government, by the stipulations of the treaty which Tippoo 
 had concluded in 1784. This unprovoked aggression was the 
 origin of the war. Our opposition party did not hesitate 
 to blame Lord Cornwallis, as they had previously censured 
 Warren Hastings, and they took it upon themselves to 
 honour and applaud, and afterwards to commiserate, Tippoo 
 Sultaun, as an inoffensive ruler, sacrificed to our ambition 
 and thirst for conquest. Yet Tippoo, a cruel, faithless, 
 ambitious prince, brought the war upon himself, when Lord 
 ComwaUis was most earnest for peace, and very badly 
 provided with the means of carrying on extensive hos- 
 tilities. 
 
 Anticipating and providing for a grand struggle, Tippoo, 
 assisted by European engineers, chiefly Erench and Italian, 
 was everywhere strengthening the country of Mysore. 
 Several of the towns besides Seringapatam, the capital, were 
 strongly fortified ; and the region abounds in places of great 
 natural strength, affording admirable advantages for a 
 defensive war. Besides European engineers and artillery 
 
1789.] HIS WABLIKE STEENGTH. 189 
 
 officers, he had a considerable number of Europeans to train 
 and discipline his native troops ; but these fellows were 
 chiefly common soldiers that had deserted from the Com- 
 pany's service to escape punishment for crimes committed ; 
 and, p as Tippoo was a bigoted Mussulman, and fond of 
 religious conversion, forced or spontaneous, they had all 
 become renegadoes. He had clothed part of his regulars in 
 uniform resembling that of the sepoys in the English ser- 
 vice, and had armed them with French muskets. Their 
 discipline, however, was very far from perfect, and their 
 whole number inconsiderable, not exceeding three or four 
 thousand. The rest of his infantry was a mere rabble, 
 armed with old muskets, matchlocks, pikes, and scimitars. 
 But his principal force was his cavahy, that Mysorean 
 cavalry which had repeatedly rushed through the ghauts 
 like mountain-torrents, and swept the whole of the low 
 country of the Carnatic. Yet the elite of this force, the 
 circar or stable horse, who were uniformly clothed and 
 equipped, did not exceed 6,000 ; all the rest being irregu- 
 lars, v.'ho found their own horses and arms, and who did no 
 military duty, except when called into the field on some 
 emergency, or to make some plundering incursion into 
 the territories of their neighbours. These fellows, however, 
 were bold and clever riders ; and the rapidity of their 
 movements often made up for their deficiency in other 
 points. His artillery was more than respectable, the French 
 baving furnished him with guns of all calibres, many of 
 which, being larger and longer than any of the guns of 
 Lord ComwaUis, gave him a considerable advantage over 
 the English in this war. He boasted that, in artillery prac- 
 tice, he had left his masters, the Nazarenes, far behind him ; 
 " although, like the salamander, they passed their lives in 
 fire." His heavier pieces were all drawn by elephants; 
 and besides 400 trained elephants, the best that coidd be 
 procured in India, he had an immense train of the finest 
 bullocks. According to a British officer engaged, 100 
 pieces of ordnance were frequently moved during these cam- 
 paigns, with a rapidity not easily to be conceived, and far 
 superior to the best speed the English artillery could make ; 
 and the velocity with which his large bodies of cavalry 
 changed their situations, and the general rapidity with 
 which his whole movements were executed, gave him another 
 great advantage. When the war w^as carried into his own 
 
190 TIPPOO SULTAUIT. [1789. 
 
 dominions, his irregulars, who had been accustomed to rely 
 only upon plunder for their support and reward, were 
 engaged by what Tippoo called regular pay ; but he only 
 engaged them by the month or moon ; and Tippoo length- 
 ened months or moons beyond their natural duration, to 
 save his pocket. "Thirty, forty, and even fifty days," says 
 Major Taylor, " constitute their duration ; and the state of 
 his treasury, or his own whim, regulates the calendar." But 
 in matters where the advantage is less evident, Tippoo 
 indulged his whims to excess. He was a reformer or inno- 
 vator of the most persevering kind, changing all old things, 
 and hking nothing but what was new and of his own creation. 
 It seemed as if the soul of a Trench democrat had been trans- 
 fused into this Indian despot. He changed the dates of the 
 ancient Mahometan festivals ; he changed the name of 
 everything in government, law, and military tactics ; he 
 gave new names to the days and months, to weights, mea- 
 sures, coins, forts, towns, offices civil and military ; in short, 
 to all things and persons, exhibiting " a singular coincidence 
 at nearly one and the same time, and in distant and uncon- 
 nected quarters of the globe, between the extremes of 
 unbridled democracy and luicontrolled despotism."* He 
 created a fleet which never existed except upon paper, and 
 made admirals who had never seen the sea. He drew up a 
 commercial code, and considered himself the chief and best 
 merchant in his dominions. He drew up a civil and 
 criminal code, which is said to have been the maddest and 
 worst ever devised by man. And whatever the Tiger once 
 did, he would never allow to be altered. He had a rigid 
 method in all his madness, and he made laws and regula- 
 tions for almost everything, however trifling. Besides 
 keeping in pay a corps of authors to record his wonderful 
 exploits, he was an author himself, and so busy a one, that 
 when not campaigning or sleeping, the pen was for ever in his 
 hand. His father, Hyder Ali, was accustomed to do v^Tong 
 among his neighbours without attempting to prove to the 
 world that he was doing right ; but Tippoo never executed 
 or meditated an evil deed without writing himself, or caus- 
 ing to be written, some pedantic proclamation, or treatise, 
 or book, to extol his project, and to prove tliat it was dictated 
 by religion and morality. So long as the Hindiis he had 
 
 * Colonel Wilks, ' Historical Sketches of the South of India.* 
 
1789.] Tippoo suLTArK. 191 
 
 conquered paid their tribute to him, Hyder cared little about 
 their religion, but Tippoo resolved to convert by force all 
 his subjects to the Mahometan faith. In the year 1787, 
 before marching with an army into the country of Calicut, 
 " to improve the morals of the people and to realize the 
 revenue," he issued a proclamation, stating that unless the 
 poor Malabars renounced their ancient practices, he would 
 keep a vow which he had made and often repeated, and exter- 
 minate them or force them to acknowledge his prophet. He 
 described his joiu'ney to the Malabar coast as the progress 
 of an angel of light, or envoy of the Almighty ; and the 
 butcheries he committed during his residence there as acts 
 of grace and heavenly inspiration. He was " The Shadow 
 of G-od" his blood-stained steps were "propitious steps" 
 he claimed the gratitude of the Hindus for having slaugh- 
 tered them or driven them from their country, for having 
 destroyed their temples and burned their gods. On one 
 occasion he surprised 2,000 Nairs with their families, and 
 gave them the alternative of a voluntary profession of his 
 faith with permission to stay in Malabar, or a forcible con- 
 version with deportation from their native land. The 
 unhappy captives chose the latter ; the rite of circumcision 
 was instantly performed on all the males, and the individuals 
 of both sexes were compelled to close the ceremony of con- 
 version by eating beef the very climax of sacrilege and of 
 horror in the eyes of those poor Hindus. His capricious 
 but fierce persecutions made him for ever odious to that 
 people, who saw no chance of happiness or security except 
 in the Company and the presence of an English force. He 
 sent an embassy to France to ask Louis XVI. for a body of 
 6,000 Frenchmen, with whose assistance he had engaged to 
 drive the English out of India ; and he sent another embassy 
 to Constantinople to request the sultan, as the chief of 
 Mussulman princes, to make common cause with him. This 
 was done while Tippoo was professing friendship to the 
 Company. When, by overt acts, he threatened the rajah of 
 Travancore and other native princes, whom the Company 
 was bound by treaty to protect, Lord Cornwallis made sun- 
 dry attempts to negotiate with him ; but, upon the failure 
 of these attempts, his lordship declared that no policy would 
 prove so fatal in India as a tame submission to insult or 
 injury at the hands of Tippoo Sidtaun, 
 
 No sooner had the Mysorean recovered from the losses he 
 
192 THE EAJAH OF TEATAlfCORE. [1789. 
 
 had sustained during the last four years' war with the 
 English, than he began to look round for fresh objects that 
 might increase his'revenue, extend his dominions, and aggran- 
 dize his fame. The wealthy kingdom of Travancore, bor- 
 dering on his Malabar possessions, had long excited the 
 cupidity of Tippoo and of his father Hyder. Into that 
 country the destructive inundations of Tamerlane, Aurung- 
 zebe, and Nadir Shah never penetrated. Indeed, as the 
 whole kingdom, with a mere trifle of exception, is separated 
 from the adjacent districts, either by deep morasses or by 
 lofty mountains, covered with impenetrable jungle, it seems 
 protected by a peculiar indulgence of nature from such 
 disasters. Happy, too, under a succession of princes mildly 
 reigning in uninterrupted peace, time immemorial ; and 
 rendered opulent by the great variety of spice and timber 
 with which their country abounded ; that peaceful people 
 did not interfere in the politics of neighbouring princes, 
 much less did they provoke the impending storm. 
 
 Mussulman fanaticism contributed also, in a considerable 
 degree, to bring about the rupture. Thence had arisen the 
 incessant persecution of the rajahs, the original, genuine, and 
 true princes of Hindustan, by Hyder and his successor ; 
 thence the annihilation of their undisputed chief, on the 
 Malabar coast, the late Zamorin ; and thence the present 
 importance of the prince of Travancore, who, from the 
 antiquity of his family, from the wealth that he possessed, 
 and from his close connection with the British nation, was 
 now regarded with great reverence by all the Hindus of the 
 south.* 
 
 The rajah of Travancore, in 1789, was drawn into a nego- 
 tiation by the Dutch, who offered to sell his highness the 
 two ports of Cranganore and Jaycottah, in the provinces of 
 Malabar and Cochin. The Portuguese were possessed of a 
 fort at Cochin at the commencement of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, and in 1663 the Dutch became possessed of it by right 
 of conquest. When Hyder had overrun the Malabar coast, 
 in 1766, in writing to the government of Bombay, he thanks 
 Ood he had subdued all the coast, from the Cape Eamus 
 to Ponany. Cochin, in which Cranganore is situated, lies 
 much to the southward of Cape Ponany, and although 
 Tippoo, in his immediate ravages, may have exacted tribute 
 
 * Roderick Mackenzie, of the 52nd reginoent, ' Sketch of the War 
 with Tippoo Sultaun,' 2 vols. 4to. Calcutta, 1799. 
 
17S9.] TIPPOO INYADES TRAYANCOllE. 193 
 
 from the province, there is nothing to establish that either 
 Cranganore or Jaycottah were subject to him, or that the 
 Dutch had not the power of parting with possessions they 
 had acquired for upwards of a century before even Hyder, 
 Tippoo's father, had become known as a separate and power- 
 ful chief. It was good policy of the Dutch to sell that which 
 they apprehended would be taken from them by Tippoo ; 
 but as a matter of discretion on the part of the rajah of 
 Travancore, it might have been prudent to have abstained 
 from any proceeding likely to involve hostilities with 
 Mysore. 
 
 The error, if it be one, was committed ; it could not be 
 repaired but by an humiliating concession to Tippoo, which, 
 after what had passed, would have involved the character of 
 the British government.* 
 
 Tippoo, determined to prevent if possible the offer of the 
 Dutch being accepted by the ra,jah of Travancore, and regard- 
 less of the treaty of 1784, and of the remonstrances of Lord 
 Cornwallis, put his army in motion. 
 
 Towards the end of the year 1789, the Mysorean army 
 pitched their tents within two miles of the barrier that 
 originally bounded the conquest of Hyder on the western 
 coast. After a tedious march through a narrow, circuitous, 
 and unfrequented pathway among the jungles, the sultaun, at 
 the head of 10,000 men, on the morning of the 29th Decem- 
 ber, obtained SharapootamaUy, a steep and rugged hill that 
 terminated that barrier to the eastward. From thence his 
 encampment was distant about twelve miles, and as the 
 space that intervened had always been reckoned impene- 
 trable to any body of troops, the few Nairs that were sta- 
 tioned at SharapootamaUy were lulled into a security that 
 proved fatal to themselves. Unencumbered by their cannon, 
 the Mysoreans clambered over the brow of the mountain ; 
 they doubled the extreme end of the lines, and advancing 
 from within with rapidity towards the centre, they bayoneted 
 whomsoever oftered to oppose. Some feeble resistance 
 served only to enrage the Mahometans, and to increase the 
 carnage during a pursuit of several miles. At length, how- 
 ever, a resolute party of Nairs, about 800 in number, formed 
 across an avenue, along which the assailants had to pass, 
 and, with the assistance of a six-poujider that was well 
 
 * Peter Auber, ' Rise and Progress of the British Power in India.' 
 O 
 
194 TIPPOO DEFEATED. [1789. 
 
 served with grape, tliey staggered the troops in advance, 
 and completely checked the pursuit. A Chela battalion that 
 led the enemy, exhausted by fatigue and want of water, 
 could not be prevailed upon to charge this resolute phalanx. 
 Another battalion, and another was still ordered to advance, 
 but the Nairs, by this time, reinforced from Eemiseram, 
 stood firm as a rock. The sultaun pressed onward to the 
 front with his best troops, whilst the Gentoos, attracted by 
 the noise of the action, hastened to the support of their 
 friends. The conflict was dreadful. The high-caste Nairs, 
 inflamed by patriotism, Hindu fanaticism, and revenge, 
 fought with rare courage. Tor some time the beam of success 
 stood horizontal. At length the Mysoreans gave way. A 
 general panic ensued, which, in proportion as it gave rise to 
 confusion amongst the fugitives, increased the courage of 
 the now victorious IN'airs. Exasperated by the cruel and 
 unremitting persecution of Hyder and his successors, these 
 warriors continued the pursuit and slaughter for a consider- 
 able distance, making dreadful execution with their destruc- 
 tive hatchets. The sultaun, mounted on a white horse, 
 witnessing the discomfiture and disgrace of his troops, 
 exerted every nerve for the recovery of the day. But all 
 was to no purpose, for the Nairs pressed so closely on his 
 rear, that, his horse being shot, he had a narrow escape for 
 his life. The rout was now general and complete.* 
 
 Two passages, about twenty feet in width, that had 
 been cut througli the ramparts on the advance of the 
 assailants, on purpose to admit their guns, now served 
 essentially in favouring their retreat ; still, however, they 
 had another enemy to encounter. The cotton with which the 
 ditch had been fiUed by themselves, and over which they 
 must of necessity fall back, by some unaccountable accident 
 took fire. This circumstance rendered their situation truly 
 deplorable, and, contributing to the reluctance with which 
 they quitted the lines, they desperately disputed the ground 
 they gave up inch by inch. Their obstinacy availed them 
 nothing. It greatly increased their loss. The carnage con- 
 tinued without intermission until noon. It is diflicult to 
 ascertain the exact number slain when an action is fought 
 over such an extent of ground. Of the enemy not less than 
 1,500 are said to have fallen, whilst forty only were taken 
 
 * Roderick Mackenzie, of the 52nd regiment, * Sketch of the War with 
 Tippoo Sultaun,' etc. Calcutta, 1799. 
 
1790.] ATTEMPTED NEGOTIATION. 195 
 
 prisoners. Amongst the dead there were three men of high 
 rank. Tippoo Sultaun did not escape nnhurt. He had been 
 obHged to leap from the ramparts of the lines, across the ditch 
 in which the bales of cotton were, and, falling, he was much 
 bruised and otherwise injured. His palanquin was found at 
 the brink of the ditch, and turned out a good prize, for it 
 contained several valuable diamond rings and other jewels 
 in a silver box, his large seal, his fusee and pistols, and like- 
 wise his diamond-hilted sword.* During these fierce combats 
 a force of EngHsh sepoys remained under arms, but did 
 nothing, as Captain Knox, their commander, had received no 
 orders to act. 
 
 Sir Thomas Monro, in a letter written from Amboor, in 
 January, alluded to the transactions, and said, 
 
 " A second attack is daily expected, and if the rajah is left 
 alone, all liis exertions against a force so superior can delay 
 but for a very short time his ruin. The English battahons 
 were behind the Hues, but not at the place attacked : and it 
 is said they have orders not to act, even on the defensive. 
 If such be the case, the rajah ought to dismiss them with 
 scorn. The distinction made between recent acquisi- 
 tions and ancient territory appears to be a subterfuge of 
 government to cloak their dread of war under a pretended 
 love of peace, for Cranganore was a fair purchase of the 
 Dutch from the rajah of Cochin, subject to an annual tribute 
 of thirty -five rupees. Before we can assemble an army to 
 face the enemy, Tippoo may be in possession of Travancore. 
 We have derived but little benefit from experience and mis- 
 fortune. The year 1790 sees us as little prepared as that 
 of 1780, and before that war. AVe shall commence the war 
 under the disadvantage of a want of magazines. The dis- 
 tresses and difiicidties which we then encountered from 
 them, has not cured us of the narrow policy of preferring 
 a small present saving to a certain though future great and 
 essential advantage." t 
 
 Every word of this letter was almost prophetic. 
 
 Bound by his pacific instructions from home, Lord 
 Comwallis, through the Madras government, still attempted 
 to negotiate with Tippoo. The Mysorean was told that if 
 his claim to the ports of Cranganore and Jaycottah, which 
 
 * Roderick Mackenzie, 52nd regiment, ' Sketch of the War with 
 Tippoo Sultaun.' Calcutta, 1793-9. 
 
 t Peter Auber, ' Rise and Progress of the British Power in India.' 
 O 2 
 
19G ALLIA>'CE YriTK THE MAHRATTAS. [1790. 
 
 the rajah of Travancore had purchased, could be proved to 
 be a just one, those places should be given up to him, but 
 that he must not attempt to seize them by force, or to 
 inflict any injury on the rajah, who was the aUy of the Eng- 
 lish, and Avho had given him no provocation. Even a flag of 
 truce was sent to him from Madras, and an offer was made 
 to appoint a joint commission of Mysoreans and English to 
 settle amicably the points in contest.* The Tiger set down 
 aU these peaceful attempts as a proof that the English were 
 not prepared for war, and were afraid of renewing the con- 
 test with him. " To assign the causes that produced an 
 unproclaimed truce, for upwards of two months, between 
 inveterate enemies not five miles asunder, would be to put 
 truth too much to the hazard. It is probable that the 
 wounds or bruises which the sultaun had received, his 
 want of cannon, together with the inequality of the force 
 now under his command to the task that he had undertaken, 
 contributed to his apparent inactivity. During that period, 
 however, he obtained from Mysore and Seringapatam troops, 
 battering-guns, and stores, without molestation ; whilst the 
 rajah, on the other hand, making the like use of this interval, 
 through the influence of religion encouraged by a temporary 
 success, assembled about 100,000 Hindiis, all of whom were 
 carefully distributed on the lines. "f This force consisted 
 of the not very warlike militia of the country, of poly gars, 
 or tributary landlords, who held their estates by a military 
 tenure, and of about 8,000 men, clothed and accoutred like 
 our sepoys, but under little or no discipline. The natural 
 strength of the country was very considerable, but the 
 people of Travancore were totally unaccustomed to war. J 
 
 It was therefore clear that the rajah would be crushed and 
 his fair country ruined, if English aid were not sent to 
 him. Like Hastings, Lord Cornwallis found himself obliged 
 to set up one native power against another, and to court 
 the aid and alliance of the Mahrattas, themselves the most 
 restless and unprincipled of men. A treaty of offensive and 
 defensive alliance against Tippoo Sultaun was concluded 
 between the English and the peishwa of the Mahrattas, the 
 
 * See correspondence with Tippoo Sultaun, quoted by R. Mackenzie 
 in ' Sketch of the War,' etc. 
 
 + Roderick Mackenzie. 
 
 X ' Official Correspondence,' quoted by Roderick Mackenzie. Colonel 
 Wilks, ' Sketches of the South of India.' 
 
1790.] WAR WITH TIPPOO. 197 
 
 peisliwa engaging to furnish cavalry to sei-ve witli our army. 
 But, unhappily, before our forces could reach the field of 
 action, Tippoo beat the rajah of Travancore, and did incal- 
 culable mischief to the countr}\ On the 12th of April, 
 after a tremendous cannonade, the Mysorean got possession 
 of the lines of defence. The rajah's host fled in a wild 
 panic, but were protected in their retreat by two battalions 
 of Madras sepoys, under the command of Captain Knox. 
 On the 7th of May, Cranganore, one of the disputed ports, 
 was reduced, Jaycottah, the other disputed port, fell a few 
 days later ; and Paroor, Curiapilly, and various other forts, 
 surrendered in rapid succession to the sultaun. The total 
 demolition of the lines was completed by repeated explosions 
 that laid Cranganore in ruins ; and a general devastation, as 
 well by fire as by the sword, spread over the whole face of 
 the land. The J^airs betook themselves to their strong- 
 holds in the mountains ; the Travancorean troops retired to 
 the southern extremity of their kingdom. All cultivation 
 ceased. The country people exchanged their pleasant homes 
 for the innermost recesses of the jungle, preferring the 
 attack of the wolf and the tiger, to the certain and merciless 
 persecution of the Mahometan conqueror.* These were 
 some of the fruits of our peace policy, and of our most un- 
 Avise economy. Lord Cornwallis felt them at the heart's core. 
 " This ill-judged saving," said he, " may cost to the Company 
 a crore of rupees : besides which, I still more sincerely 
 lament the disgraceful sacrifice made of the honour of our 
 country, by tamely suffering an insolent and cruel enemy to 
 overwhelm the dominions of the rajah of Travancore, which 
 we were bound by the most sacred ties of friendship and good 
 faith to defend." t It was the end of May before General 
 Medows could take the field. With 16,000 men, that general 
 marched from Tranquebar, to carry the war into Tippoo's 
 own territories. Tlie Tiger would now have consented to 
 negotiate, and affected to believe that there was no war 
 between him and the English. In reply to his letter, Greneral 
 jNIedows said " The English, equally incapable of offering 
 an insult as to submitting to one, have always looked upon 
 war as declared from the moment you attacked their ally the 
 king of Travancore. God does not always give the battle 
 
 I* R. Mackenzie, ' Sketch of the War,' etc. 
 t Letter to Mr. E. J. Holland, acting governor of Fort St. George, as 
 quoted by Sir John Malcolm, ' Political History of India.' 
 
 i 
 
198 CAMPAIOK OF GENERAL MEDOWS. [1790. 
 
 to the strong, nor the race to the swdft, but, generally, success 
 to those whose cause is just upon that we depend." 
 
 The sultaun no sooner received this letter than he set out 
 for Seringapatam with the utmost expedition. He directed 
 that all his regular troops should assemble in that neighbour- 
 hood, l^or a time, he abandoned his eastern low countries 
 to their fate ; and, regardless of the stores with which his 
 numerous garrisons on the plains were provided, he com- 
 mitted their protection mainly to looties and peons.* 
 
 G-eneral Medows soon captured Caroor, Coimbatoor, 
 Dindigul, Daraporam, and other places. In some of these 
 there was no resistance at all, and in others the resistance 
 Avas but a sham. Thus at Aravacourchy, the killedar, with 
 ridiculous pomp, fired two cannons at the advance guard of 
 our army before he received a summons for the delivery of 
 the fort ; and upon getting the summons, after some further 
 gasconade, he requested permission to discharge more guns, 
 protesting at the same time, that no damage should be done 
 to our troops, and urging that the sultaun would be much 
 ofiended at the surrender of his garrison without an 
 adequate defence. Upon being told that he must bum no 
 more gunpowder, the killedar threw open his gates. These 
 captured forts were nearly all put in possession of some 
 friendly polygars of the country. Tippoo surprised and 
 attacked an expedition under Colonel Floyd, but was 
 repulsed at Shoroor, after an obstinate engagement, in which 
 the sultaun' s brother-in-law was slain. At the first moment 
 of the surprise, our troops, outnumbered more than as ten 
 to one, suffered rather severely. Many of the sepoys were 
 cut down. Colonel Tloyd, in passing along the line, ex- 
 pressed his regret to the native ofiicers. These brave and 
 faithful fellows all replied in nearly the same words. " We 
 have eaten the Company's salt ; our lives are at their dis- 
 posal, and Grod forbid that we should mind a few casualties." f 
 Avoiding a general action, Tippoo now returned from the 
 ghauts, drawing off the English forces from his own posses- 
 sions. Though closely followed up by some of our corps, 
 which made extraordinary marches, the Mysorean got into 
 the Carnatic, which he and his father had so often ravaged 
 before, and darting through a part of that country Uke a 
 
 * R. Mackenzie, ' Sketch of the War with Tippoo Sultan,' etc. 
 t Colonel Wilks, ' Sketches of the South of India.' 
 
1790.] SANGUINAEY EETALIATIOX. 199 
 
 meteor, he left it in flames and smoke, committing an 
 amount of mischief and of cruelty, which could not be repaid 
 by lacs of rupees. 
 
 A signal victory was obtained on the Malabar coast, near 
 Calicut, by Colonel Hartley. Cannanore and other places 
 were captured, and the whole of that coast was cleared of 
 the Mysoreans. And now the Polygars and Nairs, and all 
 the Hindus of that coast, began to make bloody reprisals 
 for the horrible wrongs they had suffered at the hands of 
 Tippoo's Mussulmans. The profanation of their temples, 
 and the destruction of their idols, had driven these naturally 
 mild and gentle people into the most savage fury. Even 
 women of rank made themselves the instruments of revenge. 
 The widowed mother of a chief destroyed by Tippoo, who 
 had also murdered her son, herself told this horrible tale to 
 a British officer. 
 
 " Tippoo's aumil, who polluted the mansion of my lost 
 husband and son, wanted iron, and determined to supply 
 himself from the Kut.* It was too much trouble to take it 
 to pieces, and the wretch burned it in the square of the great 
 temple, for the sake of the iron. On hearing of this abomi- 
 nation, I secretly collected my men, I entered the town by 
 night, I seized him and tied him to a stake, and (here the 
 narrator burst into tears and an agony of exultation) I 
 burned the monster on the spot where he had wantonly 
 insulted and consumed the sacred emblems of my religion."t 
 
 In the month of December, Lord Cornwallis, and some 
 Bengal sepoys, reached Madras from Calcutta. A strong 
 religious prejudice against voyages by sea existed in most 
 of our native troops ; in 1780, a mutiny had occurred in a 
 battalion when ordered to embark for Bombay. Hindus of 
 high caste are subject to great privations and hardships on 
 a long voyage, duriug which some of them, from prejudices 
 of caste, will cat nothing but parched grain. The firm and 
 temperate conduct of Lord Cornwallis, with the kindness 
 und encouragement which he extended to the native soldiers, 
 surmounted tlieir scruples : subsequent commanders wrought 
 the same effect by the same means ; and the sepoys, who 
 
 * A rut is a temple of carved wood fixed on wheels, drawn in proces- 
 sions, and at times so heavy as to require thousands of persons to effect 
 its movement. 
 
 t Colonel Wilks, ' Sketches of the South of India.' 
 
200 TKAVANCORE EECOVEEED. [1791. 
 
 have made many long sea voyages since the end of the last 
 century, now show no reluctance to them."* 
 
 Not only the cruelly oppressed people of Travancore and 
 the Malabar coast, but also the people dwelling on the 
 frontiers of Tippoo's Mysorean dominions, rejoiced at the 
 prospect of the overthrow of that tyrant, and welcomed the 
 British troops and our docile sepoys. On the advance of a 
 force under Colonel Maxwell into the Barahmahal valley, the 
 fields, covered with plentiful crops, were nowhere aban- 
 doned by the peaceful cultivators : the herdsman attended 
 his numerous flocks : the weaver continued at his web ; and 
 the avaricious bazar-man exposed his whole stores to the 
 soldiery without apprehension of injustice or violence. " If,'* 
 says a British ofiicer, " the principles and conduct of Chris- 
 tian governors are less calculated for the happiness of the 
 natives than those of Mahometan or Hindu rulers ; if the 
 oppressions and extortions perpetually charged on the ser- 
 vants of the East-India Company have any foundation in 
 truth, it is somewhat remarkable that, on the entrance of 
 our armies into the dominions of an enemy, the inhabit- 
 ants of the borders should in general seem to discover 
 but little apprehension for the safety of their persons or for 
 the security of their property, and still less concern at a 
 change of masters." f 
 
 The discipline maintained in these campaigns reflects the 
 highest credit on the commanding and regimental officers, 
 without whose strenuous and constant exertions it never 
 could have existed in such perfection. The flower of our 
 native army was collected under Cornwallis. The detach- 
 ments brought round from Bengal were composed chiefly 
 of grenadiers, and, for the number, exceeded in appearance 
 any body of sepoys that had ever taken the field. jS'or did 
 their conduct in action discredit that appearance. The 
 Madras sepoys had also some remarkably fine corps, and the 
 whole army was animated by the best spirit and the warmest 
 affection for the noble governor-general and commander- 
 in-chief ;}: 
 
 By the end of 1790, or early in 1791, our ally, the rajah 
 of Travancore, was re-established in all his dominions, and 
 
 * Captain Williams, ' Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of 
 the Bengal Native Infantry,' etc. 
 
 t Roderick Mackenzie, ' Sketch of the War.' 
 1 Ibid. 
 
1791.] lOED COEirWALLIS BEATS TIPPOO. 201 
 
 Tippoo was dispossessed of nearly all that lie and his father 
 before him had acquired on the Malabar coast. In the 
 month of February, 1791, Lord Cornwallis, who had taken 
 the field himself/ laid siege to Bangalore, and took that 
 important place by storm. His lordship then resolved to 
 penetrate into the heart of Mysore, and to dictate his own 
 terms of peaee at Seringapatam, the capital of his country 
 and the strongest place which Tippoo held. His lordship 
 commenced his movements in the first days of May. Our 
 native troops, as well as the English soldiers, burned with 
 impatience to take their revenge for the atrocious and brutal 
 degradation to which Tippoo had subjected their brothers in 
 arms during the last war, and even after the conclusion of it. 
 The news of the fall of Bangalore filled the mind of the 
 t^Tant with alarm, and induced him to make arrangements 
 for removing from his capital his women and his treasure, 
 and for doing away with sundry evidences in the city of 
 Seringapatam of the brutality w^hich he had exercised 
 against, and of the insupportable insidts he had put upon, 
 our nation. As a part of these operations, a number of 
 English prisoners (chiefly youths), who had been detained 
 in violation of the treaty of 1784, were murdered by Abys- 
 sinian slaves, in order that they might not reveal the 
 horrible secrets of their prison-house.* 
 
 Tippoo, however, took up a strong position, some miles 
 in advance of his capital, behind the deep river Cavery. 
 The march of Cornwallis and of General Abercromby, the 
 second in command, who moved on a different line, was 
 excessively laborious. They had to make the roads by 
 which they were to advance ; and for fifty miles and more 
 Abercromby's route was across steep mountains, where the 
 battering-trains, provisions, and stores were moved with the 
 .greatest difficulty. They also suffered severely through a 
 want of forage, Tippoo having destroyed all. Moreover, in 
 the latter part of their march, the periodical rains, and bad 
 food, and long fatigue, brought on sickness and disease. 
 ~ ur Mahratta alHes, who had solemnly engaged to co-ope- 
 ;te wdth a great army of horse, did not keep their appoint- 
 ment. Lord Cornwallis, however, reached x^Lrikera on the 
 I Cavery, and about nine miles from Seringapatam, on the 
 I3th of May ; and, crossing the river, he attacked Tippoo, 
 I * ColonelWilks. 
 
202 OUIl EETEEAT TEOM SEEINGAPATAM. [1791. 
 
 on the loth, before G-eneral Abercrombj could join him. 
 In spite of their advantageous position and formidable artil- 
 lery, the Mjsoreans could not stand the charge of the 
 British bayonets ; they were driven from mountain to moun- 
 tain, and were at last obliged to seek shelter under the guns 
 of their capital. The road thither was open to us, the prize 
 seemed within our reach ; but in the very hour of victory 
 the English found it necessary to retreat.* The force with 
 Cornwallis, though strong enough to beat Tippoo's army 
 in the field, was not strong enough to invest a well-fortified 
 place like Seringapatam ; and they had with them neither 
 provisions nor military stores enough for a long siege. Add 
 to this, the draught-bullocks were dying fast, the camp was 
 half-filled with sick, and the pitdess rains contiuued. 
 There was nothing for it but a retreat. Abercromby, who 
 was within three marches of Seringapatam, was ordered to 
 retire to the coast ; Cornwallis burst the greater part of his 
 battering-guns, having no cattle to drag them off", and he 
 began his mortifying retreat on the 26th of May. Towards 
 the end of his first day's march, some of our Mahratta allies 
 came up to his lordship's aid ; but it was now too late. Few 
 retreats have ever been more disastrous : men and cattle 
 perished, tumbrils and provision-waggons were abandoned 
 in the deluged country ; and the victory gained by the sea- 
 son was claimed by Tippoo as his own achievement.f 
 
 The scrupulous Lord Cornwallis had now recourse to 
 measures almost as summary and bold as some of the most 
 censured acts of Warren Hastings. Finding that the 
 Mahrattas would not keep the field unless they got an 
 immediate and a large subsidy, and having no money in hand 
 that he could spare, his lordship ordered the governor in 
 council of Madras to take the treasure out of our China 
 ships, coin it into rupees, and send it to him without delay. 
 
 During the following autumn proper preparations were 
 made for renewing the war in the centre of Mysore. Had 
 we failed to do this, Tippoo would again have recovered the 
 Malabar coast, and have poured his rapid cavalry into the 
 heart of the Camatic. A fresh battering-train, 100 ele- 
 phants from Bengal, an immense number of bullocks, a 
 copious supply of stores and provisions of every kind, were 
 
 * ' Oar Indian Empire,' vol. ii. 
 
 t Major Dirom, ' Narrative.' The major was deputy-adjutant- 
 general to the forces. 
 
1792.] SECOND ADTANCE UPON SEEIKGAPATAM. 203 
 
 collected on the Malabar coast. The Company had sent 
 out 500,000 in specie ; and the English government had 
 sent out reinforcements to the king's regiments in India, 
 together with some fresh detachments of the royal artillery. 
 The Mahrattas, getting some of the money, were tolerably 
 steady and active in their co-operation, and rendered impor- 
 tant senices with their light rapid cavalry. The passes 
 which lead from Mysore into the Camatic were now cleared, 
 and several strong forts which Tippoo had erected in them 
 were taken by storm. Thus the direct road from Madras 
 was opened to an immense convoy, headed by elephants, 
 loaded with treasure, marching two abreast with the British 
 standard displayed. Tippoo's advanced forces threw them- 
 selves into a thick forest, faced and flanked by the river 
 Toom and some deep ravines* Soon, however, they were 
 attacked, defeated, and driven out of the forest, by Captain 
 Little, with only 750 men and two guns. General Aber- 
 cromby, who, since the retreat from the upper countr}'^, in 
 the month of May, had occupied cantonments at and round 
 about Tellicherr}^ began to move again towards Seringapa- 
 tam early in December ; but he was kept waiting by some 
 of the Mahrattas who had gone plundering instead of join- 
 ing him. Early in January, 1792, Lord Cornwallis united 
 his main army under Ootradroog, where he was kept waiting 
 more than a fortnight by our tardy ally, the nizam of the 
 Deckan, who was to join him with his army at Hyderabad. 
 At last the nizam arrived ; and, at the end of January, aU 
 the combined forces pressed forward for Seringapatam. On 
 the 5th of Eebruary, Cornwallis once more got sight of 
 Tippoo's capital, and saw that the Mysorean army was 
 encamped under its walls. In the night of the 6th of 
 ^ F ebruary, Cornwallis led his troops in three columns, right 
 I^Bnto Tippoo's camp, took several of his redoubts, shattered 
 ^^Kie tyrant, and committed havoc upon his troops. When 
 ^Hkoming dawned, Tippoo, advised and assisted by some 
 ^^renchmen, made some skilful manoeuvres, with the view of 
 ^Bciveloping and bearing down, by weight of artillery and 
 ^^K)rce of numbers, one of our three columns ; but he failed in 
 the attempt, and lost many of his people. He then fled across 
 the Cadavery river, and threw himself into the great fortress 
 of Seringapatam ; and thereupon more than 10,000 of his 
 men deserted him, and fled in a body towards their native 
 woods. Other attempts were, however, made to recover the 
 
204 SIEGE OF SEEINGAPATAM. [1792. 
 
 redoubts whicli we had taken ; but tbey were all repulsed 
 with terrible loss. One of these redoubts, called the " Sul- 
 taun's redoubt," was held by only 100 Europeans and fifty 
 sepoys, who repulsed thousands after thousands. Our loss 
 during the whole day of this hard fighting amounted to 535, 
 in killed, wounded, and missing ; the loss of Tippoo was 
 estimated at more than 4,000, 
 
 By the morning of the 8th, Lord Cornwallis had shut up, 
 within the walls of the fortress, the whole of Tippoo' s army, 
 with the exception of the 'cavalry which had crossed the 
 river. Immediate preparations were made for the siege ; 
 and three European regiments, seven battalions of sepoys, 
 and some artillery, at once girded the place, preventing 
 ingress or egress. By the 21st, the close investment of the 
 fortress was well advanced. In a few days more the walls 
 must have been breached by the fire of fifty heavy guns, 
 and the place must have been made untenable by our red- 
 hot shot, that would have set in flames the wooden edifices 
 with which the interior of the fort was then crowded. Grene- 
 ral Medows had undertaken to head the assault, and the 
 men were eager for that close conflict. But, on the 24th, 
 Tippoo yielded to his fate. 
 
 The treaty of peace which the Tiger of Mysore was thus 
 forced to accept, contained the following articles : 1. That 
 he should cede one-half of his territories to the English and 
 their allies ; 2. That he should pay three crores and thirty 
 lacs of rupees* to cover the expenses of the war, &c. ; 
 3. That he should unequivocally restore aU the prisoners 
 who had been taken by the Mysoreans from the time of 
 Hyder; 4. That he should deliver up, as hostages for the 
 due performance of the treaty, two of his eldest sons. 
 
 In conformity with these terms, Tippoo began to send the 
 treasure out of the fort to the camp of the besiegers ; and 
 on the 26th, the young princes, one of whom was about ten 
 and the other eight years old, were conducted to the camp 
 with great pomp and ceremony. Lord Cornwallis received 
 tlie children with the greatest kindness, and continued to 
 treat them Avith all tenderness. 
 
 Sir John Kennaway, who was appointed to conclude the 
 definitive treaty, encountered much slowness and many 
 difficulties on the part of Tippoo' s vakeels. The sultaun 
 
 * Nearly 3,500,000 sterling. 
 
1792.] CONDITIONS lilPOSED UPON TIPPOO. 205 
 
 particularly objected to restoring to the rajah of Coorg the 
 dominions which he had taken from him. But as the rajah 
 had risen in arms at our invitation, and had very materially 
 assisted the English and their allies, Lord Cornwallis was 
 determined not to abandon him. There had been but too 
 much of this bad, base work in 1784, at the time of the 
 peace of Mangalore ; and frightful had been the sufferings of 
 those we then abandoned! Tippoo now repaired his 
 damaged walls, and intimated that he would break the 
 treaty. Lord Cornwallis issued orders' orders most wel- 
 come to the troops to recommence the cannonade, and 
 sent off the two children for Bangalore. This brought 
 Tippoo to his senses ; his vakeels assured Sir John Kenna- 
 way tliat he Avould agree to all that had been demanded. 
 Cornwallis agreed to suspend operations for one day, and 
 recalled Tippoo's sons, who, on the 19th of March, pre- 
 sented to his lordship the definitive treaty signed by their 
 father, and brought into camp by his vakeels. By this 
 treaty the English obtained all the dominions of Tippoo on 
 the coast of Malabar, a district surrounding Dindigul, and 
 some territory on the western frontier of the Carnatic, 
 including the Barahmahal and the lower ghauts ; the 
 Mahrattas (for all three allies shared, and about equally, 
 in the dismemberment of the sultaun's dominions) recovered 
 possession of the country as far as the river Toombudra, 
 which had been their frontier line ; and the nizam got all 
 the country from the river Kistna to the Pennar, including 
 the forts of Grungecottah and Cuddapa. The territory thus 
 acquired by the English did not yield much more than half 
 a million sterling of annual revenue; but it was highly 
 valuable as strengthening the Carnatic against invasion, as 
 aflbrding excellent land communications, and as containing 
 ports on the Malabar coast highly favourable to commerce, 
 and to the extension of that influence at which we aimed. 
 The Nairs, and other Hindu people that occupied the coast 
 of Malabar, were made happy by the change of masters, and 
 by the full freedom now allowed them in the exercise of 
 their rehgion, and in the enjoyment of their old customs. 
 
 To soothe the troops for the disappointment of their 
 expectations of booty in the storming of Seringapatam, and 
 
 f reward them for their excellent conduct and rare exer- 
 ns during the whole of the war, the commander-in-chief, 
 
206 niENClt EACTOEIES SEIZED. [1793. 
 
 months' batta, out of the money paid by Tippoo ; and both 
 he himself and Greneral Medows, his second in command, 
 resigned their large shares, that the soldiers might have the 
 more. The army returned to the Company's territories, 
 good care being taken to place respectable garrisons in the 
 districts ceded, and particiilarly in the towns on the Malabar 
 coast, where hitherto we had scarcely had a footing.* 
 
 Eagojee Bonslah, a powerful Mahratta chief, who held the 
 important province of Cuttach and other territories, was 
 conciliated by the diplomacy of the governor-general, who 
 deputed an English resident to his court. But other 
 Mahratta leaders continued to give uneasiness and trouble, 
 and convinced his lordship that a general Mahratta war was 
 not a remote contingency. 
 
 The nabob of the Carnatic, whose dominions were held by 
 our troops, was very irregular in the payment of his sub- 
 sidies. Acting as Hastings would have done. Lord Corn- 
 waUis, during the war with Tippoo, seized upon the nabob's 
 revenues, and appointed his own officers to coUect them and 
 pay them into the Company' s treasury. But for this measure 
 the war could not have been conducted to a successful 
 termination. The accounts which had arrived in India a 
 short time previously to the conclusion of the treaty, left 
 little doubt that England would soon be involved in another 
 war with France ; and this was certainly a strong induce- 
 ment for Cornwallis to bring the war with Tippoo to a 
 termination, so that he might be prepared to repel any 
 attack of the Erencli, and direct the efforts of our arms 
 against the settlements in India which had been restored to 
 Erance by the peace of 1782. When the account of war 
 between Erance and England reached him at Calcutta, Lord 
 ComwaUis hastened to Madras to take the command of the 
 army ; but before he could reach that coast, Pondicherry, 
 the Erench metropolis in India, was attacked and taken by 
 that army from Eort St. George, under the command of 
 Major- General Brathwaite. All the Erench factories were 
 seized without any difficulty ; but it was not found possible to 
 
 * Colonel Wilks, * Sketches of the South of India.' Roderick Macken- 
 zie, ' Sketch of the War with Tippoo Sultaun.' Peter Auber, * Rise and 
 Progress of the British Power in India.' Sir John Malcolm, ' Sketch of 
 the Political History of India.' Major Taylor, ' Travels overland to 
 India,' * Our Indian Empire.' Moor, ' Narrative of Operations against 
 Tippoo Sultaun,' etc. London, 1794. 
 
1793.] MERITS OF LORD COENWALLIS. 207 
 
 shut out all the adventurers of that bold and adventurous 
 nation. 
 
 The course of events, and absolute necessity, had forced 
 the pacifically-disposed Lord Cornwallis into the vrar with 
 Tippoo Sultaun, and into a series of measures very contrary 
 to the wishes, the policy, and the system of non-interference 
 and non-aggrandizement of the British legislature and 
 government. But it had been well remarked that this self- 
 evident necessity was not followed by the conclusion that 
 the same causes might again produce the same eifects; 
 and that a general impression was made in; England, that 
 his lordship had placed the affairs of the Company on the 
 true footing of seciu-ity and strength, which had been so 
 long desired that, for the future, nothing would be 
 requisite but mild, moderate, and conciliatory councils in the 
 governor-general and the local authorities, to secure the last- 
 ing tranquillity and prosperity of the British empire in India. 
 This capital mistake must indeed appear the most extraor- 
 dinary, if we reflect upon the actual condition and increas- 
 ing power of the always restless Mahratta princes, the 
 weakness of the rulers of Oude and the Carnatic, and all 
 the allies of the English, not one of whom could be left 
 exposed to invasion and conquest without exposing either 
 the trade or the dominions of the Company to serious loss, 
 if not to absolute ruin. Nor could one of those allies be 
 abandoned without loss of credit, influence, and honour to 
 the Company. Our territories were greatly increased, and 
 our political relations much extended during Lord Corn- 
 wallis' s administration. His great efforts had all been 
 attended with extraordinary success. * If in minor matters 
 some of his attempted reforms were failures, he yet left 
 behind him, among the natives, a good name, and the 
 enviable! reputation of having always entertained the best 
 intentions. Some great reforms and changes he certainly 
 effected both in the mihtary and in the civil establishments 
 of India, being aided therein by the new acts of parliament 
 and by the possession of that miity of power, and that 
 _absolute control over the presidencies of Madras and Bom- 
 j^y, which Hastings had never possessed ; and it is asserted, 
 a very competent authority, that the system of internal 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, 'Sketch.' Peter Auber, ' Rise and Progress of 
 the British Power in India.' Two unpublished letters of Mr. Warren 
 Hastings in my possession. 
 
 i 
 
20S CORK^WALLIS EETUENS TO ENGLAND. [1793- 
 
 rule wliich he introduced into the provinces of Bengal and 
 Bahar will ever reflect the highest honour on his name.* 
 That opposition party in parliament which had extolled 
 the virtues and deplored the misfortunes of the Tiger of 
 Mysore, were not sparing of their criticism and censures : 
 but when his lordship returned to England at the end of 
 1793, they did not venture to try to impeach him. The 
 king, in acknowledgment of his important services, raised 
 him to the rank of marquis, and he was appointed master- 
 general of the ordnance, t 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, * Sketch of the Political History of India.' 
 
 f ' Our Indian Empire.' 
 
 Interesting information about Lord Cornwallis's war with Tippoo 
 will be found in Major Dirom's * Narrative,' and in E. Moor's ' Narrative 
 of the Operations of Captain Little's Detachment and of the Mahratta 
 army against the Nawab Tippoo Sultaun Bahadur.' 
 
1793.] siE JOHN shoee's administeation. 209 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 Sir John" Shoee (afterwards Lord Teignmoutli), tlie 
 friend of Warren Hastings, the bosom friend and afterwards 
 biographer of Sir "William Jones, and a most respectable 
 ei^ol servant of the Company, who had resided long in 
 India, and had rendered important services there, was ap- 
 pointed to succeed Lord Cornwallis as governor-general. 
 Sir John had abundant local knowledge and industry. He 
 was particularly skilled in the revenue system of India, 
 and -was of very pacific habits ; and it appears to have 
 been expected that all those great advantages which Lord 
 Cornwallis had obtained would be confirmed and improved, 
 without any risk of war, or extension of political connec- 
 tions by a governor possessed of these qualities. It was laid 
 down to him as a rule, that the dictates of justice, no less 
 than the dictates of economy, prescribed to the Company 
 a system of non-interference with the internal afiairs or 
 mutual differences of the native states ; unless when inter- 
 ference should be required by the paramount duty of pre- 
 serving the tranquillity and mtegrity of the Company's 
 own dominions. 
 
 About the same time that Shore became the real ruler of 
 Bengal, the nominal sovereign of that country, the nabob 
 Muharek-ul-Dowla, died, in the thirty-seventh year of his 
 age, leaving behind him twelve sons and thirteen daughters. 
 He was succeeded by his eldest son, Uzeer-ul-Dowla, who 
 was solemnly proclaimed at Calcutta, on the 28th of Sep- 
 tember, 1793. 
 
 Sir John Shore entered upon the duties of government on 
 the 28th of October, 1793, on which day Major-Greneral 
 Sir Eobert Abercromby assumed the ojEce of commander- 
 in-chief, under the court's appointment of September, 1792. 
 As Sir John was no soldier, the separation of the two offices 
 was a matter of necessity. 
 
 p 
 
210 PACIFIC POLICY. [1793. 
 
 To Mr. Burke, who liad urged the Company to postpone 
 the appointment, the chairman and deputy-chairman had 
 replied that Sir John Shore had been selected for his high 
 honour and probity, and his peculiar fitness ; the court had 
 appointed him, on these grounds, to the arduous and respon- 
 sible office ; and to that appointment they adhered. 
 
 Notwithstanding the disturbed state of alFairs in Europe, 
 there was every appearance of peace in India, where the 
 sovereignty was exercised by the Mahrattas, Tippoo Sultaun, 
 the nizam, and the English. 
 
 The Mahratta powers "comprehended the peishwa, Scin- 
 diah, Holkar, and the rajah of Berar. The latter chief had 
 less interest and concern in their general politics ; he carried 
 on his administration independently, although he had 
 received the confirmation of his succession, with the insignia 
 of his investitiu-e, from the peishwa. But the Mahrattas, 
 to whom a Erench force of two brigades, under Greneral de 
 Boigne, was attached, were deemed sufficiently formidable 
 without the rajah of Berar. The nature of the Mahratta 
 government was avaricious, grasping, and ambitious, never 
 neglecting any opportunity of extending its power or 
 aggrandizing its wealth, indifferent as to the means by which 
 it attained those objects. 
 
 It was justly felt with regard to all the powers in India, 
 that our great security was in our strength.* 
 
 The situation of affairs did not promise, to those who 
 were acquainted with the temper of the Mahrattas, any very 
 long exemption from hostilities ; but, on the other hand, the 
 Company was, in every respect, free from any immediate 
 danger. The English government had at no period been so 
 strong in actual military force and resources. Its principal 
 enemy, Tippoo, was much reduced ; its principal ally, the 
 nizam or subahdar of the Deckan, seemed firm to his 
 engagements. But those jealousies which had broken 
 out between the nizam and the Mahrattas before Lord 
 Cornwallis quitted the country, were now threatening wars 
 and convulsions. Being justified in so doing by his treaty 
 of alliance, the nizam, threatened with invasion, applied to 
 the new governor-general for assistance. This assistance 
 was refused by the pacific Sir John Shore, whose wishes 
 accorded with the neutrality-system instructions he received 
 
 * P. Auber, ' Rise and Progress of the British Power in India.* 
 
1793.] ABAlsDONMENT OF OUR ALLIES. 211 
 
 from home, and who was lotli to incur any hazard of giving 
 offence to the Mahrattas. When this refusal was made, 
 it was notorious that the nizam entertained the most 
 friendly dispositions towards the British government, and 
 rejoiced at the recent successes of Cornwallis, which had 
 established our great ascendancy in the political scale of 
 India ; while the Mahrattas viewed the success of the 
 English with alarm, and contemplated their power with a 
 degree of jealousy, which almost amounted to hostility. The 
 wily Mahrattas very soon concluded that Sir John Shore, in 
 his anxiety to remain neutral, would not aid the nizam by 
 any other means than those of diplomacy and mediatory 
 negotiation, and as soon as they made this discovery, they 
 despised the diplomacy, they resolved to reject the media- 
 tion, and began to beat their kettle-drums, collect .their war- 
 horses, and sharpen their spear-heads. At this critical 
 moment, Madhajee Scindiah, who had given such growth 
 and increase to the Mahratta power, died, and left his vast 
 resources and territories to his nephew Doulut Rao Sciiidiah, 
 a much younger and much more active and daring chief; 
 who hastened to assemble Ms army from the remotest 
 quarters of Hindustan, with the double view of strengthen- 
 ing his personal authority, and of acquiring an ascendancy 
 in the confederacy forming against the nizam. 
 
 It was rumoured that Tippoo Sultaun was again pre- 
 paring for war, and that he would attack the nizam con- 
 jointly with the Mahrattas. The Mysorean, however, 
 remamed quiet for the present. 
 
 The people of the Deckan, who had recently seen how 
 Lord ComwaUis had behaved when an ally of the Company 
 had been attacked, could not believe that so important and 
 so faithful an ally as the nizam could possibly be abandoned 
 by the English. And, indeed, we could not leave the nizam 
 to his fate without weakening that force of opinion which, 
 more than arms, had made us what we were in India. By 
 resenting the attack of Tippoo upon our ally, the rajah of 
 Travancore, Lord Cornwallis had gained the confidence and 
 affection of other allies, and had established the British 
 reputation for good faith, justice, and firmness. Could so 
 recent an example be overruled ? Could our reputation for 
 good faith towards our allies be sacrificed at the moment 
 when it was highest i" Looking at his pacific instructions, 
 and consulting his own feehngs. Sir John Shore thought that 
 p2 
 
212 THE MAHEATTAS ATTACK THE NIZAM. [1795. 
 
 it might. It is, however, doubted whether a more spirited 
 course of policy would not have intimidated the Mahrattas 
 and prevented all war whatever. Sir John Malcolm was 
 decidedly of opinion, that while the impressions which had 
 been made on all the native powers, by the wise councils 
 and military success of CornwaUis, were yet in fuU force, any 
 spirited interference of the British government would have 
 deterred the Mahrattas from an attack on the Deckan.* 
 
 In the month of February, 1795, the advanced corps of 
 the Mahratta army, under Doulut Rao Scindiah, marched 
 against the nizam ; and on the 11th of March, a battle was 
 fought near the to^n of Beeder, the capital of a province 
 of that name in the Deckan. Both armies fell into con- 
 fusion, neither of them obtaining any considerable advantage, 
 both indeed, appeared upon the point of running away at 
 one and the same moment ; but the nizam ran first, for he 
 had brought his women with him to the field, and these 
 inmates of the zenana, being sadly frightened by the noise 
 of the guns, imparted their fears to their never courageous 
 lord, and he and they quitted the field and fled by night 
 to the small fort of Kurdlah. Here he was presently sur- 
 rounded by the Mahrattas, who starved him into a disgraceful 
 capitulation. After remaining some weeks in the fort, the 
 nizam agreed to give to his enemies an extensive tract of 
 country, rendering thirty-five lacs of annual revenue, and 
 including the celebrated fortress of Dowletabad, or Deoghir, 
 the strongest place in his dominions ; to pay three crores of 
 rupees, one-third immediately, the remainder by instalments ; 
 and to give up, as a hostage, his prime minister Azeem-ul- 
 Omrah, the zealous friend of the English, and the decided 
 opponent of the Mahrattas. This delivering up of an able 
 iand honest minister was almost as dishonourable to the 
 English as it was injurious to their abandoned ally the 
 nizam, whose throne had been supported by the abilities 
 and rare virtues of Azeem-ul-Omrah. At the time there 
 were two battalions of British troops in the Deckan: if 
 these had been present at the battle of Beeder, the total 
 defeat of the Mahrattas would have been certain ; if they 
 had marched to the relief of Kurdlah, the nizam might have 
 been extricated without signing the disgraceful treaty; but 
 the EngHsh ofiicer in command, obedient to the orders of 
 
 * Malcolm, * Political History of India.' 
 
1795.] MAHEATTA EEYOLUTIONS. 213 
 
 the governor-general, refused to stir a step. After the 
 convention of Kurdlah was settled, the nizam returned to 
 Hyderabad, and strongly intimated his desire that the Com- 
 pany would recall their two battalions, as the pay and 
 maintenance of troops that would do nothing for him was 
 very unprofitable and burdensome. The two battalions were 
 soon recalled. 
 
 The Mahrattas had scarcely returned from the Deckan to 
 their own country, when two unexpected events occurred 
 the sudden death of the young peishwa, Madhoo Eao, and 
 the rebellion of Ali Jah, the eldest son of the nizam. The 
 death of Madhoo Rao introduced fierce dissensions among 
 the Mahratta chiefs, who had been so recently leagued 
 together. Nanah Furnavese was determined to place upon 
 the vacant throne an infant prince, in whose name he him- 
 self might rule and reign. His great rival, Doulut Rao 
 tScindiah, supported the claims of the son of Eagoba, who 
 Avould have been the undoubted heir of the throne if the 
 Mahrattas had recognized the European law of succession 
 and primogeniture. J^J'anah Purnavese, chancing to be at 
 Poonah, the capital or aulic city of the Mahratta con- 
 federacy, had ^at first several advantages. He liberated the 
 nizam' s minister, Azeem-ul-Omrah, and agreed to purchase 
 the nizam' s alliance by rescinding the convention of Kurd- 
 lah, and by giving up all claims to the territory and the 
 money which the nizam had agreed to yield and pay. A 
 treaty was concluded upon these conditions ; but before i*t 
 could take effect, Scindiah marched upon Pooiiah, with au 
 army which his rival was unable to oppose ; jSTanah Furna- 
 vese was driven out of the city, and Bajee Rao, the son of 
 Ragoba, was placed upon the musnud. In order to prevent 
 the nizam from aidiiig Nanah Furnavese, Scindiah now con- 
 cluded a treaty with that prince, promising to rest satisfied 
 with one-fourth of the territory and money which had been 
 stipulated in the convention of Kurdlah. 
 
 As Sir John Shore would not allow him the aid of the 
 Company's troops, the ruler of the Deckan very naturally 
 endeavoured to raise and discipline troops of his own for the 
 protection of his country. Since the time of the gallant 
 M. Bussy, the Deckan had never been without some French 
 officers. The nizam had at present a considerable number 
 of these officers, the chief of them being one M. Raymond, 
 who had commenced his military career in India at an early 
 
214 EEEELLION IN THE DECKA]Sr. [1795. 
 
 age, under the rasli and unfortunate Lallj. These French- 
 men had disciplined various corps of sepoys. After the 
 departure of our two battalions, the nizam ordered new 
 levies for these corps, and assigned an extensive territory for 
 their regular payment and support. No sooner was this 
 done than the jealousy, misgiving, and fears of the governor- 
 general were awakened. Sir John Shore would neither 
 protect the nizam nor allow him to protect himself. He 
 threatened the ruler of the Deckan with an instant invasion 
 of his territories unless he removed his Frenchmen and 
 disciplined sepoys a long way from the Company's frontiers. 
 Besenting his abandonment by the English in the late 
 Mahratta invasion, and complaining that they had broken 
 their treaty mth him, the nizam persisted in keeping his 
 troops where they were ; being encouraged in this course by 
 M. ^Raymond and his comrades, who assured him that the 
 omnipotent French republic, which was giving liberty to 
 all the nations in Europe, would soon overthrow the tyranny 
 of the English, and release the princes of India from their 
 thraldom. At this moment it was seriously apprehended 
 that the French would make some attempt upon the 
 northern Circars, and that, if they came in any force, the 
 nizam would co-operate with them.* One thing w^as quite 
 certain, the influence which Lord Cornwallis had established 
 in the court of Hyderabad was completely lost, when two 
 unexpected events contributed to restore that influence. 
 
 Just at this moment, on the 28th of June, 1795, the 
 nizam' s son, Ali Jah, fled from Hyderabad and openly 
 raised the standard of rebellion against his father. Filled 
 with alarm, the nizam pressed the instant return of the 
 English subsidiary force to his country, and humbly and 
 earnestly supplicated for the renewal of that friendship and 
 alliance which he had so recently, and not without reason, 
 slighted. Sir John Shore saw the advantages which fortune 
 had thrown in his way. He directed the two English bat- 
 talions to march back to the nizam 's territory with aU 
 possible expedition. But before our troops could arrive, 
 M. Raymond's battalions defeated and captured the young 
 rebel. Our battalions, however, remained in the countrj^, 
 and assisted in restoring tranquillity. 
 
 * See letters of the governor-general (who became Lord Teign mouth), 
 in * Life of Lord Teignmouth,' by his son. ' Memoir of Lord Teign- 
 mouth,' by the Rev. Samuel Charles Wilks. 
 
1795.] M. EATMOND. 215 
 
 Ali Jah died, or was murdered, soon after he was made 
 prisoner, but in tbe'course of a few months another rebellion 
 broke out, headed by a nephew of the nizam, one Darah 
 Jah, who succeeded*^ in collecting great bodies of troops. 
 This time the English subsidiary force did all the fighting 
 for the nizam. Under their able commander, Captain James 
 Dalrjmple, the two battalions gained a splendid victory, 
 and reduced the strong fort of Eachore, of which the rebels 
 had gained possession. The nizam acknowledged his great 
 obligations, and professed much gratitude, but he still feared 
 that Sir John Shore would not send him sufiicient aid in case 
 of his being again attacked by the Mahrattas, and he still 
 entertained an affection for M. Eaymond, and a reliance 
 upon his brilliant promises. Under these influences he 
 increased the numbers and appointments of his disciplined 
 sepoys, and gave M. Eaymond additional lands to insure 
 their regular payment. Thus favoured and honoured, that 
 French officer improved the discipline of his battalions, 
 and strengthened himself by forming connections with the 
 chief men of the court, and by intriguing against all such 
 as leaned towards the English interest. He took no care 
 to conceal his hostility or the hopes he entertained of the 
 future ; he intended to play over again, and on a wider 
 stage, the part of M. Bussy, and to revive the projects of 
 M. Dupleix. The English, to a man, were to be expelled 
 from the great peninsula of India, and the dominion of that 
 country was to be wholly transferred to the French republic. 
 His battalions carried the tri-coloured flag, and the cap of 
 liberty was engraved on the buttons of their clothing. His 
 officers sang the (Ja Ira and danced the Carmagnole in the 
 gilded halls of Hyderabad. He encouraged desertions 
 from the sepoys in the English service, and, through the 
 intrigues of his officers, who commanded the detachment of 
 his corps which was stationed near the British frontier, a 
 partial mutiny was excited in a battalion of sepoys on the 
 Madras establishment, and two native commissioned officers, 
 and a number of privates, deserted their colours and went 
 over to the French party. 
 
 To rival the French tacticians and drill-masters. Sir John 
 Shore encouraged a set of English adventurers to go to 
 Hyderabad to offer their services to the nizam. These 
 adventurers were received at that court, and were counte- 
 nanced by the English resident, but none of them possessed 
 
216 TROUBLES IN OTJDB AND EOHILCUND. [1795. 
 
 either the professional skill or the political address of 
 M. Raymond, and the corps they attempted to discipline 
 remained but as an awkward squad compared with the batta- 
 lions the Frenchmen had trained. But these battalions were 
 now becoming so formidable, that the nizam began to fear 
 that all the actual power and resoiu-ces of his government 
 might pass rapidly into the hands of the Frencli faction. 
 He solicited the British government to enter into sucli 
 engagements Avith him as would prevent the necessity of his 
 having recourse to such dangerous means of defence against 
 the Mahrattas. He even offered to dismiss all the French 
 corps as soon as the British detachment in the Deckan 
 should be increased. But Sir John Shore, though jealous of 
 the French, was still more jealous of giving any offence 
 to Scindiah and the great Mahratta confederacy ; he con- 
 ceived that to accede to the conditions proposed by the 
 nizam, and to send an army into the Deckan, would be to 
 provoke a Mahratta war, and to depart from that neutraUty 
 system which his employers were still constantly recommend- 
 ing to his attention ; and therefore he took no decisive steps. 
 
 The tranquillity of Oude w^as greatly disturbed during Sir 
 John Shore's administration. In 1794, upon the death of 
 Fyzoola Khan, the great EohiUa chief, that tm'bulent tribe 
 of Afghans, whose character and habits had been so grossly 
 misrepresented by the English persecutors of Warren 
 Hastings, began a bloody war among themselves to settle 
 which of the sons of Fyzoola Khan should be his successor. 
 The eldest son, Ali Khan, was killed by his brother, Grholam 
 Khan, who, after other butcheries, got possession of the 
 jaghire, and endeavoured to obtain the sanction of his suze- 
 rain, the nabob-vizier of Oude. The nabob-vizier would 
 have recognized the murderer, but the English government, 
 who had guaranteed that corner of Rohilcund to the Afghan 
 family of Fyzoola, by whom it had been held under the nabob- 
 vizier, resolved to punish the rebels and expel the family of 
 Fyzoola Khan altogether. But before Sii* John Shore's 
 instructions to this effect could reach Sir Robert Abercromby 
 in Oude, that general, after chastising the EohiUa insolence 
 in a general battle, and reducing them to complete submission, 
 had agreed to restore the inheritance of the family, under 
 the guarantee of the Company, to Achmed Ali Khan, the 
 infant son of Ali Khan, who had been slain by his brother 
 Gholam. This settlement restored complete tranquillity 
 
1797-8.] DISPUTED SUCCESSION IN OUDE. 217 
 
 to Eohilcimd and Oude, and the supreme government was 
 subsequently induced to acquiesce in the arrangement which 
 Sir Robert Abercromby had made. In 1797, the nabob- 
 vizier, Asoph-ul-Dowla, with whom Hastings had had so 
 many dealings, departed this life, and was succeeded by his 
 presumptive heir, Vizier Ali, who had been acknowledged as 
 his son by the deceased prince. Though generally kno\sTi 
 to have been of spurious birth, though there were other 
 claimants who pleaded their legitimacy. Vizier Ali was sup- 
 ported by a strong party at Lucknow^, and his right was for- 
 mally acknowledged by the British government at Calcutta, 
 to whom Saadut Ali, the eldest surviving brother of Asoph- 
 ul-Dowla, had made an appeal. Sir John Shore, however, 
 soon stated that he had decided against the claim of Saadut 
 Ali, not without great hesitation ; that he found it impossible 
 to divest himself of the impression, excited by universal be- 
 lief and assertion of the spurious origin of Vizier Ali, or of 
 the apprehension that the justice and reputation of the 
 Company might suffer an imputation for the decision he had 
 given in favour of that doubtful personage. It would have 
 been better not to decide at all, than so speedily to revoke 
 a decision. With these impressions upon his mind. Sir John 
 Shore determined to travel to Lucknow. 
 
 On approaching that capital, Sir John was met by the 
 prime minister, who assured him that Vizier Ali, as well 
 as the other reputed sons of Asoph-ul-Dowla, were all 
 spurious, that the right of succession indubitably belonged 
 to Saadut Ali, and that the people were astonished and 
 disappointed at seeing Vizier Ali raised to the musnud by 
 the governor-general. At Lucknow, Sir John found him- 
 self involved in a scene of intrigue, perplexity, and pro- 
 fligacy. The old begum, from whom "Warren Hastings had 
 extorted some of her treasures, was now in the city, recom- 
 mending another claimant to the inheritance. After many 
 delays and many changes of purpose. Sir John Shore resolved 
 to dethrone Vizier Ali, and set up Saadut Ali ; but only 
 upon condition of Saadut' a signing a treaty very advan- 
 eous to the Company. Accordingly, on the 21st of 
 anuary, 1798, Saadut Ali was proclaimed sovereign of 
 ude ; and Vizier Ali, whose title Sir John had recognized, 
 was sent down to Benares, there to be kept under surveil- 
 lance. The treaty with Saadut Ali was now somewhat 
 modified. It was finally settled that the annual subsidy to 
 
 ^Ag 
 
218 AFGHAN 1NTASI0:S^. [1796. 
 
 the Company should be raised from fifty-six lacs to seventy- 
 six lacs of rupees ; that the fortress of Allahabad, and the 
 ghauts immediately dependent on the fort, should be made 
 over in perpetuity to the English ; that the Company's forces 
 stationed in Oude, should never be less than 10,000 men, 
 including infantry, cavalry, artillen^^, &c. ; that if at any time 
 the amount should exceed 13,000 men, the expense of all the 
 supernumerary troops should be defrayed by the nabob. 
 The nabob-vizier further agreed to pay the sum of twelve 
 lacs of rupees to the Company, as a reimbursement for the 
 trouble and expense incurred in placing him upon the throne. 
 He also pledged himself never to hold communication with 
 any foreign state, to employ no French or other Europeans 
 in his service, and to permit no Europeans to settle in his 
 dominions, without the consent, in each and every case, of 
 the Company. Einally, he agreed to allow a lac and a half 
 of rupees per annum as a pension to the deposed Yizier Ali, 
 who was removed to Benares ; and to afford a suitable 
 maintenance to the rest of the reputed children of his brother, 
 the deceased nabob. The pecuniary gain to the Company 
 was very considerable. Sir John Shore received the thanks 
 of the Court of Directors and of the Board of Control. 
 
 In the year 1796, while the governor-general was cherish- 
 ing the neutrality system, and, apparently, the belief that 
 the peace of all India might be preserved without putting 
 British armies into the field, those fierce and warlike Afghan 
 tribes, who had so often devastated the peninsula, descended 
 once more from Cabul and Candahar. IJnder Zemaun Shah, 
 king of Cabul, they advanced to Lahore, and threatened 
 to visit Delhi. On the frontiers of Oude, the fierce Rohillas 
 themselves an Afghan tribe who had been left in pos- 
 session of Eampore, were ready to enlist for plunder or to 
 join the king of Cabul on his advance. On another side, the 
 Patans were on tiptoe for booty and revenge. Whether the 
 Mahrattas who occupied Delhi would be able to defend that 
 city, and prevent these destructive Afghans from descending 
 into the valley of the Granges, was exceedingly problema- 
 tical. Sir John Shore therefore found himself under the 
 necessity of ordering the British troops in Oude to go 
 into camp and hold themselves in readiness to meet the 
 invaders. If the Afghans had advanced, our forces might 
 have been found insufficient to drive them back. But, while 
 Zemaun Shah was moving from Lahore towards Delhi, a 
 
1796-7.] FAMn^E IN THE CAENATTC. 219 
 
 rebellion, headed by his own brother, broke out in his own 
 dominions, and compelled him to retrace his steps to Cabiil. 
 In the year 1787, and again in 1788, there were loud 
 rumours of a fresh invasion ; and, indeed, down to the end 
 of his administration. Sir John Shore continued to be dis- 
 quieted by the Afghans. At the same time he professed 
 himself averse from any extensive measures of military 
 preparations. Most happily for us, and for the people of 
 India, Zemaun Shah, and the other Afghan chiefs, continued 
 to find occupation at home, or in other quarters still farther 
 from the frontiers of Hindustan. 
 
 During this peaceful administration, the people of the Car- 
 natic suffered as much from tax-gatherers, publicans, and 
 sinners, as they might have done from war and an invasion. 
 The old nabob, Mohammed Ali Khan commonly called in 
 England the nabob of Arcot died in October, 1795, and was 
 succeeded by his son Omdut-ul-Omrah. The enormous 
 debts which the father had left behind him were rapidly 
 increased by the son, who found himself completely in the 
 hands of usurers and mortgagees. In these circumstances 
 the ryots, or cultivators of the soil, were over-taxed and 
 cruelly oppressed, population was fearfully decreased, and, 
 more than once, there was famine in the land. To some 
 sweeping administrative changes in the Carnatic, proposed 
 by Lord Hobart, governor of Madras, Sir John Shore raised 
 unqualified objections. Nothing was done to improve the 
 condition of the suffering people, until the arrival of a more 
 energetic governor-general. Had that arrival been delayed 
 a few years longer, the Carnatic must have been converted 
 into an unpeopled waste. 
 
 Though no conquests or annexations were attempted in 
 Hindustan during this pacific administration, several im- 
 portant conquests were effected over the eastern settlements 
 of the European enemies of Grreat Britain, by expeditions 
 that were all fitted out from Madras under the immediate 
 direction of Lord Hobart. All the old Dutch settlements 
 in Ceylon and Malacca were reduced, and the valuable 
 Dutch islands of Banda and Amboyna were captured. 
 A more formidable armament was fully prepared for the 
 reduction of the Spanish colony of Manilla, when the sus- 
 picious attitude of Tippoo Sultaun caused the abandonment 
 of that easy enterprise. 
 
 In 1794, the two young hostages, Tippoo' s sons, were 
 
220 SIE JOHJf SHORE RESIGNS. [1798. 
 
 restored to their father. The Indian government, in an- 
 nouncing this event to the authorities at home, expressed 
 their belief that Tippoo would embrace the first opportunity 
 to recover the dominions which Lord Cornwallis had taken 
 from him, and thereby retrieve his reputation in the eyes of 
 the native states.* Yet, during the four following years 
 that Sir John Shore remained in India, no valid efforts, of 
 any kind, were made to repress the aspirations of the My- 
 sorean ; and the tyrant, during that period, was allowed, in 
 many instances, to gratify his passion for revenge upon poor 
 people who had aided Lord Cornwallis in humiliating and 
 reducing his too great power. 
 
 During this administration, great encouragement was 
 given to Protestant missionaries, and to the societies and 
 individuals engaged in translating and propagating the 
 gospel. 
 
 In the month of March, 1798, Sir John Shore,' who had 
 been previously raised to the Irish peerage, by the title of 
 Lord Teignmouth, resigned the government of India, and 
 sailed for England. He was a man possessed of many 
 merits, if not of any high quality or genius, and he had been 
 a patient [and obedient servant of the Company ; but it 
 seemed strange in the eyes of the old Anglo-Indians that he, 
 who had done so little, should receive titles, honours, and 
 eulogiums, from a government which had suffered the great 
 Hastings to be vilipended, impeached, and beggared. 
 
 The period at which Lord Teignmouth left India, though 
 a season of peace for the country, is said to have been 
 regarded by no person in India, who had the slightest know- 
 ledge of the subject, as a season of security. Though the 
 British strength was not diminished, the power and re- 
 sources of the other states of India had increased. The 
 confidence and attachment of our allies were much shaken, 
 and their feelings, and the presumption and hostile disposi- 
 tion of the principal native powers, clearly showed what 
 might have been clearly foreseen that they attributed the 
 neutral course which had been pursued by the British, not 
 to moderation and the desire of general good, but to weak- 
 ness or to selfish policy. A power like that of our Indian 
 empire can be preserved only by the means with which it 
 was first acquired : it cannot be strictly stationary ; it must 
 
 * Peter Auber, ' Rise and Progress of the British Power in India.' 
 Sir John Malcolm, * Sketch of the Political History of India.' 
 
1798.] STATE OF OUR POWEE. 221 
 
 advance or recede ; and the moment it attempts to come to 
 a dead stop, it must fall back, or fall prostrate. It was 
 proved that no ground of advantage could be abandoned, 
 mthout being instantly occupied by an enemy; that to 
 cease to interfere, was to cease to exercise influence ; and 
 that to resign influence was not merely to resign power, but 
 to allow that power to pass into hands naturally hostile to 
 the English interests.* 
 
 There were some who alleged that Lord Teignmouth's 
 conduct in Oude, with his setting up and then pulling down 
 Vizier Ali, was as bad as any that had been attributed to 
 "Warren Hastings, and was, at the same time, very vacil- 
 lating, and very unwise, as policy. His lordship was 
 threatened with a parliamentary impeachment ; but he was 
 supported by the government, by Mr. Wilberforce, who 
 had arrayed himseltf against Hastings, and by the whole 
 strength of what was called the religious world, and no 
 proceedings were ever commenced against him. It had 
 taken all the energy and genius of two wonderful men Lord 
 Clive and Warren Hastings to make our Indian empire, 
 which would have been unmade by two such governors- 
 general as Lord Teignmouth, coming one in succession to 
 the other. But the successor, who was now on his way to 
 Calcutta, was a man of another stamp.f 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, * Sketch of the Political History of India.' 
 t Our Indian Empire,' vol. ii. Sir John Malcolm, * Sketch.' Mills, 
 * History of British India,' as edited and corrected by Professor Wilson. 
 
222 ADMH^ISTRATION OF [1798. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 At the request of the Court of Directors, Lord, now 
 Marquis Cornwallis, had consented to return to India, and 
 for some time it was expected that he would be Lord Teign- 
 mouth's successor as governor-general. But the nobleman 
 ultimately fixed upon to fill the high and arduous post was 
 the elder brother of the illustrious duke of Wellington, the 
 earl of Mornington, afterwards Marquis Wellesley. 
 
 His lordship's education at Eton was superintended by 
 Archbishop Cornwallis, with whom he constantly passed the 
 holidays at Lambeth Palace, from 1771 to 1779, and there 
 he became intimately acquainted with Earl Cornwallis, and 
 the several members of his lordship's family. 
 
 "When Lord Cornwallis proceeded to India as governor- 
 general, in 1786, Lord Wellesley evinced a decided taste for 
 the study of Indian history, and zealously applied himself 
 to the acquisition of an intimate knowledge of its early 
 government, and of the various matters that had of late 
 occupied so much of the attention of parliament and of 
 the country.* After Lord Cornwallis's departure, he con- 
 tinued to apply his briUiant abilities to the study of Indian 
 afiairs. He publicly displayed the extent of his informa- 
 tion on these matters in a great speech delivered in par- 
 liament in defence of Mr. Hastings. In 1796, he was 
 appointed lord of the treasury and a member of the Board of 
 Control, and thus had excellent opportunities for adding to 
 his amount of practical knowledge. His lordship was in 
 the very prime of life, his manners were captivating, he had 
 energy, wonderful activity, and a faculty of imparting his 
 energy to other men. With the exception of some few of 
 the old Anglo-Indians, who thought him too young, nearly 
 every Englishman in the country, or interested in its con- 
 cerns, hailed his appointment with joy and hope. 
 
 Lord Mornington arrived in Madras Eoads oji the 22nd 
 
 * P. Auber, ' Rise and Progress of the British Power in India.' 
 
1798.]. THE MAEQUIS WELLESLEY. 223 
 
 of May, 1798, " a day ever to be remembered in the annals 
 of British India, because we date from it a new and splendid 
 era in our bistory."* His lordship remained some time at 
 Madras, in order to acquaint himself with the real condition 
 of that presidency and of the Carnatic, and to concert mea- 
 sures for defending these countries against any irruption of 
 the Mahrattas, or of the Mysoreans under Tippoo, who, 
 under the late governor-general, had prepared for hostili- 
 ties. Our forces on the Madras establishment had been 
 much reduced in number by the expeditions to Ceylon, 
 Malacca, Banda, and Amboyna ; they were scattered in dif- 
 ferent cantonments ; no bullocks had been provided for 
 conveying their baggage and materiel of war ; no stores had 
 been collected, no magazines had been formed; in short, 
 there was danger, and no adequate preparation to meet 
 it. His lordship consulted with G-eneral Harris, who was 
 now governor and commander-in-chief at Madras, and in- 
 stantly took measures for strengthening that army and 
 putting it into a condition to take the field at the shortest 
 notice. 
 
 Beginning at the right end. Lord Mornington negotiated 
 with some of the native powers, in order to re-establish by 
 peaceful means our political influence, and to brace up the 
 ties of alliance, which had been so seriously relaxed under 
 the government of Sir John Shore. By this time, M. Ray- 
 mond's discipUned force in the Deckan rather exceeded than 
 fell short of 14,000 sepoys ; and he, his French officers, and 
 their party disposed of nearly all the resources of the coun- 
 try. Luckily their power, being accompanied by insolence, 
 wholly estranged the nizam and his minister, Azeem-ul- 
 Omrah, who confessed that the French prepotency was no 
 longer to be borne, and immediately assented to a negotia- 
 tion for disbanding the French corps and increasing the 
 English subsidiary forces in his dominions. Whde the 
 negotiations were pending, M. Eaymond died, and was suc- 
 ceeded by a very inferior person, named Piron, who had little 
 influence over the troops, and no influence at all at court 
 or among the great men of the Deckan. The nizam soon 
 
 I ,'^reed to admit four more of our battalions, and to pay for our 
 itire force of sepoys in the country 2,417,100 rupees per 
 
 iimum ; to disband all the French corps, and to deliver over 
 
 '^ ' Life and Services of General Lord Harris, during his Campaigns in 
 India,' &c., by the Right Hon. Stephen Rumbold Lushington, private 
 secretary to Lord Harris, and late governor of Madras. 
 
224 OUR INFLUENCE EECOYEBED. [1798, 
 
 all the Frencli officers to the British government ; and the 
 British government agreed to defend the nizam against the 
 Mahrattas, and to render him other services. But, as the 
 nizam had not strength or courage enough to proceed by him- 
 self, our battalions marched into the country, and threatened 
 the French camp. Hereupon a proclamation was issued by 
 the nabob to inform the troops under the French officers 
 that their la"w^ul sovereign had dismissed those officers from 
 his service ; that they were released from their obedience to 
 them, and that if they attempted to support them they would 
 be punished as traitors. The force collected in that camp was 
 greatly superior in number to the English who were threat- 
 ening them, and was well provided with artillery, while our 
 sepoys, who had advanced both secretly and rapidly, had 
 hardly a gun with them. But it would appear that these 
 French adventurers had not conciliated the affections of the 
 native troops, as M. Bussy and his companions had formerly 
 done in this same country, and that they were under serious 
 apprehensions of being massacred by their own people ; for 
 they promptly signified to the English resident at Hydera- 
 bad that they were ready to comply with the orders of the 
 nizam, and that they much wished to be received under the 
 protection of the English nation.* 
 
 After their French officers had quitted them and taken 
 shelter in our camp, the nizam' s sepoys mutinied about 
 arrears of pay, but the mutiny was put down, and the sepoys 
 were all disarmed by our battalions and some of the nizam' s 
 cavalry, commanded by Captain (afterwards Sir John) Mal- 
 colm and Colonel Eoberts, without shedding one drop of 
 blood. The -wisdom with which this great political measure 
 was planned, and the promptness and vigour displayed in 
 the execution, carried alarm to the enemies of the British 
 government, and diffused joy and confidence among the sub- 
 jects and allies of the English ; and these impressions greatly 
 promoted our future success. 
 
 But there yet remained another nucleus of French power 
 in India. M. Perron was at the head of a disciplmed force 
 in the Mahratta territories, and the peishwa, or Scindiah, 
 who acted for him, would neither disband this force nor 
 allow the English to mediate between the Mahrattas and 
 the nizam of the Deckan. More ; at this critical moment 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm. 
 
1798.1 TEESH EUPTTJEE WITH TIPPOO. 225 
 
 the peisliwa received ambassadors from Tippoo Sultaim. The 
 British government had therefore to proceed against the 
 sultaun without any satisfactory settlement with the Mah- 
 rattas ; and there was good ground for suspecting that 
 Scindiah inclined to take an active part with our enemy, 
 and tliat M. Perron, with his French officers and disciplined 
 corps, would endeavour to join the Frenchmen in Tippoo's 
 service, and more especially if a Frencli armament from 
 Europe, from the Maiuitius, or by way of Egypt and the 
 Eed Sea, should effect a landing on the coast. The dangers 
 to be apprehended from Tippoo's position, temper, and 
 views, were apparent to every European in the country, and 
 were deeply felt by the government at home, when it was 
 ascertained that Bonaparte had sailed for Egypt with a large 
 army. 
 
 Ever since the treaty of Seringapatam, Tippoo had shown 
 a sullen vindictive temper, an irreconcilable enmity, an impa- 
 tience to grasp at every chance of renewing the war with 
 some prospect of success. His envoys made their appear- 
 ance wherever there existed enemies to the British power. 
 Their voices were heard and the effects of their intrigues 
 were felt at Cabul, in Persia, at Constantinople, at Paris, in 
 the Isle of Erance. Much, of this was known to Lord 
 Mornington on his first arrival, and more became kno-y^vn ere 
 his lordship had been a month in the country. Early in 
 June, 1798, his lordship received the copy of a proclama- 
 tion which had been issued by the Erencli governor of the 
 Mauritius or Isle of Erance, together with information of 
 enhstments making in that island for the service of the 
 Mysorean sultaun. This proclamation stated that Tippoo 
 Sultaun, the great monarch of Mysore, had, through twa 
 ambassadors despatched for the purpose, addressed letters to 
 the colonial assembly of the Isle of Erance, to all the gene- 
 rals employed there, and to the Erench Directory at Paris ; 
 and that the said letters contained the following clauses : 
 I. That he, Tippoo Sultaun, desired to form an alliance 
 offensive and defensive witfi Erance ; and offered to main- 
 tain at his own expense, during the continuance of the war 
 in India, whatever troops should be furnished by the Erench ; 
 and to supply (with the exception of certain stores) every 
 necessary for carrying on the war. 11. That he had given 
 assurances that all his preparations were already completed ; 
 and that the generals and officers would find everything 
 
 Q 
 
226 BOIs'APAETE IIS- EGYPT. [1798. 
 
 necessary for carryiiig on a species of warfare to which 
 Europeans had not been accustomed in their contests with 
 the native powers in India. III. That he only waited for the 
 succour of France to declare war against the English ; and 
 that it was his ardent desire to expel the English from 
 India.* Upon the ground of these facts, the French procla- 
 mation recommended a levy of men for the service of Tippoo 
 Sultaun. 
 
 On the 18th of June, or nearly at the very moment in 
 which Lord Mornington received the copy of the proclama- 
 tion and other intelligence from the Isle of France, the 
 secret committee of the Court of Directors, vrrote from 
 London, to inform him that a large French armament had 
 sailed from Toulon, on the 13th of May; and that it was con- 
 ceived to be not impossible that India might be the object 
 of attack by way of the E-ed Sea, after the conquest of Egypt. 
 The secret committee further told his lordship, that ministers 
 had informed them that immediate measures would be taken 
 for a considerable augmentation of the European troops in 
 India. But long before this despatch of the secret com- 
 mittee could reach the governor-general, he received through 
 the overland channel, positive information of the landing of 
 Bonaparte and the French army in Egypt. Moreover, as 
 soon as Bonaparte arrived in the valley of the JN'ile, he de- 
 spatched a letter to Tippoo, requesting him io send a confi- 
 dential person to Suez or Cairo, to confer with him and 
 concert measures for the liberation of India ; and this letter 
 was intercepted by the English, and sent to Lord Morn- 
 ington. 
 
 In the meanwhile as early as the 20th of June some 
 people from the Isle of France had joined Tippoo in his 
 camp. 
 
 As M. Malartie, the governor of the Isle of France, could 
 spare no troops, he forwarded Tippoo's letters to Paris, and 
 aided and assisted his two ambassadors in raising men in 
 that island. These men turned out to be " the refuse of 
 the lowest class of the democratic rabble," some of whom 
 were taken from the prisons and forcibly embarked. When 
 the moment of sailing arrived, nearly one-half of the volun- 
 teers refused to go to conquer India. Some 150 of them, 
 however, amved at Mangalore, and thence proceeded to 
 
 * Marquis Wellesley's Despatches. 
 
1798-9.] TEEKCHMEN JOIN TIPPOO. 227 
 
 camp, and to Tippoo's capital, where one of their first opera- 
 tions ^as to set up a tree of liberty, surmounted bj the red 
 nightcap of liberty and equality. They next organized a 
 Jacobin club in Seringapatam. The club Avas distinguished 
 hj this peculiarity, the members were required to swear 
 hatred to tyranny, love of liberty, and destruction to all kings 
 and sovereigns, except the good and faithful ally of the French 
 ItepubHc, Citizen Sultaun Tippoo. 
 
 At the end of October, Lord Momington received intelli- 
 gence of the destruction of Bonaparte's fleet by Nelson, at 
 the mouth of the Nile. But it was not upon that fleet in 
 the Mediterranean that the French could have depended 
 for their passage down the Red Sea, and across the Indian 
 Ocean ; and, notwithstanding the great naval event, his 
 lordship did not relax any part of the naval or military pre- 
 parations which had been commenced under his orders. He 
 was still uncertain as to the fate of the French army in 
 Eg}^Dt, and ignorant whether an additional force might not 
 have been intended to co-operate with it in India, by embark- 
 ing in another fleet, and taking the ordinary passage round the 
 Cape of Grood Hope. That French army, it must be remem- 
 bered, kept its ground in Egypt for three whole years, in spite 
 of the loss of their fleet, and in spite of all the eflbrts made 
 by the English, the Turks, and the Mamelukes to dispossess 
 them. Even though the French should not proceed from 
 Egj'pt to India, or come to India round the Cape, they 
 would still derive immense advantages from fomenting a 
 war in that country against the power of Grreat Britain. 
 Nor could it be yet known what additional forces might get 
 to Seringapatam from the Isle of France. The things which 
 were perfectly well known at the moment were these the 
 Mahrattas were faithless, and eager for conquest or plunder. 
 M. Perron, with his numerous disciplined troops, was every 
 day gaining strength in the Mahratta country, and was 
 looking forward for chances and combinations which might 
 enable him to re-establish the French supremacy in India. 
 Every one felt that mth or without the arrival of a French 
 armament on the coast, the implacable Mysorean had ample 
 means of making himself dangerous, and would never cease 
 caballing and agitating the country against the English. 
 He had on foot an army of 76,600 men, of whom nearly 
 40,000 were disciphned. 
 
 Our forces in the Camatic were not all concentrated 
 q2 
 
228 THE LAST WAR WITH TIPPOO. [1799. 
 
 until the beginning of iS'ovember ; and until tliat army was 
 ready for the field, it would have been an imbecile act to 
 threaten or remonstrate with Tippoo. AYhen that army was 
 quite ready, explanations were demanded, which Tippoo 
 would not give. In order to be near the scene of negotia- 
 tion or military operations, and to give to the public senice 
 his own quick spirit, and the advantages of a prompt decision 
 upon every question, the governor-general quitted the ease 
 and splendour of Calcutta, and returned to Madras. Tippoo 
 now declared that he was anxious for peace, and had never 
 entertained intentions hostile to the English ; but he eva- 
 sively refused to receive Major Doveton as an envoy from 
 his lordship. The governor-general hereupon wrote another 
 letter, recapitulating all the proceedings of the embassy to 
 the Isle of Trance, and the other causes of olfence and 
 jealousy, which the sultaun had given to the English ; de- 
 claring that he had by his conduct compelled the English 
 and their allies to seek relief from the ambiguous and anxi- 
 ous state in which they had been kept for years past ; and 
 that the English and their allies could no longer suffer those 
 constant preparations for war, and those intrigues and 
 hostile negotiations with their enemies, which exposed them, 
 during a period of supposed peace, to all the solicitude and 
 hazard, and to much of the expense of actual war. His 
 lordship again entreated the sultaun to receive Major 
 Doveton. This letter was despatched on the 9th of January, 
 1799, and it reached Tippoo about the 24th of that month. 
 ]N'o reply was, however, received until about a month after 
 it had been handed to Tippoo ; and then on the 13th of 
 Eebruary the answer came in the shape of a short and 
 insolent note, in which the sultaun said that he was going 
 upon a hunting excursion, and that Major Doveton might be 
 sent after him slightly attended. 
 
 But ten days before this tardy note reached him, Lord 
 Mornington had put his armies in motion. The delay of 
 Tippoo had been considered as part of his design to procras- 
 tinate till the favourable season for the attack of his capital 
 should be passed ; and, in the interval, it had been ascer- 
 tained, that he had despatched another embassy to the 
 Erench, repeating that he was quite ready for the war, and 
 calling upon them to hasten the equipment and sailing of an 
 armament. 
 
 On tlie 3rd of February, the governor-general had 
 
1799.] GENERAL HAREIS ADYAl^CES. 229 
 
 directed tlie Britisli army under General Harris, and the 
 nizam's army under Meer Alum, to advance against 
 Mysore. His lordship addressed a letter to the sultaun 
 oiFering moderate terms of accommodation and peace ; but 
 he instructed G-eneral Harris to raise the terms in pro- 
 portion to the sultaun's obstinacy and the progress of our 
 armies. The presence at Madras of Colonel Arthur AVel- 
 lesley, a younger brother of the governor-general, and now 
 the time-honoured Dtjke of Wellington, had contributed 
 very materially to change the feelings and opinions of the 
 leading men in that presidency, where the majority had, at 
 first, deprecated the war, not because they thought it unjust 
 or minecessary, but because they dreaded the expense and 
 doubted its success. Colonel Wellesle}^, who had arrived in 
 India more than a year before his brother the governor- 
 general, had also studied the country and the means of 
 carrying on war in it, and had paid great attention to the 
 native troops, and to the means of improving the discipline 
 of the whole army. He was at the head of his own regiment, 
 the brave 33rd. That regiment was now attached to the 
 nizam's force, and the general command of that force was 
 given to Colonel "Wellesley. 
 
 As early as the end of February, Greneral Harris joined 
 his army, which was then nearly aU assembled in the vicinity 
 of Vellore. A finer army, and one more perfect in all 
 points, had never taken the field in India. It consisted of 
 4,608 British infantry; 11,061 native infantry ; 912 Euro- 
 pean cavalry; 1,766 native cavalry; 576 European artillery; 
 2,726 gun-lascars and pioneers ; forming altogether a force 
 of 21,649 men, with sixty field-pieces, and forty heavy guns 
 for battering. The nizam's contingent, under Colonel 
 "Wellesley, who was to advance with Greneral Harris, 
 amounted to 20,000 men, including the 33rd regiment, 
 6,500 of our thoroughly disciplined sepoys, and a large body 
 of well-mounted cavalry from the Deckan. In addition to 
 these forces, General 8tuart was advancing from the Malabar 
 coast, with a Bombay army of 6,100 fighting men, whereof 
 1,600 were Europeans: and another and smaller force under 
 Colonels Eead and T. Brown, was gathering in the produc- 
 tive country' of the Barahmahal, in order to co-operate on 
 the enemy's flank, and to secure the bringing up of supplies 
 to General Harris's grand army through the Caverypooram 
 pass. 
 
 i 
 
230 BATTLE OF MALLATELLY. [1799. 
 
 Greneral Harris began liis march from Yellore on the 
 11th of February; and on the 18th he was joined by Colonel 
 "Wellesley with the nizam's army. The movements were 
 impeded by want of good bullocks ; but on the 5th of March, 
 Greneral Harris crossed Tippoo's frontiers, and commenced 
 hostilities by reducing several hill forts. 
 
 Instead of advancing towards the Coromandel coast to 
 meet the grand army under Harris' and "Wellesley, Tippoo 
 and his "tigers of war," marched towards the Malabar coast 
 to encounter the small army of Bombay, before they should 
 get clear of the jungles of Coorg ; and, on the 6th of March, 
 a battle took place in that wooded country, between the van 
 of the Bombay army and Tippoo's forces. Three of our bat- 
 talions of Bombay sepoys, under Colonel Montresor, though 
 taken by surprise and at a distance from their main body, 
 sufficed to keep the Mysoreans at bay from an early hour in 
 the morning until half-past two in the afternoon. Then 
 Greneral Stuart came up with the main body of the Bombay 
 army, and completely defeated Tippoo, who fled to Peri- 
 apatam, whence he marched, not without confusion, to 
 Seringapatam. 
 
 It was not until the 26th of March, that Tippoo descended 
 towards the Coromandel coast, and showed his whole army 
 in Greneral Harris's front. A battle was now expected, but 
 the Mysorean glided off in the direction of Mallavelly. But 
 Tippoo endeavoured to stop the high-road ; and on the 27th 
 of March, a battle was fought on ground of his own choosing 
 between Sultaunpet and Mallavelly. The British army 
 under Greneral Harris formed our right wing ; the nizam's 
 army, with the 33rd regiment, under Colonel "Wellesley, 
 formed the left. The affair began with a hot fire of artillery 
 from the Mysorean' s numerous and well-served parks, and 
 ended with a bayonet charge by the 33rd. The loss of 
 Tippoo, in killed and wounded, was estimated at nearly 
 2,000 ; but this battle of Mallavelly cost us no more than 
 sixty-six men, in killed, wounded, and missing. The efficient 
 state of the Mysore gun-cattle, and the miserable condition of 
 our CarnaticbuUocks, precluded all idea of a successful pursuit. 
 
 Though sadly daunted, Tippoo prepared to obstruct the 
 advance of the invading army, which was now little more 
 than thirty miles from Seringapatam ; but he committed the 
 serious mistake of believing that Greneral Harris would take 
 the same road which Lord Cornwallis had taken in 1792. 
 
 k: 
 
1799.] SIEGE or SEEINGAPATAM. 231 
 
 But Harris chose a very different and a mueb better route, 
 and moving with great secrecy, he got across the Cavery river 
 and on another road, while Tippoo, completely at fault, was 
 looking for him on the direct road to Seringapatam. After 
 committing some other mistakes, the Mysorean threw him- 
 self into his capital, and manned the lines in front of it. 
 By the 5th of April, General Harris was encamped on the 
 ground which had been occupied by Abercromby, in 1792, 
 and the fine fortress, the white walls, the domes and minarets 
 of Seringapatam, were once more in full view of our troops. 
 Many alterations and additions had been made to the works 
 since the English last lay linder them; for 6,000 men had been 
 constantly at work on the fortifications during six years. 
 There was some hard fighting in the lines and at the out- 
 ward defences in a night attack. Colonel AVellesley had a 
 very narrow escape from death but the Mysoreans were 
 driven in, our approaches were pushed with vigour, and by 
 the 20th of April, our last parallel was completed by Greneral 
 Harris, who, by this time, had been joined by the Bombay 
 anny, under Greneral Stuart. A close breaching-battery 
 was opened upon the fortress on the morning of the 30th. 
 On the 2nd of May, a second breaching-battery began its 
 work of demolition. At seven o'clock on the morning of the 
 3rd of May, Colonel AVellesley, who was commanding in the 
 trenches, reported that the breach was practicable. On the 
 following morning the troops destined for the assault were 
 got into the trenches ; and at the hour of noon they rushed 
 into the breach, and took Seringapatam by storm, in an 
 incredibly short space of time.* Tippoo Sultaun, pierced 
 with four wounds, was found dead under a dark gateway of 
 the fortress, where his flight had been stopped by a part of 
 our 12th regiment. 
 
 During the whole of the siege and assault, from the 4th 
 of April to the 4th of May inclusive, twenty-two officers 
 were killed, and forty-five wounded ; 181 British soldiers 
 were killed, and 622 wounded ; while the loss of our native 
 troops was 119 killed, and 420 Avounded. On the 4th of 
 May, when the storm was made, Tippoo' s forces consisted of 
 
 * When the assault commenced, Tippoo was closeted with his priests, 
 conjurers, and astrologers. " I will go," said Seyed Ghoffar, "and 
 drag him to the breach, and make him see by what a set of wretches he 
 is surrounded. I will compel him to exert himself at this last moment ! " 
 He was going to the gultaun, when a cabnon-ball killed him. 
 
232 DEATH or Tippoo. [1799. 
 
 48,000 men, of whom about 22,000 were either in the fort 
 or in the dependent intrenchments of Seringapatam. Count- 
 ing natives and all classes of troops, General Harris had 
 never more than 20,000 men actually occupied in the siege ; 
 and the two divisions which carried the place did not count 
 many more than 4,000 men. 
 
 Greneral Baird, who had led the storming party, sent 
 Major Beatson to request that he and his people might be 
 relieved that night, as they were much fatigued "vsdth the 
 exertions of the day. It is usual to relieve storming parties 
 as soon as possible after a place has been taken ; and among 
 several important reasons lor this usage is the consideration 
 that fresh troops who have not been exposed to the horrors 
 of assault, and whose blood has not been inflamed by seeing 
 their comrades fall by their sides, are less likely to commit 
 excesses in the town than the men who have been so ex- 
 posed. "When Major Beatson repaired to head-quarters, 
 General Harris directed the deputy adjutant-general, who 
 was sitting in his tent, to put the officer next for duty under 
 orders to relieve Major-General Baird. Colonel AYellesley 
 being next on the roster, was accordingly ordered on the 
 same night to take the command within the fort and town. 
 The troops, however, were not relieved until the evening of 
 the 5th or the morning of tlie 6th of May ; and the storm- 
 ing party, in possession, committed many excesses, plunder- 
 ing some of the houses of the rich natives, and setting fire 
 to others. 
 
 The body of Tippoo Sultaan was buried, with military 
 honours, on the 5th of May, the day after his death, in the 
 superb mausoleum of Lall Bang, which he had erected to 
 his father, Hyder Ali. A violent storm of thunder and 
 lightning, which killed several Eiu'opeans and natives, gave 
 an awful interest to these last and solemn rites,* A cauzee, 
 or ulema, chanted some verses from the Koran, which were 
 repeated by the attendants. The British grenadiers formed 
 a street, and presented arms. The burial service ha\ang 
 been performed, a keeraut, or charitable gift of 5,000 rupees, 
 was distributed by the cauzee to the fakeers and the poor 
 who attended tlie funeral.f Tliis was all strictly conform- 
 able to the Mahometan religion ; and, monster though he 
 had been, Tippoo had ever professed himself a devout Mus- 
 
 * Lushington. Coloirel Beatson. f Beatson. 
 
1799.] TIPPOO'S CRUELTIES. 233 
 
 sulmau, and had ever been most scrupulous in outward 
 observances. No doubt was left as to his having inhumanly- 
 murdered some English prisoners taken on the night of the 
 unfortimate affair in which Colonel Wellesley was so near 
 perishing. A peon having undertaken to show where these 
 poor fellows were buried, Colonel Wellesley sent some of 
 the officers of his regiment to the spot ; and, upon the ex- 
 humation of one of the bodies, it was identified by these 
 officers as that of one of the grenadiers of the 33rd. It 
 appears that these unfortunate captives had been murdered 
 at night in parties of two or three ; and that the mode of 
 killing them had been by twisting their heads round their 
 shoulders, and thus breaking their necks. Black as was the 
 deed, it was merciful in comparison with some which he had 
 committed on the English fifteen years ago. Everywhere 
 within and about the palace, evidence met the eye or ear of 
 his depraved and sanguinary tastes. His name meant tiger ; 
 he caUed his soldiers his tigers of war ; and the tigers of 
 the Indian jungles were his pets, and often his executioners 
 for the attendant that offended him, or the prisoner that 
 w'as brought into his presence, was not uiifrequently turned 
 into a barred room, or large cage, where the savage animals 
 were let loose upon him. Xear the door of his treasury an 
 enormous tiger had been foimd chained. There were other 
 tigers in the edifice, and so numerous as to give some 
 trouble to Colonel Wellesley.* The history and character 
 of the son of Hyder were, in a manner, told by the bar- 
 barous big toy which w:as invented for his amusement, which 
 was found in his palace, and which may now be seen in the 
 librar}^ of the East-India House, Leadenhall-street. This rude 
 automaton is a tiger killing and about to devour a European, 
 who lies prostrate under the savage beast. In the interior 
 of the tiger there is a rude kmd of organ, played upon by 
 turning a handle, like our street hand-organs ; and the 
 notes produced are intended to represent the growls of the 
 tiger and the moans of the dying man.f Other toys, indica- 
 
 ' They became the subject of a postscript to the first letter written by 
 Colonel Wellesley to his commander-in-chief after succeeding Baird in the 
 command within the town and fort. 
 
 *' There are some tigers here," says the colonel, " which I wish Meer 
 Alum would send for ; or else I must give orders to have them shot, as 
 there is no food for them, and nobody to attend them, and they are 
 getting violent." * Wellington Despatches.' 
 
 t By the frequent grinding of the curious, this Mysorean instrument 
 
234 EXERTIONS OF COL. WELLESLEY. [1799. 
 
 tive of the same tastes, were found in Tippoo's dwelling; 
 and, in nearly every ornament the figure of the tiger was 
 represented. Upon his harem being told off, it was found 
 to contain no fewer than 600 women.* 
 
 The treasure discovered amounted, in specie and jewels, 
 to about one million sterling, the whole of which was, by 
 order of the governor-general and council, distributed to 
 the army. All the members of the sultaun's family were 
 very soon in the hands of the conquerors, although several 
 of them were not within the walls of Seringapatam at the 
 time of the storm. On the day after the capture of the 
 place, Abdul Khalif, one of the two princes who had for- 
 merly been hostages with Lord Cornwallis, surrendered at 
 our outposts, imploring protection. A passport was sent 
 out for Eutteh Ali, another of the princes, who was invited 
 to join his brothers. Kereen Saheb, a brother of Tippoo's, 
 sought present refuge with our ally the nizam. Most of 
 the sultaun's principal officers came in voluntarily in the 
 course of a few days, and submitted to the English, without 
 any other condition than that they should be preserved in 
 their lives, titles, and estates. Most of Tippoo's Frenchmen 
 were made prisoners.f 
 
 In the meanwhile, Colonel "Wellesley had exerted himself 
 to the utmost to put an end to those excesses which almost 
 invariably and unavoidably attend the capture of a place by 
 storm. Four marauders were brought to a drum-head trial, 
 and handed over to the provost-marshal. These examples, 
 and the personal activity and incessant care of "Wellesley, 
 who went to the houses of the principal inhabitants and 
 himself placed guards at their doors, soon inspired a general 
 confidence. People returned to their habitations and 
 ordinary occupations : the bazars, stored with all sorts of 
 provisions and merchandize, were re-opened ; and the native 
 traders found a ready and profitable sale, as the conquering 
 army was in want of almost everything, and paid for all 
 they took. Three days after the capture of the fortress, 
 
 has been sadly deranged, and almost worn out. The tiger no longer 
 growls as it used to do, and the man moans but very feebly, as the paw 
 of the beast is alternately placed on his mouth and removed from it, by 
 the internal mechanism put in motion by turning the handle. 
 
 * * Our Indian Empire.' 
 
 t Letters, memorandums, &c. of General Harris, in Life, by the Right 
 Hon. S. R. Lushington. Marquis Wellesley, * Indian Despatches.' 
 
1799.] DISME:yiBERMENT OF MTSOEE. 235 
 
 thanks to the exertions and personal influence of the noble 
 commandant, the main streets of Seringapatam were so 
 crowded, as to be almost impassable, and exhibited rather 
 the appearance of a fair, than that of a town just taken by- 
 assault. Greneral Harris could not do less than appoint 
 Colonel Wellesley permanent commandant of a regular per- 
 manent garrison for the place. The sudden and complete 
 dissolution of Tippoo's government, and the dispersion of 
 all the public functionaries, required that the governor of 
 Seringapatam should be a good administrator, and as much 
 a statesman as soldier. There were men much older and 
 higher in military rank than he, but there was not a man. 
 in the army so qualified for the double capacity as was 
 Arthur Wellesley. 
 
 Even before the reduction of Tippoo's capital, the greater 
 part of his inferior fortresses were taken by Grenerals Harris 
 and Stuart, or by the corps under Colonels Eead and 
 Brown. In every part of Mysore, or of the countries which 
 had been imited into one kingdom by Hyder AU, the Hindu 
 population was very numerous, and exceedingly well affected 
 to the English, well knowing that, under our rule, they 
 would be allowed the free exercise of their religion. Even 
 the Mahometan portion of the inhabitants submitted tran- 
 quilly to their destiny, and to the conquerors. 
 
 The empire which Hyder Ali had erected was now thrown 
 to the ground ; but, restricted by parliamentary declarations 
 and orders from home, which forbade wars of conquest, the 
 governor-general could not, as he ought to have done, take 
 immediate sovereignty over the whole of this empire. He 
 therefore determined to dismember the dominions ; to re- 
 tain in his own hands those districts which lay along the sea- 
 shore, or which interrupted in any way the communication 
 between different proAdnces already subject to the Company; 
 to make over a second portion to the nizam of the Deckan ; 
 to oft'er, upon certain conditions, a third portion to the 
 peishwa ; and to raise to the government of the fourth and 
 smallest portion a descendant of that ancient line of Hindu 
 rajahs which Hyder Ali had set aside by right of force or 
 conquest. In pursuance of this plan, the district of Canara, 
 including the whole line of coast contiguous to the Com- 
 pany's possessions in Malabar and the Carnatic, the for- 
 tresses and posts at the head of the different ghauts or 
 passes which lead into Mysore, as well as the fortress of 
 
236 TIPPOO'S SOXS SE?fT TO TELLORE. [1799. 
 
 Seringapatam, were all committed to tlie English; the tracts 
 of country bordering upon his ovm. dominions, became the 
 property of the nizam of the Deckan ; and Harponelly 
 and various other provinces and districts were to be made 
 over to the Mahrattas. But, regarding the last clause, see- 
 ing that the Mahrattas did not comply with the stipulated 
 conditions, the governor-general determined that it should 
 form the basis of some new treaty with the Mahrattas, and 
 that, in the mean time, occupation should remain with the 
 Company.* Maharajah Krishna Oudawer, a child of six 
 years old, the lineal representative of the ancient Hindu 
 dynasty or family of Mysore, whom Tippoo's father, Hyder 
 Ali, had forcibly dispossessed, was raised to the throne of a 
 principality neither less extensive nor less powerful, in spite 
 of recent events, than that over which his forefathers had 
 reigned. The entire superintendence of his affairs was, at 
 the same time, committed to Purneah, a Brahmin of great 
 ability and reputation, who, entering into treaties with the 
 English, confirmed the arrangement made in favour of the 
 confederates, agreed to settle a pension on the children of 
 Tippoo, and accepted a modified subsidiary alliance, which, 
 while it secured to the rajah the benefit of English protec- 
 tion, placed the whole strength of his country at the disposal 
 of the Company. By this latter arrangement it was agreed 
 that the English should maintain a force expressly for the 
 defence of the new sovereignty, and place garrisons in such 
 strongholds as they might desire to occupy, while the rajah 
 paid an annual tribute in liquidation of the expenses ^thereby 
 incurred. Einally, the sons of Tippoo, on whom a liberal 
 pension was settled, set out under a military escort * to 
 Vellore, where, though kept under surveillance, they lived 
 in luxury and splendour, and were treated with great kind- 
 ness. Strong considerations of policy forbade even a partial 
 re-elevation of the family of Hyder Ali. They had all been 
 brought up in hereditary hatred of the English, and they 
 could not, under any arrangement, be expected to forget th^ 
 high power and independence from which they had fallen. 
 "jSTor does it seem unreasonable to suppose," wrote the 
 governor-general, " that the heir of Hyder Ali and Tippoo 
 Sultaun, animated by the imj)lacable spirit of his parents, 
 and accustomed to the splendoiu' of military glory, might 
 
 * Rev. G. R. Gleig, * History of the British Empire in India.' 
 
1799.] POLITICAL aeea:s"Geme]S'ts. 237 
 
 deliberately hazard the remnant of his hereditary possessions 
 in pursuit of so proud an object as the recovery of that vast 
 and powerfid empire, which, for many years, had rendered 
 his ancestors the scourge of the Carnatic, and the terror of 
 tliis quarter of India."* 
 
 On the other hand, the indignities which the family of 
 the ancient Hindu rajahs of the country had suffered, espe- 
 cially during the cruel and tyrannical reign of Tippoo, and 
 the state of degradation and misery to which they had been 
 reduced, might naturally be expected to excite a sentiment 
 of gratitude and attachment in their minds towards that 
 power which should not only deliver them from oppression, 
 but also raise them to a state of considerable affluence and 
 distinction. Between the British government and this 
 family an intercourse of friendship and kindness had once 
 subsisted ; and in the most desperate crisis of their fortune 
 they had formed no connection with the French or witli any 
 of our enemies. Under the pacific, the friendly, and de- 
 pendent representative of the old Hindu line of princes, the 
 interest and resources of the country might be absolutely 
 identified with our own ; and the kingdom of Mysore, so 
 long the source of calamity or alarm to the Carnatic, might 
 become a new barrier for our defence, and might supply 
 fresh means of wealth and strength to the Company, their 
 subjects and allies. The territory ceded to Maharajah 
 Krishna yielded thirteen lacs of pagodas, a revenue greater 
 than that of the ancient rajahship of Mysore. It was com- 
 pletely surrounded by the districts and fortresses which the 
 English took to themselves, and which were garrisoned by 
 British troops, and by sepoys in the pay of the Company. 
 One strong line of forts protected the rajahship from tlie 
 Mahrattas, whose incursions were most to be apprehended. 
 But in matter of fact the sovereignty of the rajahship, 
 equally with its defence, was vested in the Company. It was 
 provided by treaty that the whole of the military force in 
 the country should be English ; that the rajah should pay 
 annually seven lacs of pagodas ; that in case of war, any 
 larger sum might be exacted which sliould be deemed pro- 
 portionate to the resources of the rajah or of the country ; 
 and that, in case of any misgovermnent by the rajah, the 
 British government might interfere. The city of Mysore, 
 
 * Marquis Wellesley, ' India Despatches.' 
 
238 TEAXQIJTLLITT RESTOEED. [1800. 
 
 the ancient capital of the country, which Tippoo had dis- 
 mantled in order to give strength, extension, and magnifi- 
 cence to Seringapatam, was fixed upon for the residence of 
 the infant rajah and his court. A curious example was given 
 of vicissitude in human aftairs. Tippoo, in 1784, had 
 levelled mth the ground an ancient fort at Mysore, and had 
 carried away the materials to build a new fort, which he 
 named " Nezerbar," or " the place visited by the eye of the 
 Almighty :" now this fort was destroyed in its turn, and the 
 materials were carried back to the town of Mysore, to rebuild 
 the old fort.* 
 
 The territory conquered from Tippoo, and annexed, co- 
 vertly or openly, to the Company, exceeded in dimension 
 20,000 square miles. The revenue immediately obtained by 
 the Company was very large, and was chiefly drawn from 
 countries which wanted nothing but tranquillity and security 
 to be enabled to pay, with perfect ease, taxes far more con- 
 siderable than those they now paid.f 
 
 The annexation gave an entirely new form and consistency 
 to our empire in the south of India, with a degree of secu- 
 rity which we had not previously possessed. There were 
 sixty ghauts or passes through the mountains, several of 
 which were practicable for armies, and two-thirds of which 
 were sufficiently open to aUow the incursions of cavalry. J 
 By occupying these passes, aU the Camatic was secured 
 against those ruinous irruptions from which it had so often 
 suffered in the days of Hyder and his son, and the low 
 country on the Malabar coast was rendered equally safe. 
 
 Instead of being our most dangerous enemies, the Myso- 
 reans soon became our best friends, and recruited our 
 sepoy battalions with some of their bravest men. As soon 
 as a band of robbers, headed by the famous Dhoondiah 
 "Waugh, and joined by some of Tippoo' s disbanded cavalry, 
 had been cut up or driven out of the country, a most perfect 
 tranquillity was established everywhere. On leaving the 
 command of all the troops in Mysore and its dependencies, 
 and on hastening back to Madras to meet the governor- 
 general, who had remained at that presidency to be near at 
 hand as long as the war lasted, General Harris wrote to a 
 friend : 
 
 " In seven months' absence from Madras, we not only took 
 
 * Colonel Wilks. f Marquis Wellesley, 'Despatches,' Sec. 
 
 1 Colonel Beatson. 
 
1800.] NEW TBEATT WITH THE NIZAM. 239 
 
 the capital of that enemy, who, as you observe, should never 
 have been left the power of being troublesome, but marched 
 to the northern extent of his empire, and left it in so 
 settled a state that I journeyed from the banks of the 
 Toombudra, 300 miles across, in my palanquin, without a 
 single soldier as escort, except, indeed, at many places, the 
 polygars and peons of the country, who insisted on being 
 my guard through their respective districts. This was a 
 kind of triumphal journey I did not dream of when setting 
 off. A conquest so complete in all its effects has seldom 
 been known."* 
 
 Having thus satisfactorily arranged the affairs of Mysore, 
 Lord Mornington directed his attention to those of the 
 Deckan, where the well-known imbecility of the nizam 
 rendered him liable, at any time, to be made the tool of the 
 Mahrattas or of any persons more subtle and enterpri- 
 sing than himself. Hitherto,' our subsidiary force in the 
 Deckan had been maintained by a monthly ^stipend from 
 the nizam, of which the payment was very irregular, and 
 always liable to interruption by treachery or by the impro- 
 vidence of the Hyderabad government. It was the object 
 of his lordship to obtain a commutation of the stipend in 
 the shape of estates and districts a system which had 
 been adopted by the nizam, and other native princes, in 
 regard to the French officers who raised and disciplined 
 troops for them ; and without this system (seeing the con- 
 stant irregularity of all money payments from these eastern 
 princes), neither M. Perron, nor M. Bussy, would have 
 remained in their service, or have been in a condition to keep 
 up a disciplined army for them. The governor-general also 
 wished, by a general revision of the terms of our alliance, to 
 render the Deckan more dependent than it was upon the 
 Company, and to check that rapacity and misrule which 
 kept the people poor when they ought to be prosperous. 
 By firmness and address, his lordship brought his scheme to 
 a satisfactory conclusion. By the treaty of October the 
 12th, 1800, the nizam of the Deckan ceded to the English 
 all the territory which he had acquired by Lord Cornwallis's 
 pacification in 1792, and by the arrangements after the 
 capture of Seringapatam in 1799. He received in exchange, 
 a discharge from the payment of his monthly subsidies, a 
 
 * Right Hon. Stephen Rumbold Lushington, ' Life of Gen. Lord 
 Harris.' 
 
240 MAHEATTAS EEFUSE TO NEGOTIATE. [ISOO. 
 
 great [increase, both in infantry and cavalry, to the troops 
 previously lent to him, and assurance of protection against 
 every external enemy, and a'guarantee for the tranquil enjoy- 
 ment of all the rights, privileges, and ^territories ^Yhich tie 
 treaty left in his possession. 
 
 The Mahrattas, though duly invited, refused to negotiate 
 with the governor-general. Some of them would have gladly 
 embraced his lordship's amicable propositions, which were 
 accompanied byj an offer of such considerable territories ; 
 but the great Scindiah, all powerful at the peishwa's cornet, 
 partly guided by his own prejudices, partly swayed by the 
 counsels of his French officers, steadily resisted all approacli 
 to intimacy with the English ; and, hereupon, the governor- 
 general divided that portion of Tippoo's late dominions 
 which had been intended for the Mahrattas, between the 
 English and the nizam of the Deckan. 
 
 Other treaties were effected with the rajah of Tanjore 
 and various native princes, all having for their object the 
 removal of political power from the hands of those who 
 could not wield it wisely or well, into the hands of the Com- 
 pany. In these states the entu'e administration of govern- 
 ment and revenue was now vested in the Company, with- 
 out causing any dissatisfaction to the native populations. 
 "As for the wishes of the people in this country," said 
 Colonel Wellesley, " I put them out of the question. They 
 are the only philosophers about' their governors that ever I 
 met with if indifference constitutes that character."* But 
 the great soldier and administrator might have added as 
 he subsequently did that in every instance the people 
 were great gainers by the change, being no longer oppressed 
 by irregular taxation the ivorst taxation of all, no longer 
 harassed by internal feuds and civil wars, and bemg seldom- 
 exposed even to the chance of foreign invasion. In many 
 of these districts a few English civilians, unsupported by 
 any military force, and often at great distances from any 
 post or garrison-to^ii, ruled the tranquil natives, and were 
 held in reverence by them. 
 
 * Letter to Major Monro, dated 20th Aug., 1800, in ' Wellington 
 Despatches.' 
 
ISOO.] KIXG OF THE TWO WOELDS. 24:1 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 "While Colonel "Wellesley, wlio had been left at Seringa- 
 patam as governor of Mysore, was displaying administrative 
 talents of tlie most valuable kind, and getting that country 
 into perfect order, he was called into the field by the return 
 of the robber Dhoondiah "Waugh, who had collected an 
 enormous force. This freebooter, a Mahratta or Patau by 
 lineage, though born within the territory of Mysore, had 
 served in the armies of Hyder and Tippoo. He had deserted 
 the Mysoreans during their war with Lord Cornwallis, and 
 had placed himself at the head of a fierce and numerous body 
 of banditti in the wild countr}^ near the Toombudra river. 
 By stratagem Tippoo had caught him, and he was immured 
 in one of the dungeons of Seringapatam, and strongly 
 chained to the wall like a wild beast, when we stormed and 
 took the citadel. Pitying all the tyrant's prisoners, and 
 knowing nothing of the fellow's history, some of our soldiers 
 instantly set him free. He was soon at the head of such a 
 force, and Avas so rapid in his movements, that it had taken 
 Colonel Stevenson no small trouble to drive him out of the 
 country in the preceding month of August. Early in this 
 year, Dhoondiali threatened the frontier of Mysore with 
 5,000 horse, and took to himself the title of the " King of 
 the ^Two Worlds." With a weak enemy to contend with, 
 Dhoondiah, like Hyder, might have founded a royal dynasty. 
 His destruction was absolutely necessary for our tranquillity.* 
 Dhoondiah had an asylum in the Mahratta country. Colonel 
 Wellesley recommended that the English should go through 
 witli the business until that man was killed, captured, or 
 given up, even though it should be found necessary to cross 
 the Mahratta frontier in pursuit of him, which could 
 scarcely be done without risking a quarrel with the Mah- 
 rattas. His brother, the governor-general, authorized him 
 
 * Wellington Despatches,' vol. i. 
 E 
 
242 COL. wellesley's pursuit [1800. 
 
 to enter the Mahratta territory, it being evident that the 
 peishwa was either unable or unwilling to put down the 
 great depredator. Part of our army at Mysore had been 
 already collected on the Toombudra. Towards the end of 
 June, Wellesley joined these troops, crossed the river, and 
 proceeded in person against the army of robbers, who were 
 nearly all well mounted. Some of the Mahratta chiefs, 
 instead of resenting the infringement of their frontiers, took 
 the field to co-operate with the English ; and one of them, 
 being too eager in the pursuit, got defeated and killed by 
 Dhoondiah, a few days after. Though a campaign, in regard 
 to the forces employed and the object to be obtained, the 
 operations of "Wellesley were like a hunting-match, or a long- 
 continued chase, and as such they are described in his own 
 despatches, and not without humour and hilarity. He fol- 
 lowed up the robbers across the river "Werdah, across other 
 streams, through woods and over mountains ; he chased 
 them to all the cardinal points of the compass, he drove 
 them up the Malpoorba, and doTvn that river, and he gave 
 them a famous run between the Malpoorba and the G-ut- 
 poorba. He surprised some of their encampments, and 
 took some fortified towns in which they had deposited their 
 plunder ; but weeks, months elapsed before he could come 
 up vrith the main body of these nimble thieves. At last, on 
 the .9th of September, Dhoondiah "Waugh got into an 
 awkward position by coming too near to Colonel AYellesley, 
 who had left his infantry far behind, and was pursuing only 
 vrith cavalry. As the colonel's horses were much fatigued 
 and the night was a bad one, the attack was not made until 
 the following morning. The chief huntsman has himself 
 described the end of the chase, in a letter dated from camp, 
 at Yepulpurry. 
 
 " After a most anxious 'night, I marched in the morning 
 and met the ' King of the World' with his army, about 
 5,000 horse, at a village called Conahgull, about six miles 
 from hence. He had not known of my being so near him 
 in the night, and had thought that I was at Chinnoor. He 
 was marching to the westward, with the intention of pass- 
 ing between the Mahratta and Mogul cavalry and me. He 
 drew up, however, in a very strong position, as soon as he 
 perceived me ; and the ' victorious army' stood for some 
 time with apparent firmness, I charged them with the 
 19th and 25th dragoons, and the 1st and 2nd regiments of 
 
1800.] OF DHOONDIAH WAUGH. 24$ 
 
 cavalry, and drove them before me till they dispersed, and 
 were scattered over the face of the country. I then returned 
 and attacked the royal camp, and got possession of 
 elephants, camels, baggage, etc., etc., which were still upon 
 the gTOund. The Mogul and Mahratta cavalry came up 
 about eleven o'clock; and they have been employed ever 
 since in the pursuit and destruction of the scattered frag- 
 ments of the rebellious army. 
 
 " Thus has ended this warfare ; and I shall commence my 
 march in a day or two towards my own country. An honest 
 killadar of Chinnoor had written to the ' King of the World,' 
 by a regular tappal, established for the purpose of giving 
 him intelligence, that I was to be at Nowly on the 8th, and 
 at Chinnoor on the 9th. His majesty was misled by this, 
 information, and was nearer to me than he expected. The 
 honest killadar did all he could to detain me at Chinnoor, 
 but I was not to be prevailed upon to stop ; and even 
 went so far as to threaten to hang a great man sent to 
 show me the road, who manifested an inclination to show 
 me a good road to a different place." * 
 
 Many of the marauders and Dhoondiah himself were 
 killed.f The remnants of their formidable bands were 
 entirely cut up by Colonel Stevenson, as they were attempt- 
 ing to pass the Kistna river. Tranquillity was soon restored 
 to Mysore and the whole of the Malabar country, and 
 no more robberies and murders were heard of, except such, 
 as were occasionally committed by the inscrutable thugs.. 
 It was the flourishing state of Mysore, and the facility with 
 which its supplies and resources were brought forward for 
 the use of the British armies, that soon afterwards enabled 
 Lake and Wellesley to carry on the war against Scindiah, 
 with so much spirit and success. The province of BuUiun 
 had never been effectually conquered ; the authority of 
 Hyder Ali and of Tippoo had there been precarious, and the 
 presence of an army had always been necessary to enforce 
 the payment of the revenue. But in the course of 1801, 
 militar}^ roads were opened through the forest towns by 
 Wellesley, and from that time no part of Mysore has been 
 more tranquil than Bullum. 
 
 Soon after the annihilation of the "King of the Two 
 
 * ' Wellington Despatches,' vol. i. 
 
 t Dhoondiah's body was found and recognized, and was brought to our 
 camp on one of the guns attached to tlie I'Jth dragoons. 
 
 e2 
 
244 ANGLO-INDIAIf EXPEDITION [1801. 
 
 "Worlds," which happened in September, 1800, Colonel 
 AYeUesley was removed from Mysore, and sent with an 
 expedition to the island of Ceylon. The object of this ex- 
 pedition was wholly diflerent, and its destination was strictly 
 confined by his superiors in command, when the duplicate 
 of a despatch from London reached him at Trincomalee, 
 announcing the novel and bold plan of the British ministry 
 to send an expedition from India, by the Eed Sea, to support 
 the expedition sent out from England, under Sir Ealph 
 Abercromby, against the French in Egypt. Upon reading 
 this despatch, Wellesley instantly made up his mind, and 
 knowing that his was the only disposable force in India, 
 without orders or instructions, he proceeded to act on his 
 own responsibility, and to remove the troops under his 
 command at once from Ceylon to Bombay, where they 
 would be some thousand miles nearer to the Bed Sea and 
 Egypt. It appears that he fully expected to have the com- 
 mand of this Anglo-Indian expedition to the land of the 
 Pharaohs ; but upon arriving at Bombay, he found it was 
 confided to his senior, Major-Greneral Sir David Baird. He 
 did not accompany Baird, but he gave him a copy of memo- 
 randa, which he had drawn up on the operations to be 
 pursued on the coast of the Eed Sea and in Egypt a truly 
 remarkable paper, proving the minute attention he had 
 paid to those subjects, and showing beyond the reach of a 
 doubt, that he had already within him the foresight, sagacity, 
 and every other quality of a great general.* 
 
 It was honourable to the administration of the governor- 
 general, that he should be enabled, so soon after an expen- 
 sive war, and with the almost immediate prospect of another 
 war in India, to send such an armament to the Red Sea. 
 Major-General Baird took with him 2,800 British troops, 
 2,000 sepoys, 450 of the Company's best artillery-men ; and 
 this force was well supplied from the Company's arsenals 
 and magazines. Sir David reached Jeddah, on the Red Sea, 
 on the 17th of May, 1801, and was there joined by an 
 English expedition from the Cape of Good Hope, consist- 
 ing of the 61st regiment, some squadrons of light horse, and 
 a strong detachment of artillery. On the 8th of June, he 
 reached Cossier, and began landing his troops ; but it was 
 the month of July before his van division began to cross the 
 
 * See 'Wellington Despatches/ vol. i. 
 
1801.] TO EGYPT. 245 
 
 burning deserts which lie between the Eed Sea and Egypt ; 
 and before he could unite his forces at Cairo. Menou, 
 who had been left in command of the French, capitulated 
 to Greneral Lord Hutchinson.* But these joint expeditions 
 from Europe, from Africa, and from India, and the way in 
 which highly-disciplined native troops were moved from 
 Bombay, and put in the field in Egypt, contributed greatly 
 to raise our reputation, and to impress the nations of 
 Europe with a sense of the military power and energy of 
 England. 
 
 In looking at the sculptures of ancient Egypt, our sepoys 
 could not but be struck with the many traits of resemblance 
 those elBgies bore to themselves. After an interval of three 
 thousand years, oiu* sepoys were, in many respects, like 
 what the Egyptians had been. 
 
 jlSTot with standing his exertions and outlay for the Bed 
 Sea expedition, the governor-general found the means of 
 sending other troops to Ceylon, where they were very soon 
 wanted; as the Cingalese who dwelt in the interior, and w^ho 
 were in fact masters of aU the island, except some strips 
 along the coast, proved desperate, and for a time dangerous, 
 enemies to the British. The settlements which had been 
 torn from the Portuguese by the Dutch, w^ere taken from 
 the Dutch by the English, during the time that Lord 
 Hobart was governor of Madras. Eor a time they were 
 allowed to form , an appendage to the Madras presidency, 
 and the Company considered that they were to enjoy the 
 same sovereignty in Ceylon as they enjoyed in India ; but 
 Mr. Pitt's government very soon placed the Ceylon settle- 
 ments under the direct administration of the crown, and 
 appointed a governor who was to be altogether independent 
 of the authority of the Company. As Ceylon is divided 
 from the Coromandel coast only by a narrow strait ; as the 
 Company's troops and money had been employed in making 
 the conquests in the island ; and as a close intercourse and 
 
 * Sir Robert Wilson, ' History of the British Expedition to Egypt/ 
 &c. yEneas Anderson, lieut. 40th regiment, ' Journal of the Forces, &c. , 
 and of the Transactions of the Army under the command of General Sir 
 Ralph Abercromby.' I^e Comte de Noe, ' Memoires relatifs a 1' Expe- 
 dition Anglaise partie du Bengale en 1800,' &c. 
 
 The Comte de Noe, then a royalist emigrant and an officer in the British 
 10th regiment of the line, went with Sir David Baird on this expedition, 
 his account of which contains some interesting details not to be found 
 elsewhere. 
 
24G CEYLOX. [180L 
 
 connection must exist between the island and tlie presidency 
 of Madras ; great discontent was felt and expressed by the 
 Anglo-Indians, or by nearly all of them that were in the 
 Company's service. It was felt also by others, that the 
 annexation of Ceylon to the crown, while the government of 
 the continent was left to the Company, rendered our Indian 
 system more and more confused ; dividing and confounding 
 powers which were already too much divided and con- 
 founded. Lord Mornington himself best expressed the evils 
 of this system, and best explained how it ought to be super- 
 seded. " AVhatever," said he, "may be the nature of the 
 government, which the wisdom of parliament may perma- 
 nently establish for India, I hold two principles to be 
 indispensable for its permanent efficiency and vigour : First, 
 that every part of the empire in India, insular as well as 
 continental, shall be subject to the general control of one 
 undivided authority, which shall possess energy, in peace, to 
 maintain order, connection and harmony between aU the 
 dispersed branches of our dominions, and to extend equal 
 benefits of good government to every class of our numerous 
 and various subjects ; and, in war, to direct every spring of 
 action to similar and corresponding movements, to concen- 
 trate every resource in a united effort, and by systematic 
 subordination to diffuse such a spirit of alacrity and promp- 
 titude to the remotest extremities of the empire as shaU 
 -secure the co-operation of every part in any exigency which 
 may demand the collective strength of the whole. Secondly, 
 that the constitution of every branch of the empire should 
 be similar and uniform, and, above all, that no subordinate 
 part should be so constituted as in any respect to hold 
 a rivalry of dignity, even in form, with the supreme 
 power."* 
 
 His lordship afterwards urged that as the legislature had 
 vested in the governor-general in council, subject to the 
 Board of Control in England, the sole power of making war 
 against any native state on the continent of India, the same 
 principle required that the governor-general in council 
 should possess similar powers with regard to war in Ceylon, 
 which could scarcely be considered in any other light than 
 as a dependency on our continental empire : that the wis- 
 
 , * Marquis Wellesley, ' Indian Despatches,' Letter to the Right Hon. 
 Henry Dundas, dated May 10th, 1801. 
 
1801.] CETLO?^'. 24i7 
 
 dom of the legislature had certainly contemplated a unity of 
 executive power as the most effectual security for the British 
 empire on the continent of India ; and had determined that 
 the authority which held the sole power of disposing of the 
 resources necessary for the prosecution of war should also 
 possess the sole power of making war ; and that no pro- 
 vincial, local, or subordinate authority should be enabled to 
 involve the general interests of the empire in the expense 
 and hazard of hostilities : that under the constitution or 
 regulation which had been made for the island of Ceylon, 
 the order and system established for the general government 
 of India were absolutely reversed ; the king's governor of 
 Ceylon exercising the authority of concluding treaties, of 
 making wars, and of conducting military operations in the 
 island, without having the power of furnishing supplies 
 either of men or money beyond the fixed establishment of 
 the island ; while the Grovernor-Greneral in council was 
 required to furnish supplies of men and money for the pro- 
 secution of war in Ceylon, without possessing any power of 
 controlling the origin, conduct, or progress of the war, which 
 war might, however, deeply affect the security, interests, 
 and honour of the general government of India. His lord- 
 ship also showed that Ceylon had been properly termed the 
 outwork and bulwark of our empire in India ; that it was 
 an essential part of our strength, and that the proper ma- 
 nagement of its civil and military government was of the 
 utmost importance to the defence of our continental domi- 
 nions. "Nor," said he, "can an argument be adduced to 
 prove the importance of Ceylon which will not also demon- 
 strate that its interests are inseparably blended with those 
 of the empire on the continent, and that its government 
 cannot be separated from the general control without hazard 
 to the safety both of that empire and the island of Ceylon. 
 The entire military establishment of India ought to be 
 applicable to the general defence of the whole empire. The 
 subdivision of that establishment, and the separation of our 
 general strength into detachments, subjected to inde- 
 pendent commands, and appropriated to exclusive provincial 
 and local services, must impair the general efficiency of our 
 army by destroying the unity of our military power . . . 
 The independence of the government and military command 
 of Ceylon would considerably embarrass the government- 
 general in the prosecution of operations against the remain- 
 
248 GREAT POPULARITY [1802. 
 
 ing possessions of tlie French and Dutcli to tlie eastward 
 of the Cape of Grood Hope, or against Egypt, or against 
 various places in these seas, or even in any transfer of 
 troops from the several maritime garrisons in India. Your 
 lordship is intimately acquainted with the advantages which 
 the ports of Ceylon offer for assembling troops and ships, 
 and for completing every necessary depot in the preparation 
 of such services. The government-general repeatedly derived 
 important advantages from the full command of those ports 
 during the last war. In the present state of the island, it 
 would not be possible to use its ports and resources with 
 similar effect. A considerable portion of the value of Ceylon, 
 in time of war, is therefore actually suspended by the exist- 
 ing constitution of the government of that island."* 
 
 His lordship's opinions varied upon this particular point; 
 but at last he declared himself to be perfectly convinced, 
 that the most effectual mode of rendering Ceylon a valuable 
 addition to British India, and an efficient augmentation of 
 our military and political power, would be to annex it as a 
 province to the supreme government of Bengal. His 
 representations, however, were overlooked by the home- 
 government, and that beautiful island continued to be 
 separate, and also to be in too many instances woefully 
 misgoverned. It may be doubted, indeed, whether the 
 natives of Ceylon have ever been treated so gently and 
 kindly by king's officers, and by governors appointed by the 
 Colonial office, as the natives of the neighboiu'ing continent 
 have been and are treated by the officers and civil servants of 
 the Company. Nor can it be said that the service in Ceylon 
 has been distinguished by the production of eminent men ; 
 while in this respect, the service of the Company has unde- 
 niably been exceedingly productive. For the present, the 
 wars against the Cingalese were miserably conducted, grave 
 errors were committed by the king's governor, and the king's 
 officers commanding in the island, and some shameful 
 reverses were sustained by the English troops in Ceylon, 
 during the war against the jMahrattas and their [allies, 
 which was carried on with such brilliant success on the con- 
 tinent by the governor-general, and his Indian-trained 
 officers. 
 
 * ' Wellesley, * Indian Despatches/ &c. Letter to Lord Hobart, then 
 president of the Board of Control, dated Nov. 30, 1803. 
 
1803.] 
 
 OF COL. WELLESLEY. 
 
 249 
 
 Soon after giving up the command of his troops to Sir 
 David Baird, Colonel Wellesley returned into Mysore, and 
 during a command of two years, he carried out the immense 
 improvements which he had formerly begun, and endeared 
 himself in a wonderful measure to the people of the 
 country. 
 
250 THE APGHANS. [1800-1. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 The settlement which Sir John Shore had made in Oude 
 had given satisfaction to no party, and in reality had settled 
 nothing. His recognizing the title of Vizier Ali in one 
 month and dethroning him in the next had produced a very 
 injurious effect. The people believed it all to have been a 
 jobbery and a trick'; the prince, expelled from Lucknow, 
 was incensed to the utmost degree of fury ; and Saadut Ali, 
 who had been placed upon the musnud, complained of the 
 terms and conditions, and was not very grateful to those to 
 whom he was indebted for his elevation. Saadut had 
 allowed his payments to the Company to fall into arrears, and 
 he was owing more than eighteen lacs of rupees, when Lord 
 Mornington first assumed the government of India. The 
 Court of Directors became clamorous for payment. At the 
 same time, Zemaun Shah, the terrible king of Cabul, was pre- 
 paring for another invasion of Upper India. It was expected 
 that the Afghans would be soon on the frontiers of Oude. It 
 was known that Tippoo Sultaun was corresponding with Ze- 
 maun Shah, and that the Mahometan army of the Mysoreans 
 would unite with their co-religionists the Afghans, if the 
 latter could make good their descent. The governor-general 
 reinforced our troops in Oude to the very highest point 
 allowed by the treaty between Sir John Shore and Saadut 
 Ali ; two regiments of native infantry were added to that 
 army ; five companies of native invalids were sent to station 
 themselves on the famous rock of Chunar, five other compa- 
 nies of native invalids were sent to Allahabad, a considerable 
 force was collected to cover the holy and wealthy city of 
 Benares ; and troops were cantoned in the upper provinces 
 to oppose the Afghans. Those daring tribes advanced as 
 far as Lahore, while Lord Mornington was at Madras busied 
 in those preparations which ended in the total overthrow of 
 Tippoo. But again was the sovereign of Cabul recalled to 
 
1801-2.] VIZIEE ALT. 251 
 
 his own states by rebellion and civil war. But as the visit of 
 the Afghans might be repeated in the following year, the 
 governor-general endeavoured to find them occupation 
 which woidd keep them at home and diminish their capa- 
 bility of being mischievous in India.* 
 
 The Persians and the Afghans were old foes. Baba Khan, 
 the present king of Persia, had espoused the cause of 
 Zemaun Shah's rebellious brother Mahmood, and had made 
 an inroad into the province of Khorassan, on the western 
 frontier of Afghanistan. Bring the Persians back to that 
 quarter, and Zemaun Shah and his Afghans would be kept 
 very far from the frontiers of Oude, and far from Lahore and 
 the Sutlej. At first an intercourse was opened with the 
 Persian court by means of one or two Persian merchants who 
 -traded with India. But, on the 29th of September, 1799, 
 Captain Sir John Malcolm was despatched from Bombay on 
 an embassy to the Persian court. The embassy was " in a 
 style of splendour corresponding to the character of the 
 monarch and the manners of the nation to whom it was sent, 
 and to the wealth and power of that state from which it 
 proceeded." t It was completely successful in all its objects. 
 Baba Khan not only agreed to renew his attack upon Kho- 
 rassan, but also entered into treaties of political and com- 
 mercial alliance with the British government. The engaging 
 manners and the conspicuous abihty of Malcolm, the nego- 
 tiator, were seconded by Nelson's grand battle of the Nile, 
 the news of which produced a wondrous effect all through 
 Asia Minor and Persia. The shah contumeliously expelled 
 from his dominions an embassy which the Prench had sent 
 to win him over to their nation and their views upon India. 
 Threatened by the Persians in his own territories, Zemaun 
 Shah could not repeat his visit to Lahore ; and in the year 
 1801 he was defeated in battle, and made prisoner by his 
 rebellious brother Mahmood, who found it so difficult to 
 retain his seat on the slippery throne of Cabul, that he had 
 not time to bestow a thought upon plans of conquest or 
 invasion in India. 
 
 When Zemaun Shah was last at Lahore, Vizier Ali, the 
 nabob of Oude, whom Sir John Shore had deposed, increased 
 the number of his armed retainers, and engaged some of 
 
 * Marquis Wellesley, * Indian Despatches.' Sir John Malcolm, * Poli- 
 tical History of India.' 
 
 t Sir John Malcolm, ' Political History of India.* 
 
 
 
252 BBATEET OF [1799. 
 
 the principal people of Benares to join him in an insurrec- 
 tion so soon as the Afghans should approach the frontiers of 
 Oude. AVhen it was ascertained by Lord Mornington that 
 Vizier Ali had sent an agent to Zemaun Shah and was 
 giving countenance to all those -who sighed for the arrival 
 of the Afghans, and thirsted for the blood of the English, 
 instructions were sent to Mr. Cherry, our resident, to remove 
 the dangerous dethroned man from Benares to Calcutta. 
 This order ought to have been kept secret, but it was not. 
 As soon as it reached the ear of Vizier Ali, he went as mad 
 as a Malay running a muck. Pretending a complimentary 
 visit, he gained entrance into the house of oui' resident, 
 with some of his followers, and treacherously and barbarously 
 murdered Mr. Cherry, his private secretary, and Captain 
 Conway. The assassins, now swelled into a numerous gang, 
 went next to the house of Mr. Davis, the judge of the dis- 
 trict, and were prevented from murdering him and his 
 family only by his presence of mind and a narrow winding 
 staircase, which he defended with wonderful skill and cou- 
 rage. "With no other weapon than an Indian pike or 
 spear, which happened to be upstairs, and with not a soul 
 to help him, this brave civilian defended himself and family, 
 like a vahant soldier, for the space of an hour and a half, 
 and made good the narrow staircase until troops from camp 
 came to his rescue.* Vizier Ali and his desperadoes went 
 to plunder and murder at other English houses ; but General 
 Erskine soon came up with a respectable force of cavalry. 
 After wounding some of our troopers and suffering some 
 wounds themselves, the rabble rout took to flight. Vizier Ali 
 with his immediate adherents retired towards his fortified 
 palace, and strongly-walled garden, where, it was thought, 
 a desperate resistance might be attempted. In marching 
 
 * A most interesting sketch of this episode will be found in ' Vizier 
 Ali Khan ; or, the Massacre of Benares, a Chapter in British Indian His- 
 tory.' This little volume is the production of Sir J. F. Davis, son of 
 Mr. Davis, the brave judge, and author of the best book in any language 
 upon China. He has recently been governor of Hong-Kong. 
 
 At the time of the murders at Benares, and the attack on his father's 
 house, Mr. Davis was a child ; but for his narrative he obtained, besides 
 papers, the personal information and assistance of a senior who was on 
 the spot of the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, the author of the 
 best book upon Cabul and the Afghan tribes, late governor of Bombay, 
 and one of the very best of the many distinguished men who have acquired 
 reputation in India. Few narratives can have higher claims to implicit 
 credit. 
 
'/; s 
 
1799.] ME. DAVIS. 253 
 
 through one of the suburbs of Benares, our troopers suffered 
 considerably by a fire of matchlocks, opened upon them 
 from the houses. Both of General Erskine's orderlies were 
 shot at his side. On reaching the nabob's strong palace, 
 some field-pieces which had come up with our cavalry were 
 directed against it, and the gate was presently blown open 
 and an entrance made. But it was vain to seek withinthe 
 palace for the dastardly assassin ; Vizier Ali had fled north- 
 wards towards Betaul, accompanied by all his well-mounted 
 horsemen. Most happily the bu.siness was finished before 
 the sun set. If the contest had lasted until dark, a frightful 
 massacre would have been committed, and the holy city 
 of Benares would have been pillaged by the Santons, fakeers, 
 dervishes, fanatics, adventurers, bankas, and banditti, assem- 
 bled within its precincts. The English inhabitants of the 
 to\^'n and neighbourhood gratefully acknowledged that the 
 hour and a half, during which that stout-hearted judge, 
 Mr. Davis, had kept the assassins at bay, had been the 
 means of their salvation, by enabling some of them to con- 
 ceal themselves, and others to escape to our camp.* 
 
 As he fled up the country, Vizier Ali must have received the 
 news of the retreat of the Afghans from Lahore, but early in 
 his flight he halted to address a letter to the rajah of Benares, 
 urging him to rise against the English. Instead of being con- 
 veyed to the rajah, this epistle was delivered to Mr. Davis. 
 
 Our main army of Oude, under the command of Sir 
 James Craig, was far away to the westward ; but, on the 
 retreat of the Afghans from Lahore, it left the frontiers and 
 moved towards the capital of Oude, whither an English bat- 
 talion from Cawnpore had been brought up immediately 
 after the unexpected outbreak. 
 
 Saadut Ali is described, by on^ who knew him well in the 
 early part of his reign, as a man of sense, who kept up a 
 degree of dignity and decorum in his court, to which it had 
 
 * Besides the soldiers and the three gentlemen who had perished at the 
 residency, Mr. Robert Graham, a young civilian, and Mr. Hill, a trader 
 in the city, were butchered by the insurgents. 
 
 " Some of the English made the best of their way to the camp ; and 
 others, especially those with families, concealed themselves as they could, 
 and must probably have been discovered and massacred, if the attention 
 '>f the insurgents had not been occupied by Mr. Davis's defence. One 
 large party retired into a tall field of maize, or Indian corn, and were 
 completely hidden for the time, though but a short distance from the 
 residence of one of their number." Sir J. F. Davis. 
 
254 ABEEST OF [1799. 
 
 long been a stranger, and who, in his regular habits and appli- 
 cation to business, was more like an English gentleman than, 
 most natives. His vice was hard drinking, but he indulged 
 only at night. " He had good reason to be apprehensive of 
 revolt, for his reign was new, and his natural parsimony, 
 with the strict order and economy which he endeavoured to 
 introduce into his provinces, were unfavourably contrasted 
 with the profusion of his predecessors." * It appears that 
 he was timid as well as parsimonious ; for when called upon 
 to join the British forces with his own troops, in the pur- 
 suit of Vizier Ali and his partisans, he earnestly implored 
 to be excused, upon the ground that he could not trust his 
 0V5T1 soldiers ; and all that he did was to issue orders that 
 Vizier Ali should be seized if he attempted to enter the 
 territory of Oude. 
 
 In the course of the inquiries, instituted by Mr. Davis 
 and other servants of the Company, it was xevy clearly 
 proved that not only a good number of Mahometan chiefs, 
 but also a considerable number of Hindu baboos or nobles had 
 promised assistance to the frantic Vizier Ali. " It is well 
 known," wrote Mr. Davis to Greneral Erskine, " that this 
 city abounds with armed adventurers, who are ever ready to 
 enter into any service at a moment's notice. There are in 
 the district persons of rank who live and maintain their own 
 guards without any limitation from government." The 
 worst of the guards were composed of a set of bravos, called 
 bankas, who were leagued together as a sect. These bankas 
 are men of all castes ; they affect a peculiar way of dressing, 
 half buUy and half dandy, strut and swagger about the streets, 
 and are always ready to pick a quarrel or engage in any 
 crime. . . The term banka, by which this sect is distin- 
 guished, is derived from the peculiar movement of their 
 swords, in the exercise of which they are proficients. This 
 class of people formerly abounded in Benares, and were the 
 terror of the wealthy and timid, on whose contributions, to 
 avert enmity or secure regard, they were supposed chiefly 
 to subsist.t 
 
 It was now [resolved by the supreme government of 
 Calcutta that an end should be put to this system ; and 
 instructions were sent to Mr. Davis to seciu-e the persons 
 of some of the nobles known to have been concerned in the 
 
 * The Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, as quoted by Sir J. F. Davis. 
 t Sir J. F. Davis. 
 
1799.] THE BABOOS. 255 
 
 late insurrection. It was not yqij easy to execute this las 
 order, without making a fracas, which it was desirable to 
 avoid. The baboos occupied great houses that were forti- 
 fied like castles, and three of them resided together in the 
 fortress of Pinderah, about fourteen miles from Benares. But 
 excellent measures were adopted by General Erskine and 
 Judge Davis, and the execution of them was intrusted to 
 able men, who did their business with rapidity and the least 
 possible noise. 
 
 The Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, who has since risen 
 to such high distinction in the Indian service, but who was 
 then a very young man, and assistant to the judge of 
 Benares, was furnished with four companies of infantry and 
 twenty-four troopers to assist him in capturing the baboos 
 in the fort of Pinderah. At the dawn of day Elphinstone 
 reached the fort, and surrounded it so as to prevent any 
 escape. The fort was then entered, and every part of it 
 searched except the zenana, or women's apartments. The 
 retainers declared that the baboos went out hunting frw'o 
 days before, and had not yet returned. A guard was placed 
 over the zenana, but it ultimately proved that the baboos 
 were not there. They had fled the country. Only baboo 
 Sheonath, who occupied a strong house in the city of 
 Benares, made any resistance. Though deprived of food and 
 water, he held out a whole day and night, during which 
 time he received repeated assurances, both verbal and 
 written, that no personal violence or disgrace would be 
 nflicted if he quietly surrendered. He at length rushed 
 )ut and attacked the soldiers with fury, apparently hoping 
 to take them by surprise and cut his way through. In the 
 fierce conflict the baboo and one of his bankas were slain, 
 l)ut not before his party had killed or wounded several of the 
 soldiers and native police. Some more of the baboos con- 
 cealed themselves or fled to other lands. Only two of them 
 ^^'ere brought to trial and condemned to death, and of these 
 only one Bowannee Sunker was executed. The sentence 
 of his companion, Juggut Sing, was commuted to transpor- 
 tation. He was sent down the Ganges to be embarked, but 
 
 len he approached the sea he took poison and died, and 
 thus escaped the loss of caste and the other degradations 
 tvhich he had expected to suffer.* 
 
 * " Juggut Sing," says Mr. Davis, " was a man of some talent, but of 
 nordinate vanity. He possessed an excellent Persian library, and was 
 
256 CAPTUEE or viziee all [1800. 
 
 Subsequently other measures were taken to break up the 
 feudal-like bands of retainers, and to scatter those desperate 
 bravos, the bankas, who had so long disturbed the tran- 
 quillity of Benares. In the meanwhile Vizier Ali had sought 
 refuge among the forests on the first range of the Hemalaya 
 mountains. There he was joined by freebooters and adven- 
 turers of all kinds. "With lawless bands, amounting to some 
 thousands of men, he soon descended into the eastern dis- 
 trict of Oude, and threw the reigning nabob-vizier and the 
 whole of that kingdom into alarm. But, before he could do 
 much mischief, a British force was upon him, and he was 
 driven back with loss towards the mountain forests. Aban- 
 doned by most of his people, he fled into Eajpootana, and 
 took refuge with the rajah of Jypoor, who, after many scru- 
 ples, the laws of hospitality being held as sacred among the 
 rajpoots, delivered him up to the English, upon condition 
 that they should neither put him to death nor put him in 
 irons or fetters. Yizier Ali was carried through the city of 
 Benares as a prisoner, on the first anniversary of his insur- 
 rection and murders. Being conveyed down to Calcutta, he 
 was lodged in Fort "William, in a bomb-proof chamber, 
 divided by strong iron gratings into three parts. The largest 
 part, in the centre, was occupied by the nabob, and the 
 other two parts were occupied night and day by sentinels, 
 one English and one native. After a long captivity, in this 
 dull cage, he was transferred to a more comfortable prison 
 in the palace built forTippoo Sultaun's family in the fort of 
 Vellore. There the females of his family joined him, and 
 there he died not many years ago.* 
 
 The occurrences at Benares and in Oude, Saadut Ali's con- 
 fession of entire want of confidence in his troops, the invasion 
 of his territory by Vizier Ali, and the constant dread enter- 
 tained of the Afghans, all concurred in fixing the resolution 
 of the governor-general to reduce the mutinous and useless 
 
 proud of his poetical compositions in that language, which Mussulmans 
 only could appreciate. This was not unlikely to have influenced him ir 
 relying on a chief of that religion for his aggrandizement. His deligh' 
 was to repeat a compliment that had been paid him by a former nab' 
 who called him * the nightingale of India.' " 
 
 * ' Vizier Ali Khan, or the Massacre of Benares.' Sir J. F. Davis, u 
 publishing this little volume, has discharged a duty of filial piety, an> 
 has done honour to his father's memory. We wish that other sons woul 
 follow his example, instead of destroying, or altogether neglecting, famil 
 papers and documents. 
 
1801.] AEEANGEMENTS 12^ OUDE. 257 
 
 military establishment of the nabob-vizier, and at the same 
 t;ime to increase still further the efficient force which the 
 Company maintained for the defence of that prince's domi- 
 nions. Saadut Ali, fiiUy sensible of the dangers to which he 
 ivas exposed from internal insurrection and from foreign 
 attack, would gladly have received the additional troops of the 
 Company, but, being as fond of money as of wine, the addi- 
 rional pay which was demanded greatly distressed him, and 
 i>e shuffled and equivocated, like an Indian prince. 
 
 Hereupon Lord Momington ordered the additional force 
 
 to march into the country, and sent his brother, the Hon. 
 
 Henry Wellesley,* to Lucknow, to conclude a treaty by 
 
 vhich a territorial cession should be made to the Company, 
 
 (;qual to tlie payment of the increased subsidiary Ibrce. 
 
 Unable an}^ longer to evade compliance, Saadut Ali signed 
 
 the treaty, allotted some fertile districts, welcomed the new 
 
 ])attalions, and disbanded the rabble rout which had been 
 
 ailed his army. By this cession, the territories of the 
 
 (^om.pany were interposed as a barrier between the dominions 
 
 of the vizier and his foreign enemies ; and, although the 
 
 ompany ma}^ by an improved system of management and 
 
 better secured tranquillity, have raised the value of the 
 
 tlistricts ceded, the actual net receipts of that prince's 
 
 treasury from these districts was not more than the amount 
 
 rhich he had before paid to the Company as a fixed subsidy, 
 
 end mucli less than he had become liable to pay under the 
 
 treaty concluded with Sir John Shore. In the present 
 
 treaty, negotiated by the governor-general's brother, and 
 
 elated in Xovember, 1801, Saadut Ali agreed to introduce, 
 
 ^^ by means of his own officers, into the extensive territories 
 
 jj which remained to him, such a system of administration as 
 
 J should be conducive to the prosperity of his subjects, and to 
 
 jj the security of the lives and property of all the inhabitants. 
 
 jg l^his treaty was final as an arrangement, and productive of 
 
 ^reat good to both contracting parties. It closed all irri- 
 
 ns :ating questions between them ; and it fully provided, under 
 
 in jvery contingency, for the defence of the territories ofOude, 
 
 !j' br, with fourteen or fifteen thousand disciplined troops, 
 
 ^ Acre was little to fear from any enemy that could approach 
 
 If jhc frontiers, and nothing to apprehend from internal 
 
 & 3lots or tumults. The country advanced rapidly in prospe- 
 
 The late Lord Cowley, 
 
258 ABLE IKDIAK [1801-3. 
 
 ritj, and, gratified in liia love of money by an increase of 
 revenue, the nabob-vizier became contented and grateful, 
 proving by actions, as well as by professions, his attachment 
 to the British government. When the war with the Mah- 
 rattas commenced, the governor-general had the satisfaction 
 of receiving the voluntary aid of this prince. Saadut Ali sent 
 as a present a number of fine horses from his stud, sufficient to 
 mount a regiment of dragoons, and contributed, by large 
 loans from his treasury, to the general success of that expen- 
 sive and extensive war. 
 
 The Hon. Henry "VYellesley, after concluding this treaty 
 of Lucknow, proceeded to take charge of the provinces 
 yielded to us, as lieutenant-governor, hi order to eftect a 
 settlement of their boundaries and revenues ; an arduous 
 labour, which he performed in a manner as honourable to 
 his own character as it was advantageous to the public 
 interest and to the prosperity of the native populations. 
 The gross revenue derivable from the territories ceded to 
 us, estimated at one crore and thirty-five lacs of rupees in 
 the treaty of Lucknow, was soon raised considerably, and 
 by means which relieved rather than distressed the people.* 
 
 In India the sword of the warrior and the skill of the 
 diplomatist did only half the work. When the sword was 
 sheathed and the treaties concluded, there remained the 
 more laborious, and, in many instances, the much more 
 difficult task of getting our conquest or diplomatic acquisi- 
 tions into such order as to render them profitable to the 
 Company, popular with the natives, and endurable and 
 strong as possessions. Here great caution and circumspec- 
 tion, an unwearying assiduity, a thorough acquaintance with 
 the languages and dialects, the habits, feelings, prejudices, 
 and capabilities of the natives, a constant intercourse with 
 the people, and administrative abilities of the highest order, 
 vrere required. Most happily for the Company at this 
 moment, and later, such administrators were always found 
 among its civil servants at the moment they were needed ; 
 and, most fortunately for Marquis Wellesley and for his 
 brother, who had to put his annexations in order, he had at 
 his command such men as Sir George Barlow, and others 
 who are long since dead, and Thomas Twining, Esq., 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, ' Sketch of the Political History of India.' Mar- 
 quis Wellesley, ' India Despatches.' ' Auber, * Rise and Progress of the 
 British Power in India.' 
 
L801-3.] ADMINISTEATOES. 259 
 
 wlio yet survives, and retains at a very advanced age tlie 
 faculties of a man of business and of a thorough Indian 
 administrator and statesman * May such men not fail us 
 in the days we live in, or in the times that are to come ! 
 Without them diplomacy will be a waste of paper, time, and 
 ingenuity, and conquest an empty triumph. 
 
 In the Carnatic, as in Oude, affairs could not remain on 
 the footing on which they had been left by Sir John Shore. 
 The nabob, Omdut-ul-Omrah, to obtain money for his own 
 lavish expenses, and his rapacious creditors and mortgagees, 
 to obtain their enormous interests upon the loans they had 
 made to him, were still oppressing and depopulating the 
 Carnatic. Moreover, the most satisfactory evidence was 
 produced to show that Omdut-ul-Omrah, whose conduct 
 during our siege of Seringapatam was very equivocal, had 
 long maintained a secret correspondence in cipherf with 
 Tippoo Sultaun, with objects most hostile to the English ; 
 Lord Cli^e, J the son of the real founder of our Indian em- 
 pire, was now governor of Madras, and he was authorized 
 by Lord Mornington to institute a searching inquiry. The 
 result of this was a decided conviction in Lord Olive's mind 
 that Omdut-ul-Omrah, who owed his tlu-one entirely to us, 
 ought to be deposed. His lordship wrote to the governor- 
 general : 
 
 " With this strong evidence of internal treachery, and of 
 open opposition to our interests in the Carnatic, established 
 by treaty, it is my deliberate opinion, that a further 
 adherence to the letter of the treaty of 1792, while the 
 nabob Omdut-ul-Omrah has been, and now is, perfidiously 
 betraying the spirit and substance of the alliance between 
 him and the Company, would be as inconsistent with the 
 true principles of public faith, as it would be obviously in- 
 compatible with the preservation of our just rights and 
 interests. 
 
 " On these grounds, I have no hesitation in recommending 
 
 * It will give some notion of the extent of the labours of the civil ser- 
 vants employed in organizing the territories annexed by the Marquis Wel- 
 lesley, to state that Mr. Twining had at one time under his charge 11,000 
 native towns and villages. 
 
 t It was discovered by the key to the cipher that the English were 
 designated by the name of" taza wareeds," or new-comers; the nizam 
 by that of " fleech," or, nothing ; and the Mahrattas by that of " pooch," 
 or, contemptible. 
 
 The late Earl Powis. 
 
 S2 
 
260 KEW SETTLEMENT [1801-2. 
 
 to your lordship the immediate assumption of the civil and 
 military government of the Camatic, under such provisions 
 as your lordship may be pleased to authorize for his high- 
 ness the nabob, his highness's family, and the principal 
 officers of his government." 
 
 These also were the decided opinions of the Board of 
 Control and the Court of Directors in England ; and, not 
 long after the perusal of Lord Clive's letter, the governor- 
 general was in possession of instructions from home, autho- 
 rizing the proceedings he and Lord Clive had contemplated. 
 
 Some delays took place through the attention required by 
 Oude, the affairs of which were not yet settled ; and during 
 this delay the condition of the Camatic became worse and 
 worse, the nabob's creditors and officials grinding the 
 faces of the poor inhabitants. On the 28th of May, how- 
 ever, decisive instructions were sent to Lord Clive, who 
 shortly afterwards ordered a detachment of the Company's 
 troops to occupy the chief entrance into the nabob's palace, 
 to preserve order and tranquillity, and to guard against the 
 seizure of any treasure or property for Omdut-ul-Omrah 
 was now sick and believed to be dying, and various members 
 of his family were anticipating a scramble for his property, 
 if not for his musnud as well. The old nabob expressed his 
 satisfaction at the presence of the Company's troops, wdthout 
 which his dying moments would have been disturbed by scenes 
 of violence and bloodshed. He expired on the 15th of July, 
 1801, and thus escaped deposition. Upon certain condi- 
 tions the musnud was offered to his reputed son Hoosseim 
 Ali, who absolutely refused it. It was then offered, under 
 the same conditions, to Azeem-ul-Dowlah. But that prince 
 Avas kept in a most rigorous confinement by the great khans; 
 and these noblemen, evincing a contempt of the Company's 
 authority, privately placed Hoosseim Ali on the musnud (of 
 course without our conditions), and prepared to proclaim 
 him publicly. Upon this contumacy, Lord Clive' gave im- 
 mediate orders to the Company's troops to take instant 
 possession of the palace, and remove all the khans and the 
 guards of the late nabob. The valour of the khans evapo- 
 rated in a moment. IVo resistance was offered ; every part 
 of the palace was occupied; the nabob's guards quietly 
 withdrew ; Azeem-ul-Dowlah was liberated from his confine- 
 ment, and conducted with a guard of honour to Ameer 
 Bayh, another of the nabob's palaces. The liberated prince 
 
1801-2.] IN THE CAENATIC. 261 
 
 was grateful and submissive ; and on the 25tli of July, he 
 agreed to all the conditions demanded by the Company, 
 and concluded a treaty with Colonel Close and Mr. Webb, 
 who acted for Lord Clive and the governor-general. 
 
 By this treaty all the powers of government were de- 
 livered over in perpetuity to the Honourable East-India 
 Company, and were totally and for ever renounced by the 
 nabob. Including all his allowances, nearly one-fifth of the 
 revenues of the Carnatic was made over to the nabob ; and 
 he was relieved from the crushing weight of debt which had 
 been created by his predecessors, which had encumbered 
 the revenues of the country, and which was rapidly destroy- 
 ing aU classes of the inhabitants. The Company engaged 
 to liquidate, by degrees, all such portions of this great debt 
 as should be proved to be just.* 
 
 An end was thus put to that divided rule which, in the 
 Carnatic, as elsewhere, had proved so great a curse ; and the 
 nabob was limited to that sort of life for which alone nabobs 
 were fit a life of form, ceremony, and silver maces ; of indo- 
 lence, show, and parade. Ever since the conquests of the 
 first and great Lord Clive, the rulers of the Carnatic, like 
 those of Bengal and other countries, were virtually nothing 
 but vassals and dependants on the English, without whose aid 
 not one of them could have kept his seat on the musnud, or 
 could have defended his country either from intestine troubles 
 or from foreign invasion. In this light, and in none other, 
 were they considered by their own subjects, and by all their 
 neighbours, their territories were substantially territories 
 conquered by the sword and by policy, although the English 
 chose to exercise the rights of conquest with gentleness and 
 forbearance, and to cover over the real condition of the 
 nabobs with strange metaphysical distinctions and refine- 
 ments. Out of these quibbles sprang innumerable difficul- 
 ties and embarrassments to our governors-general, to our 
 judges of the Supreme Court at Calcutta, and to other func- 
 tionaries ; as well as many woes and long-sufferings to the 
 oppressed and distracted natives, who were often driven 
 to despair by their mock rulers or nabobs, while the real 
 sovereign power, the Company, merely looked on. If the 
 rights of sovereignty had been frankly assumed at the 
 beginning if the Company or British nation had openly 
 
 * Treaties published by the East- India Company. ' Marquis Wel- 
 lesley's Despatches.' Sir John Malcolm, * Political History of India.' 
 
262 SETTLEMENT OF TAIiJOEE. [1801-2. 
 
 proclaimed themselves dejure, what they were de facto, the 
 lords and rulers of Bengal, Oude, the Carnatic, etc., many 
 evils might have been avoided ; if when, by arms or by 
 policy, the English first obtained dominion over these prin- 
 cipalities and powers, they had assumed their proper style 
 and title, instead of calling themselves protectors, allies, 
 auxiliaries, and the like (with a false moderation of language 
 w'hich deceived no one, either in Europe or in Asia), the 
 great Lord Clive, Warren Hastings, and the Marquis Wel- 
 lesley himself, would have been relieved from many false 
 positions, and political actions, not always warranted by their 
 nominal relations with the native princes, would have been 
 reconcilable to the law of nations.* It was not the fault 
 of these illustrious men that a bad system was not altered ; 
 the blame lay at home with the Company, the Court of 
 Directors, and, in the later stages, still more with the Board 
 of Control, the king's government, and most of all, with 
 orators, and mistaken philanthropists in parliament, who 
 were perpetually decrying as tyrannical and inhuman the very 
 measures which were best calculated to give peace and hap- 
 piness to the people of India. 
 
 Tanjore has been mentioned as one of the regions which 
 Lord Momington improved by taking the administration 
 out of the hands of a nabob. In another and distant 
 quarter, a dependent and almost fictitious government was 
 broken up. The nabob of Surat had long owed his political 
 existence to the presidency of Bombay, who had garrisoned 
 the castle of Surat, and had, by money and by other means, 
 sustained and defended him. His arrears of debt were so 
 great, that before Lord Mornington assumed the supreme 
 government in India, the Court of Directors had impatiently 
 called for a settlement, and demanded that the nabob should 
 disband his own undisciplined and mutinous soldiery, and 
 assign to the Company, funds sufficient to maintain three 
 battalions of sepoys. Before any settlement could be made, 
 this nabob died, leaving only an infant son, who followed 
 him to the grave in a few weeks. Then there arose a dis- 
 puted succession, and but for the presence of our troops, the 
 different claimants would have made a civil war. Under 
 the mixed rule, which I have condemned, the district had 
 been kept in a hapless condition ; and the people of Surat 
 
 * * Our Indian Empire.' 
 
1800.] SUEAT ANNEXED. 263 
 
 lad repeatedly applied to the Bombay government for pro- 
 tection against their native rulers, and for security to their 
 property and trade. This was not a place to be left to the 
 misrule and confusion which inseparably accompany a 
 double or divided rule. Though declined from its ancient 
 magnificence, Surat, the capital of Gruzerat, was still one of 
 the most populous cities in all India. It was inhabited by 
 Mussulmans, Hindvis, Parsees, . Jews, Armenians, and 
 Boras, and was frequented, for trade, by people of other 
 religions ; and to preserve tranquillity by checking the 
 fanatical ebidlitions of the followers of so many hostile 
 creeds was a task which had far exceeded the power and 
 faculties of the nabobs. Surat had been for many years 
 the head-quarters of a multiform fanaticism, of anarchy, and 
 of assassination. In 1795, the Mahometan and Hindu inha- 
 bitants waged a bloody war upon one another in the streets, 
 and committed atrocities which scared away many of the more 
 pacific denizens and foreign visitors, upon whose industry 
 and trade tlie prosperity of the city mainly depended. 
 There was no police, no law, no regularity in the collection 
 of the taxes and port duties, no redress for any grievances, 
 except, occasionally, by appeal to tlie British resident or 
 to the presidency of Bombay. In fact, as the governor- 
 general said, the nabobs had proved themselves as incom- 
 petent to conduct the internal affairs of the city as to 
 pro\^de for its external defence. On the 10th of March, 
 1800, the best of the claimants was set aside, with a liberal 
 allowance, and the government and revenues of Surat were 
 assumed by the Company. The change was iiniversally felt 
 by the people as a blessing. 
 
 And if the ancient prosperity of Surat has not been re- 
 stored under the rule of the Company, it has been owing to 
 geogi*aphical situation, to vast changes in manufactures and 
 the lines of trade, and to other accidents, which frequently 
 and in other countries besides India depress one city 
 and district to raise up another. But by the Company's 
 assumption, the reign of law and a good police were 
 established; and now the Hindu performs his religious 
 rites and kneels in his pagoda, the Mussulman calls to 
 prayers from the minaret and prays in his mosque, and 
 the Parsee, the disciple of Zoroaster, worships the Almighty 
 power in the rising and the setting sun, without shedding 
 each other's blood. The Boras, a mysterious sect, believed 
 
264 HELIGIOUS TOLEEATION. [1802- 
 
 by some to be a remnant of the old sect of Assassins, of 
 whom and its chief, the Old ]\f an of the Mountain, so mueli 
 was heard in Europe during the crusades, and the Parsee^?, 
 who had been most obnoxious to all other sects, and mos-t 
 frequently persecuted, are now the most thri\'ing people in 
 the country, and possess between them the proprietorship 
 of most of the houses in Surat. The Boras have at present 
 nothing of the sanguinary temper which, in the middle ages, 
 distinguished the followers of the "old man of the moun- 
 tain." They are in general, like the Parsees, very peaceable 
 and orderly merchants and tradesmen, and have considerable 
 influence and pri\dleges in most of the cities of Central India. 
 At a subsequent period, Surat was greatly indebted to Mr. 
 Mountstuart Elphiiistone.* 
 
 * Bishop Heber, * Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Pro- 
 vinces of India,' &c. 
 
 For curious information about the Assassins, the student is referred to 
 O. C. Wood, ' History of the Assassins, translated from the German of 
 Von Hammer,' 12mo. Lond. 1835 ; and, ' The Dabistan, or School of 
 Manners, translated from the Persian, by David Shea, of the Oriental 
 Department in the Hon. East- India Company's College.'' Published by 
 the Oriental Translation Fund. 
 
1803.] MAHRATTA WAE. 265 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The imminency of a Mahratta war had been apparent 
 ever since tlie arrival of the Marquis Wellesley in India 
 and, indeed, long before that period. With the aid of the 
 French, they had attained to a height of military power 
 which was altogether incompatible with the existence of 
 security and tranquillity in the neighbouring states, and 
 which would have been eminently perilous to our Eastern 
 empire if Bonaparte could at any time have sent a strong 
 armament to India. The fleets of Erance and Spain had not 
 yet been destroyed at Trafalgar ; Bonaparte could as yet dis- 
 pose of great naval means and resources, and as he had what 
 has been called "an Oriental twist in the imagination," and 
 always an eye to the East, it was to be apprehended, any 
 time between the years 1799 and 1805, that he might make 
 a daring attempt in that direction an attempt which would 
 be greatly favoured by his continued possession of the Isle 
 of Erance. 
 
 It has been seen that the great Mahratta chief Scindiah 
 rejected all overtures of friendship with the English, and 
 kept his own sovereign, the peishwa, in a state of miserable 
 subjection, through the great military force he possessed in 
 M. Perron's disciplined troops. Not satisfied with the sub- 
 missiveness of his sovereign, and with the vast power he 
 himself possessed, Scindiah made war upon the poor peishwa, 
 and, with the help of M. Perron and his battahons and 
 formidable artillerj', he drove him out of Poonah, his capital. 
 The dispossessed peishwa applied for assistance to the 
 English, and, escaping to the coast, he put himself under 
 our protection. The moment had now come for breaking 
 up that too great power of the Mahratta confederacy. 
 
 The governor-general had three great objects in view 
 to restore the comparatively pacific and friendly peishwa 
 to destroy or dissipate the disciplined forces which Perron had 
 
266 MAHEATTA WAE. [1803. 
 
 raised as a match for our oaytl sepoys and to defeat Scindiali's 
 vast plans of encroachment and aggrandizement, which were 
 threatening to convulse the whole of India. Hordes of 
 banditti had been for some time daily pouring in from 
 Malwa and Hindustan, to enrol themselves at Poonah, under 
 the banners of Scindiah, who promised them plunder 
 as well as pay. It was impossible that these devouring 
 armies should limit their operations to the Mahratta states 
 or to the contest for the sovereignty of those countries : 
 they must be early forced by want, if not invited by policy, 
 to invade the richer territories of the British government, 
 or the territories of our allies, which were defended only by 
 British arms. Moreover, the powerful rajah of Berar united 
 his forces to those of Scindiah, and other Hindu chiefs 
 engaged to make common cause with him. The scene, too, 
 was now becoming open to French intrigue, and the artful 
 influences of Bonaparte. The governor-general had received 
 intelligence of the peace of Amiens, which would allow the 
 French to revisit India as friends, and then to renew their 
 correspondence and connections with all the enemies of the 
 English. As a statesman, Lord "Wellesley knew that that 
 hollow peace could not be lasting ; but he also knew that it 
 might give time to the French to mature plans for the 
 renewal of the war on the soil of India. If Scindiah were 
 allowed to establish a complete ascendancy over the Mahratta 
 empire, from the banks of the Ganges to the Sea of Malabar 
 and this he would have done had he been left unmolested 
 there could be little doubt in the mind of any man 
 acquainted with the constitution of the army of that chief, 
 and the influence and authority of the French officers by 
 whom it was commanded, that the French nation might in 
 a very few years aid him to the consolidation of a military 
 power which would have struck at the very existence of the 
 British government in India. Scindiah, and his father 
 before him, had owed their power to French officers, to 
 French arms, and to French counsels. The present ruler 
 was so familiarized to their systems, manners, and feelings, 
 as to be almost half a Frenchman himself 
 
 The peishwa, in imploring for English assistance, had 
 engaged to receive a subsidiary English force, and to cede, 
 for its subsistence and pay, territories rendering an annual 
 revenue of twenty-six lacs of rupees. The peishwa at the 
 same time engaged to identify his interests with those of 
 
1803.] TEEATT OF BASSEIN. 267 
 
 the Company, and to conclude a defensiye alliance on the 
 basis of the treatj^ of Hyderabad, which Lord "Wellesley had 
 concluded with the nizam of the Deckan. 
 
 In the treaty of Bassein, as finally concluded on the 31st 
 of December, 1802, these conditions were inserted. More- 
 over the peishwa renounced all claims to Surat and to the 
 other districts in Gruzerat which had recently been assumed 
 by the Company ; he agreed to abide by the arbitration of 
 the Company in all its unsettled disputes with the nizam ; 
 and he also engaged to discharge from his service any Euro- 
 peans that belonged to nations hostile to the English, or 
 that were discovered meditating injury or carrying on 
 intrigues injurious to the interests of the English. In 
 return, the English government bound itself to furnish to 
 the peishwa a subsidiary force of six battalions of native 
 infantry, with a complement of field-pieces and European 
 artillerymen. The treaty of Bassein was confirmed by the 
 governor-general on the 11th of February, 1803. 
 
 By the treaty of Amiens, Pondicherry and their other 
 factories had been restored to the French. In taking 
 repossession of Pondicherry, the officers of that nation 
 acted with consummate imprudence, betraying the intentions 
 of their master to make that city the centre of political 
 intrigue, to sap the power of the Company while the peace 
 lasted, and on the renewal of war to contend once more 
 with the English for dominion over the East.* 
 
 * The views of the French government in resuming these Indian pos- 
 sessions under the treaty of Amiens, were fully developed in a memoir 
 drawn up by Monsieur Lefebvre, an officer attached to the staff that was 
 formed for Pondicherry. It pointed out the possibility of a French army 
 reaching India by way of Egypt and the Red Sea. While the English 
 would be directing all their attention to defeat the advance of this arma- 
 ment from the west, one secret expedition could be prepared to proceed 
 from Spain by way of Mexico to Manilla ; and another secret expedition, 
 to be provided by the Dutch, could proceed by the Cape of Good Hope 
 to the Spanish islands in the Indian Ocean, and from thence to Trinco- 
 malee, in Ceylon, a port of the greatest importance to the English navy. 
 It was calculated that these three joint expeditions, aided by the Mah- 
 rattas and other native powers inimical to the English, must inflict an 
 irreparable blow on the interests of Great Britain in India ; and that, if 
 those interests were once destroyed, the invasion and conquest of England 
 would be easy achievements. According to M. Lefebvre's j^rojet, the 
 French and their auxiliaries, on arriving in Hindustan, were to declare 
 that they came to give liberty and independence to the native princes, to 
 liberate the Great Mogul from thraldom, and to reconstruct the once 
 magnificent empire of Timour. 
 
268 GEN. AVELLESLET AT POONAII. [1803. 
 
 Immediatelj after the ratification of tlie treaty of Bassein, 
 the Madras army, under G-eneral Stuart, was ordered to 
 advance into the Mahratta territory for the purpose of re-in- 
 stating the peishwa, and the governor-general's brother, 
 who had been advanced to the rank of major-general, was 
 appointed to command a select corps in advance, with which 
 he was to make a dash upon Poonah. Having received, on 
 the road, information that it was intended to burn Poonah 
 on the approach of the English, Greneral AVeUesley, leaving 
 his infantry behind, pushed on with his cavalry, and, perform- 
 ing a march of sixty miles in thirty hours, reached that 
 town on the 20th of April, and saved it from destruction. 
 The Prench disciplined battalions were at a distance, the 
 Mahrattas hostile to their prince retired without fighting, 
 those well-disposed towards him welcomed the English, and, 
 in the following month of May, our ally the peishwa re- 
 entered his capital. 
 
 It was in this beginning of the Mahratta campaigns, and 
 tlirough means which will afterwards be explained, that 
 G-eneral Wellesley, by his astonishingly rapid movements, 
 made a new era in our Indian warfare. To use his own words 
 
 " We marched to Poonah from Seringapatam, the distance 
 being nearly 600 miles, in the worst season of the year, 
 through a country which had been destroyed by Holkar's 
 army, with heavy guns, at the rate upon an average, of 
 thirteen and a half miles a day ; and if the twelve days which 
 we halted on the Toomdura for orders be excluded, we 
 arrived at Poonah in two months from the time we marched. 
 On this march we lost no draught-cattle. I remained in 
 the neighbourhood of Poonah, in a country which deserves 
 the name of a desert, for six weeks ; and then marched 
 again with the train in the same state as to numbers as 
 when it left Seringapatam, and the troops and cattle were 
 in the field during the monsoon."* 
 
 After some Yerj fruitless negotiations with Scindiah, 
 Greneral Wellesley marched from Poonah to the north, and 
 took by escalade the strong town of Ahmednughur. Nearly 
 at the same time G-eneral Lake, in command of a part of the 
 Bengal army, marched towards Delhi, and other forces were 
 advancing from different points against the Mahrattas. As 
 in the days of Warren Hastings, immense tracts of country 
 
 * * Wellington Despatches.' 
 
1803.] BATTLE OF ASSATE. 269 
 
 were traversed by our different columns, and combined 
 movements were executed with far more precision and 
 rapidity. Witb great wisdom the governor-general had 
 given to Lake in Hindustan, and to G-eneral Wellesley in 
 the Deckan, most ample political, as well as military power. 
 They could fight or negotiate as they chose. 
 
 On the 21st of August, General Wellesley crossed the 
 Godavery river, and entered Aurungabad on the 29th. The 
 enemy manifested an intention to cross the river to the 
 eastward, and steal a march upon Hyderabad, the capital of 
 our ally the nizam, which had been left rather bare of 
 troops ; but they were prevented by AVellesley rapidly 
 marching along the left bank of the river, and placing him- 
 self between them and that city. 
 
 Scindiah, who had an immense mass of irregular cavalry, 
 and whose infantry were very lightly equipped while both 
 horse and foot lived only on plunder, and carried no maga- 
 zines with them was enabled, for more than a month, to 
 avoid a general engagement. He dreaded the name of 
 Wellesley and the discipline of oiu' troops ; and he only 
 thought of carrying on a predatory warfare, supporting his 
 men at the expense of the subjects of the nizam and other 
 allies of the English, and wearing out our troops by conti- 
 nual marches and partial affrays. 
 
 About the middle of September General Wellesley learned 
 that the Mahratta leader had been reinforced by sixteen 
 battalions of regular infantry, commanded by French offi- 
 cers, and a large train of artillery, and that the whole of his 
 force was assembled near the banks of the Kaitna river. On 
 the 21 st of September, Wellesley had a conference with 
 Colonel Stevenson, who had come up with the nizam' s 
 auxiliary force, now (thanks to the governor-general's 
 arrangements) almost entirely composed of our disciplined, 
 faithful, and brave sepoys. A combined attack on the enemy 
 was at once concerted. 
 
 On the 22nd Colonel Stevenson took the western route, 
 and Wellesley the eastern, round the hiUs between Budna- 
 poor and Jaulna. They expected to join forces and attack 
 the enemy early on the morning of the 24th. But on the 
 23rd the general received a report that Scindiah and the 
 rajah of Berar had moved off that morning with their 
 myriads of horse, and that their infantry were about to 
 follow, but were as yet in camp, at the distance of about six 
 
270 BATTLE or ASSAYE. [1803. 
 
 miles from liim. General Wellesley therefore determined 
 to march upon the infantry and engage it at once. He sent a 
 messenger to Colonel Stevenson, who was at the moment 
 about eight miles off on his left, to acquaint him with his 
 intention and to direct his advance with all possible rapidity ; 
 he then moved forward with the 19th light dragoons and three 
 regiments of native cavalry to reconnoitre. His infantry, 
 consisting of only two British and five sepoy battalions, 
 followed with all their speed. After he had ridden about 
 four miles, "VYellesley, from an elevated plain, saw not only 
 the infantry, but the whole Mahratta force, consisting of 
 about 50,000 men, encamped on the north side of the Kaitna, 
 where the banks of that river were very steep and rocky. 
 Their right, consisting of cavalry, extended to Bokerdon ; 
 their left, consisting of infantry, with ninety pieces of artil- 
 lery, lay near the fortified village of Assaye, which has given 
 its name to the memorable battle. jS'o thought of retreat 
 was entertained. "VYellesley resolved to attack the infantry 
 on its left and rear, and for that purpose he moved his little 
 army to a ford a little beyond the enemy's left, leaving the 
 Mysore and other irregular cavalry to watch the Mahratta 
 cavalry, and crossing the river only with his regular horse 
 and infantry. He passed the ford, ascended the steep bank, 
 and formed his men in three lines, two of infantry and the 
 third of horse. This was effected under a brisk cannonade 
 from the enemy's artillery. Scindiah, or the European officer 
 who directed his movements, promptly made a correspond- 
 ing change in his line, giving a new front to his infantry, 
 which was now made to rest its right on the river and its 
 left upon the village of Assaye and the Juah stream, which 
 flowed in a parallel direction Avith the Kaitna. Scindiah' s 
 numerous and well-served cannon did terrible execution 
 among "VYellesley' s advancing lines, killing men and bul- 
 locks, and drowning the weak sound of his scanty artiller\ 
 At one moment such a gap was made by a cannon-ball in tlu 
 English right that some of the Mahratta cavalry attempted 
 to charge through it ; but the British cavalry in the third 
 line came up and drove the Mahrattas back with great 
 slaughter, Einding his artillery of little or no use (the 
 guns could not be brought up for lack of bullocks), General 
 "Wellesley gave orders to leave it in the rear, and bade the 
 infantry charge with the bayonet. His steady, resolute 
 advance in the teeth of their guns had already awed the 
 
1803.] GREAT YICTOEY. 27l 
 
 Mahrattas, wlio would not stand to meet the collision of the 
 bright English steel : their infantry gave way and abandoned 
 their terrible guns. One body of them formed again, and 
 presented a bold front; but Lieutenant- Colonel Maxwell 
 charged them with the British cavalry, broke and dispersed 
 them, and was killed in the moment of victory. Wellesley's 
 sepoys having proceeded too far in pursuit, many of Scin- 
 diah's artillerymen, who had thrown themselves down 
 among the carriages of their gims as though they were dead, 
 got to their feet again and turned their pieces against the 
 rear of the advancing sepoys ; and at the same time the 
 Mahratta cavalry, which had been hovering round throughout 
 the battle, were still near. But Maxwell's exploit speedily 
 led to the silencing of this straggling artillery fire, and to 
 the headlong flight of Scindiah's disciplined infantry, who 
 went off, and left ninety pieces of cannon, nearly all brass 
 and of the proper calibres, in the hands of the conqueror. 
 G-eneral "Wellesley led the 78th British infantry in person 
 against the village of Assaye, which was not cleared without 
 a desperate combat. It was near dark night when the firing- 
 ceased. 
 
 The splendid victory cost G-eneral "Wellesley twenty-two 
 officers and 386 men killed, and fifty-seven officers and 1,526 
 men wounded : excluding the irregular cavalry which re- 
 mained on the other side of the river, and had not been 
 engaged, the total number of killed and wounded amounted 
 to nearly one-third of his force. The general himself had 
 two horses killed under him, one shot and the other piked ; 
 every one of his staff-officers had one or two horses killed, and 
 his orderly's head was knocked oft' by a cannon-ball as he rode 
 close by his side. The enemy, who fled towards the Adjun- 
 tee ghaut, through which they had passed into the Deckan, 
 left 1,200 dead, and a great number badly wounded, on the 
 field of battle.* Great was the increase of fame to the 
 Company's troops. 
 
 The native cavalry of Fort St. George emulated the bra- 
 very and stamina of that splendid regiment the 19th light 
 dragoons. At the most critical moment of the battle, which 
 still ranks amongst the hardest fought of those that have 
 been gained by the illustrious Wellington, the British 
 dragoons, when making their extremest efforts, saw their 
 
 * * Wellington Despatches.' 
 
272 lake's victory keae delhi. [1803. 
 
 Asiatic fellow-soldiers " keep pace for pace and blow for 
 every blow."* 
 
 Colonel Stevenson, who had encountered some unexpected 
 obstacles on his route, arrived at Assaye early on the 24th, 
 and was immediately despatched after the flying enemy. 
 
 While these things were doing in the south, Gleneral 
 Lake continued both his advance upon Delhi and a corre- 
 spondence, which had been commenced with M. Perron, who 
 was now finding that his troops were dispirited and disaf- 
 fected. Yet the garrison of Alighur, the ordinary residence 
 of Perron, and his principal military depot, made a desperate 
 resistance, and did not yield the fort to Lake (on the 4th of 
 September) until 2,000 of them had perished. On the very 
 same day five companies of Lake's sepoys, who had been 
 left with only one gun to occupy a distant position, were 
 surrounded by a cloud of cavalry, commanded by a French- 
 man of the name of Pleury,and were compelled, after consum- 
 ing their ammunition, to surrender to the said Pleury, who 
 instantly disappeared with them in the wild country behind 
 the Jumna. On the fall of Alighur, M. Perron made good 
 terms with General Lake, quitted the service of Scindiah, 
 and retired with his family and effects to Lucknow, decla- 
 ring that the treachery of the Mahrattas and the ingratitude 
 of his European officers had convinced him that further 
 resistance to the British arms was useless. The governor- 
 general attached great importance to the withdrawing of this 
 very able French adventurer. 
 
 On the 11th of September Oeneral Lake, who had resumed 
 his march upon Delhi, was informed that the army, which 
 had belonged to Perron, and which was now commanded by 
 another Frenchman, had crossed the Jumna from Delhi, under 
 cover of night, with the intention of fighting a battle for the 
 defence of the ancient capital of the Great Moguls, but which 
 was now the prison of Shah Alum, the feeble representative of 
 those Mussuluman monarch s and conquerors. Lake's troops 
 were fatigued with a long march, and oppressed by the exces- 
 sive heat of the weather, when they reached their ground of 
 encampment, about six miles from Delhi ; and they had 
 scarcely pitched their tents before they were attacked by 
 some of the Frenchman's powerful squadron. This officer, 
 named Louis Bourquieu, had 19,000 men under his com- 
 
 * ' Quarterly Review,' vol. xviii. 
 
1803.] EXPLLSTON OF THE FEENCH. 273 
 
 mand ; and he liad posted his main body on a rising ground, 
 with swamps on either flank, so that it was only his front 
 which could be attacked, and that front was defended by a 
 line of intrenchments and almost as many guns as were 
 turned against "Wellesley at Assaye. Lake had only 4,500 
 men. By some ingenious movements he tempted the enemy 
 from their heights and intrenchments down to the plain ; 
 and, when they thought he was about to fly from the 
 field, he turned short upon them with one volley, and then 
 with the bayonet. They could not stand the charge : they 
 ran towards their guns, which they had brought down to 
 the plain, and which opened a tremendous &e of round, 
 grape, and chain shot. But another volley and another 
 bayonet-charge drove them from their now exposed pieces ; a 
 charge of Lake's cavalry, and some rounds from his flying 
 artillery, completed the debacle ; and the enemy fled beyond 
 the Jumna, lea\ing behind them 3,000 or 4,000 killed, 
 wounded, or prisoners, sixty-eight cannon, a great quantity 
 of ammunition, and their military chest. While it lasted, 
 the affair was very hot : G-eneral Lake had his horse shot 
 under him, and nearly 400 of his people were laid low by 
 the grape and chain shot. 
 
 On the next morning Lake encamped opposite the city of 
 Delhi, which, together with the fortress, was evacuated by 
 those who held the Mogul in thraldom. On the 14th of 
 September, Louis Bourquieu and four other French officers 
 surrendered as prisoners of war in the British camp. On the 
 16th Greneral Lake paid a visit to Shah Alum, who had first 
 come upon the stage in the time of the great Lord Clive. 
 The Mogul, who was now old, and blind, and miserably 
 poor, received Lake as a deliverer, and gave him, which was 
 about aU he could give, a series of sounding oriental titles ; 
 as, "The Sword of the State," "Tlie Hero of the Land," " The 
 Lord of the Age," and "The Victorious in War." The 
 descendant of the great Timour had some reason to rejoice 
 at being received into British protection ; Scindiah had 
 tyrannized over him in the most barbarous manner, and 
 before Scindiah had gotten possession of his person and 
 dominions, a chief named Grholaum Khadur had struck out 
 one of his eyes with his own dagger. 
 
 Another of the French adventurers surrendered, and now 
 no man of any military note or ability, of that nation, re- 
 mained in this part of India. 
 
 T 
 
274 GREAT BATTLE [1803. 
 
 I^rom Delhi Greneral Lake marclied on to Agra, where he 
 arrived on the 4th of October. On the 17th the fortress of 
 Agra was surrendered to hini. 
 
 So vast were the resources of Scindiah that he had been 
 enabled to send seventeen disciplined battalions and more 
 than 4,000 horse to endeavour to regain possession of Delhi, 
 while he was engaged in besieging the fortress of Agra. 
 On the 27th of October, when we had garrisoned and se- 
 cured that fortress, Lake started in quest of this new enemy. 
 The rains were falling heavily, the roads were in a wretched 
 state, and at some points they were inundated by the 
 Mahrattas, who had cut the embankments of great reser- 
 voirs ; but speed was necessary, and both British and 
 native troops exerted themselves to the utmost, and, having 
 the rest of his forces behind him, Lake, on getting near the 
 Mahrattas, pushed forward with his cavahy alone, and 
 marched from midnight on the 31st of October, till seven 
 o'clock the next morning. Then he found the enemy well 
 posted, with their right upon a stream, their left on the 
 village of Laswaree, and with their front garnished with 
 seventy-two pieces of artillerj". Lake's foremost brigade 
 came in contact with the enemy's left, and drove it in and 
 penetrated into the village of Laswaree, which has given 
 its name to the battle.* But in the village they were exposed 
 to a terrible fire of artillery and musketry ; Colonel Vande- 
 leur fell, and Lake thought it prudent to draw off the brigade. 
 Other brigades, who had attacked at other points, were 
 also obhged to faU back, but they carried away with them 
 several of the Mahratta guns. 
 
 Our infantry and artillery, which Lake had left behind, 
 had started on his track three hours after midnight, and 
 had continued to march with such spirit, that they made 
 twenty-five miles in less than eight hours, and joined him 
 and his cavalry a little before eleven o'clock in the day. At 
 their appearance the enemy offered, upon certain conditions, 
 to surrender their guns and retire. Lake, anxious to stop 
 the eff'usion of blood, granted the conditions, but, seeing that 
 the Mahrattas hesitated, he gave them one hour to decide 
 whether they would accept the terms or fight. The hour 
 expired, and then the real battle began. 
 
 On the side of the British the brunt was borne by the 
 
 * At first this aflfair was called the battle of Cassowly. See ' Welling- 
 ton Despatches.' 
 
1803.] OF liASWAEEE. 275 
 
 king's 76th regiment and a battalion and five companies of 
 sepoys, who had to sustain a tremendous fire of canister 
 shot, and a massive charge of cavaby. " This handful of 
 heroes," as Lake called them, though thinned by the enemy's 
 artillery, stood firm, and repulsed the Mahratta horse. 
 Then Major Griffiths v^as sent at the head of the 29tli 
 dragoons to sweep away that numerous cavalry, a duty 
 which he performed thoroughly, but not without losing his 
 own life, being struck by a cannon-ball. Then followed the 
 terrible bayonet-charge of the British infantry, the right 
 wing of which was led by Major-Greneral Waare, until his 
 head was carried ofi' by another cannon-shot. For a time 
 the enemy disputed every point foot by foot, only giving 
 way when the bayonets were at their breast, and their own 
 captured guns were turned against them. The Mahratta 
 infantry fought really like disciplined soldiers, and did honour 
 to M. Perron, who had the training of them. Even when 
 borne down, they attempted to make a retreat in good order ; 
 but this attempt was frustrated by a brilliant charge made 
 by the 27th dragoons and one of our regiments of native 
 cavalry. This charge finished the affair. The mass of the 
 enemy either fled from the field or cried for quarter and 
 surrendered; and all the artillery, all the baggage, and nearly 
 everything belonging to them, fell into the hands of the 
 victors. With the exception of 2,000, who surrendered, 
 their seventeen disciplined battalions were destroyed. So 
 perished the Mahratta "Invincibles of the Deckan." * It 
 was calculated that the dead alone on the field did not fall 
 short of 7,000. Except a portion of their cavalry and some 
 broken infantry, who concealed themselves among the bazar 
 people, none of Scindiah's Mahrattas escaped. The English 
 loss amounted to 172 killed, 652 wounded. General Lake, 
 who had personally led the charge of cavalr}'' in the morning 
 before the infantry came up, who had afterwards led on the 
 
 * ** The seventeen battalions annihilated at Laswaree were called the 
 * Dectan Invincibles,' and were considered as the flower of Scindiah's 
 army, which altogether had made immense and rapid strides towards the 
 point of perfection of the best of European troops. Throughout this 
 eventful Mahratta war every conflict gave evidence of this improvement, 
 which was attributable to the connection of the natives with the French, 
 whose energies, address, and abilities were exerted to the utmost in 
 exasperating the chiefs against the English, and in forming their subjects 
 into hardy and discipUned soldiers, with the view of thereby overthrowing 
 our dominion in the East." Major Thorn, ' Memoir of the War,' &g. 
 
 t2 
 
276 BATTLE OF ARGATJM. [1803. 
 
 76th, and who had conducted nearly every operation of the 
 day, had two horses shot under him, and saw his son, acting 
 as his aide-de-camp, badly wounded by his side.* 
 
 But Lake had now defeated, routed, and annihilated that 
 army of Perron which had caused the governor-general such 
 great and reasonable alarm ; he had placed in the hands of 
 the English nearly all the extensive territories watered by 
 the Jumna; and between his exertions and those of Greneral 
 Wellesley, the power of Scindiah was utterly shattered 
 before the end of the year. 
 
 Shortly after his splendid victory at Assaye, Wellesley 
 re-opened his campaign with vigour, and Scindiah's tovois, 
 castles, and fortified posts fell, one by one, into his hands, 
 in the course of October and November. Towards the end of 
 November Scindiah prayed for and obtained a truce ; but his 
 ally, the rajah of Berar, still kept the field in great force, 
 and it was suspected, or rather it was known, that Scindiah 
 was negotiating only to gain time for bringing up more troops. 
 Under these circumstances. General Wellesley determined 
 to bring on, if possible, a second decisive battle. Effecting 
 a junction with Colonel Stevenson, who was close to the 
 heels of the Berar army, on the 28th of November, he 
 advanced in full force against the enemy, who retreated 
 before him, covering their rear with their innumerable 
 irregular cavalry. These movements were continued on the 
 29th, Wellesley' s Mysore cavalry driving the Mahrattas 
 before them ; but having arrived within a short distance of 
 Argaum (a small village in the province of Berar), our 
 troops were ordered to halt, and they were beginning to 
 encamp, when a report came in that the enemy's cavalry 
 was vastly increased, and that our Mysoreans in front were 
 giving ground. A support was at once ordered out, and, 
 proceeding at its head, Greneral Wellesley soon beheld, not 
 the army of Berar alone, but the united armies of Scindiah 
 and the Berar rajah. Although the day was far spent, our 
 general determined to attack on the instant. The British 
 line advanced in the best order. A large body of Persian 
 mercenaries in the service of the rajah attacked our 
 
 * Major William Thorn, captain 25th light dragoons, ' Memoir of the 
 War in India, conducted by General Lord Lake, Commander-in-Chief, 
 and Major-General Sir Arthur Wellesley (Duke of Wellington), from its 
 commencement in 1803, to its Termination in 1806, on the Banks of the 
 Hyphasis,' &c. 
 
1803.] SIEGE OF GAWIL-GHUH. 277 
 
 74tli and 78tli regiments, and, by so doing, were entirely 
 destroyed; Scindiali's cavalry charged one of our sepoy 
 regiments, and was repulsed ; and then the whole Mahratta 
 line retired in disorder, leaving thirty-eight pieces of cannon 
 and aU their ammunition on the field. The British cavalry 
 pursued the enemy for several miles, taking many elephants, 
 camels, and much baggage. In this victory of Argaum, 
 gained on the 29th of November, our loss, in killed, wounded, 
 and missing, was about 400. On this day Greneral Wellesley 
 was on horseback from six in the morning till nearly twelve 
 at night.* 
 
 That indefatigable commander now determined to lose 
 no time in commencing the siege of Gawil-Grhur, one of 
 the strongest fortresses in India, situated on a lofty rock, in 
 a range of mountains between the sources of the rivers 
 Poorna and Taptee. The chief management of the siege was 
 intrusted to Colonel Stevenson, the general covermg the 
 operations with his own division and all the cavalry. It 
 took Stevenson from the 7th of December to the 12th to 
 reach the ground ; and during those j&ve days the troops 
 went through a series of laborious services, such as nobody 
 with the army had ever vritnessed before. The heavy 
 ordnance and stores were dragged by hand over mountains 
 and through ra\ines for nearly the whole distance, by roads 
 or tracks, which it had been previously necessary for the 
 soldiers to cut and make for themselves. Yet our people 
 displayed the utmost cheerfulness as well as perseverance. 
 
 I have endeavoured to do justice to the like exertions 
 when made by Colonel Fullerton's army in the Malabar 
 country, and here, in the same spirit, I call attention to the 
 following tribute of praise : " We have been accustomed to 
 read with wonder the surprising efforts made by IN'apoleon 
 and his troops in their campaigns when advancing towards 
 Italy ; but, whilst the astonishment caused by contemplating 
 such persevering exertions is by no means lessened, feelings 
 of equal, if not of increased surprise, are created, when we 
 
 * 'Wellington Despatches.' Major Thorn, 'Memoir of the War in 
 India,' &c. 
 
 In a private letter to his brother, the Hon. Henry Wellesley, the 
 general said : " From unavoidable circumstances we did not begin the 
 action till late in the day, and not more than twenty minutes' sun re- 
 mained, when I led on the British cavalry to the charge. But they made 
 up for it by continuing the pursuit by moonlight; and all the troops 
 were under arms till a very late hour in the night." 
 
278 MAHBATTAS EEDTTCED. [1803. 
 
 reflect that the efforts of which we are now speaking were 
 made by Europeans in an eastern climate, and bj natives 
 whose bodily strength and moral courage were far inferior ; 
 in the face, too, of an enemy sometimes strongly intrenched, 
 and during heat so excessive as to render the fatigue of 
 such laboiu" almost insupportable. These are some of the 
 unheeded toils and exertions by which our empire has been 
 acquired, and from whence such wealth has been derived."* 
 After all these toils, there was that of breaking ground 
 before the formidable fortress. But by the 12th December, 
 at night, ground was broken and two batteries were erected 
 in front of the north face of the fort of Gawil-G-hur. The 
 enemy's garrison was numerous : it consisted of Eajpoots, 
 and of a great body of regular infantry, who had escaped 
 from the battle of AJ^gaum, and who were all well armed 
 with English muskets and bayonets ; but on the 15th, some 
 breaches being made, and the outer walls carried by storm, 
 the light infantry of the 94th regiment, headed by Captain 
 Campbell, fixed their ladders against the inner fort, in which 
 no breach whatever had been made, gallantly escaladed the 
 high wall, and opened the gate for the storming party, who, 
 in a trice, were entire masters of every part of the fortress. 
 Vast numbers of the garrison were killed, particularly at 
 the different gateways : their general or commander, Beny 
 Sing, and his killadar, were found buried, like Tippoo at 
 Seringapatam, amidst a heap of slain near a gateway ; and 
 some of the Rajpoot chiefs, according to the custom of 
 their country, had put their wives and daughters to death 
 before going out to meet their own.f On the 17th of 
 December, or two days after the fall of Gawil-Grhur, the 
 rajah of Berar signed the conditions of peace which Wel- 
 lesley dictated, ceding to the Company the important pro- 
 vince of Cuttack, with the district of Balasore, and dismiss- 
 ing all the Erench or other European officers in his service. 
 Before the rajah ratified the treaty. General Wellesley had 
 made three marches towards Nagpoor, " in order to keep 
 alive the impression under which it was evident that the 
 treaty had been concluded." As soon as Scindiah found 
 that the rajah had made peace, he began to be alarmed, 
 and to implore to be allowed to negotiate ; and, on the 30th 
 
 * P. Auber, 'Rise and Progress of the British Power in India.' 
 t 'Wellington Despatches,' and Journal of Major- General Sir Jasper 
 Nicholls, as quoted by Colonel Gurwood. 
 
.] WOllSiDEIlI'trij MARCHES. 279 
 
 of December, he signed a treaty of peace, by wliicli lie 
 yielded to the Company all the country between the JumHa 
 and the Ganges, besides numerous forts, territories, rights, 
 and interests ; engaging to conform to the treaties which 
 the Company had made with the peishwa, to recognize the 
 right of the peishwa to the territories which the Company 
 had put him in possession of, and, in case of any difference 
 afterwards between him and the peishwa, to admit the 
 mediation, arbitration, and final decision of the Company. 
 Sciudiah also agreed to dismiss such European officers as he 
 yet had, and (as the rajah of Berar had also done) " never 
 to take or retain in his service any Prenchman, or the 
 subject of any other European or American power, the 
 government of which may be at war with the British govern- 
 ment ; or any British subject, whether European or native 
 of India, without the consent of the British government." * 
 
 In the course of these widely-extending campaigns, our 
 separate co-operating corps had been moved with a rare 
 regularity and intelligence ; the staff officers had surveyed 
 the country with a much improved skill ; the armies made 
 no blunders through that want of proper information which 
 had so often been felt elsewhere ; the marches had been 
 more rapid as well as more certain ; and, altogether, there 
 was visible an immense improvement, which few or none 
 will dispute was mainly due to the military genius of Arthur 
 Wellesley. 
 
 In a private letter to one of his brothers, the great and 
 accomplished soldier said at the time " The operations of 
 this war have afforded numerous instances of improvement 
 in our means of communication, of obtaining intelligence, 
 and, above all, of movement. Marches such as I have made 
 in this war were never known or thought of before. In the 
 last eight days of the month of Octol3er, I marched above 
 120 miles, and passed through two ghauts with heavy guns, 
 and all the equipments of the troops, and this without injury 
 to the efficiency of the army ; and in the few days previous 
 to this battle (Argaum), when I had determined to go into 
 Berar, I never moved less than between seventeen and 
 twenty miles, and I marched twenty-six miles on the day 
 on which it was fought." t 
 
 The Mahrattas and their allies were rapid foes. Nearly 
 
 * ' Treaties of the East-India Company with Native Powers,' &c. 
 t 'Wellington Despatches.* 
 
280 GEEAT IMPEOYEMENT [1803. 
 
 everything had depended upon our being quick enough to 
 keep pace with them. The great danger in Indian warfare 
 is that of not being able to bring the enemy to action. 
 Hyder Ali well knew the advantages of this Parthian 
 mode. When an English commander, wear}' of pm*suing 
 him, reproached him for flying before so small a force, 
 Hyder replied, " You will understand my mode of war in 
 time. Shall I risk my cavalry, which cost 1,000 rupees a 
 horse, against your cannon-balls that cost two pice ? JS'o ; 
 I will march your troops till their legs shall become the 
 size of their bodies. Ton shall not have a blade of grass 
 or a drop of water. I shall hear you ever}" time your drum 
 beats, but you shall not know where I am once a month. 
 I will give your army battle ; but it must be when I please, 
 and not when you desire it."* Hyder Ali kept his word ; 
 and Scindiah's army, abounduig in cavalry and in transport 
 cattle, seemed disposed to act upon this system. But the 
 active mind of the English general had long been intent 
 on the means of improving the cattle of his army, without 
 which there could be no rapid movements. Fastidious and 
 inferior intellects had despised such subjects ; but his talk 
 and his thoughts had long been about oxen. Like his then 
 commander-in-chief, Greneral Harris, he had grieved over 
 the miserable slow marches of the army in the last cam- 
 paign against Tippoo. This slow progress was entirely 
 owing to the bad system then in force for the draught and 
 carriage departments. This defect in the organization of 
 our Indian army had been seriously felt and complained of 
 by ever}^ succeeding commander-in-chief, from the time of 
 Sir Eyre Coote to that of Lord Comwallis ; but nothing had 
 been done to remedy it. Sir Eyre Coote had said, after 
 the battle of Cuddalore, " If Hyder Ali, buoyed up with 
 former success, had not come to seek us, I could not have 
 moved the army to follow him; and this is a situation so 
 tr}'ing to the responsible military commander, that an officer 
 of character shudders at the idea of being placed in such a 
 predicament." "With every new Avar the wild and small 
 cattle of the Carnatic were to be purchased, at whatever 
 price, and attached to the guns without previous training 
 or experienced drivers ; and it was chiefly owing to this 
 wretched system, and to the great superiority of the Mysore 
 
 * Southey, in ' Quarterly Review,' No. xxv. 
 
1803.] IX OUE DEAUaHT CATTLE. 281 
 
 cattle, that Hyder and his son had defeated every attempt 
 made by our commanders to OA^ertake them in the field. 
 This most serious defect was effectually removed after the 
 capture of Seringapatam, for Greneral Harris immediately 
 recommended the use and protection of Tippoo's admirable 
 establishment of cattle, which was unequalled in India ; and 
 General Wellesley joined in sending urgent representations 
 to his brother the governor-general, and in making every 
 possible effort to keep up and increase the breed, and to 
 give the animals proper training and proper drivers. " It 
 was this establishment which enabled Hyder Ali to march 
 100 miles in two days and a half, to the relief of Chillum- 
 brum, and, after every defeat, to draw off his guns in face 
 of his enemies ; which enabled Tippoo Sultaun to cross the 
 peninsula in one month for the recovery of Bednore, and to 
 march sixty-three miles in two days before G-eneral Medows. 
 
 It was also this establishment which enabled 
 
 G-eneral Wellesley to effect those movements of unexampled 
 rapidity which are the admiration of every military man." * 
 When the war -^'as over, and when General Wellesley was 
 about to return to England, he most earnestly recommended 
 the breeding establishment in Mysore to the commander-in- 
 chief, Lieutenant- General Stuart ; and from this time the 
 breed of cattle began to be not only prodigiously increased, 
 but greatly improved. 
 
 " The cattle of this estabhshment are as different from all 
 other Indian cattle, as the Arab is from the country horse ; 
 and as superior to them not merely in their blood and con- 
 figuration, but their strength and energy, their quick step, 
 power of endurance, and of keeping their condition under 
 great privation. Heavier and larger cattle may be found, 
 perhaps, better calculated for the slow movement of heavy 
 ordnance, but none that can be compared to them in spirit 
 and activity, that, like them, would make forced marches 
 with troops, withstand all changes of weather, or be so fresh 
 at the end of a campaign. This breed is peculiar to Mysore, 
 and takes its name from the village of Hagglewaddy. Its 
 origin is beyond tradition, but it has ever been in the hands 
 of the ruling power, on account of its superior qualities. 
 
 * ' Memorandum on the Establishment of Draught Bullocks, and the 
 Breeding Establishment in the Mysore,' by Col. M. Cubbon, in * Ap- 
 pendix to Life and Services of General Lord Harris,' by the Right Hon. 
 S. R. Lushington. 
 
282 GENEKAL WELLESLEY [1803. 
 
 These cattle, by the regulations of the Indian government, 
 are at the disposal of the commander-in-chief for the 
 time being, and their distribution rests with him. The 
 advantage of possessing such an establishment, in time of 
 war, is beyond all calculation, and has often been felt at 
 critical moments. It was owing to the superb bullocks fur- 
 nished by it, that Major-Greneral Pritzler was in a condition 
 to march 346 miles in twenty-live days, in pursuit of the 
 Mahrattas, in the war of 1817 ; and that Major-Greneral Sir 
 Archibald Campbell was enabled, after the failure of his 
 Bengal equipments, to advance upon Ava in 1825, and 
 bring that very trying war to a favourable termination."* 
 
 Equal care was bestowed by General "Wellesley on the 
 commissariat departments, and these had been managed 
 better than they had ever been before in an English army, 
 whether in Europe, Asia, or America, since the days of the 
 great Marlborough, whose letters and despatches, like those 
 of his great successor, abound in minute details on these 
 important particulars. In India a very peculiar system of 
 famishing bread for the army in the field had to be studied 
 and also amended. The agreeable picture drawn by Bishop 
 Heber of thebrinjarrees, or corn-carriers, seems to be correct 
 only with reference to that class of men as improved by the 
 kind and considerate treatment they received in the course 
 of these Mahratta campaigns, and by the wise measures 
 adopted by Wellesley and Lake. 
 
 On his first acquaintance with them, General Wellesley 
 found them shy of approaching his army, apt to quarrel 
 with his sepoys, much given to plimder, and still more to 
 trickery and cheating, and often very slow in bringing up 
 their bad com and rice. One of the most serious annoyances 
 he suffered in his advance from Poonah to the field of Assaye 
 arose out of the great disinclination of the Poonah brin- 
 jarrees to come forward at all in the service of the British 
 army. On that march his brinjarrees "played tricks, as 
 usual," and left him with only one-third of the rice which 
 he ought to have had. They deserted Colonel Murray's 
 corps altogether, leaving the soldiers for some days to the 
 chance of starvation. They were found unmanageable unless 
 their profits were enormous ; and, unless they attended the 
 camps as dealers on their owti account, their dishonesty and 
 
 * Col. Cubbon, * Memorandum.' 
 
180S.] AND THE BRINJAEBEES. 283 
 
 rascalitywereprodigioTis. Toeffect a change in their character 
 and habits, General Wellesley had recourse to those excel- 
 lent means which have since been adopted as a system. 
 One of his officers, who shared in the difficulty, danger, and 
 glory of this campaign, says, " G-eneral Wellesley has always 
 made it a point to encourage these people, by promises, 
 kindnesses, presents, indeed, by every kind of liberality of 
 which he possesses the means, to attend our camp, and 
 collect grain for the army. He advances them money; 
 takes their grain when not immediately wanted ; gets the 
 duties on its transport remitted ; promises permits to 
 collect it in our allies' territories ; gives or orders escorts ; 
 provides guards in camp, or wherever required : whenever 
 they meet extraordinary losses, he balances them by the 
 price ; and not seldom has he ordered two or three rupees a 
 head, as a reward for each bullock brought."* 
 
 Exports of these liberal proceedings were soon spread 
 over the country, and they gradually produced the desired 
 effect, A few days after the battle of Assaye, when pro- 
 visions were much wanted, from 2,000 to 3,000 bullocks 
 loaded with grain approached our camp. They belonged to 
 a brinjarree tribe, who had collected the grain and were 
 looking out for one of the armies, where they would be sure 
 of a market. This was their own account ; but it was more 
 likely that they had not taken us iato their account, and 
 were going to the Mahrattas. The cutwhal, or head native 
 civil magistrate in our camp, heard of theii* approach, when, 
 at some distance, and very ingeniously induced them to go 
 to the British army, a step which it might not have been 
 convenient or politic to har^e forced them to take. G-eneral 
 Wellesley was very generous to these brinjarrees, and to 
 the cutwhal, who had induced them to carry their grain to 
 his market, instead of taking it to his enemies. To the 
 cutwhal he gave a heavy pair of gold bangles, enhancing the 
 value of the gift by putting them on the man's ankles with 
 his own hands. " Marks of favour are highly esteemed by 
 inferiors in aU countries, but in none more than in India ; this 
 simple attention of General Wellesley no doubt raised the 
 ffutwhal very much in his little city, the camp bazaar." t On 
 
 * Journal of Major- General Sir Jasper NichoUs, written in the field, 
 5th of October, 1803, as quoted by Col. Gurwood, in * Wellington. 
 Despatches,* 
 
 t General Sir Jasper Nicholls, * Memorandam.' 
 
284 CONQUEST OF BUNDELCUND AND [1803. 
 
 other occasions the general gave handsome dresses and 
 turbans to the brinjarree chiefs. By this conduct the brin- 
 jarrees were induced to flock to the camp, and to follow the 
 army without the necessity of any solicitation. Even their 
 old habits of trickery and cheating were changed when they 
 found they could make surer profits by being honest. * 
 
 In the course of this same year the enterprising governor- 
 general had set in motion a third and a fourth army against 
 the Mahratta confederacy. Colonel Powell, starting from 
 Allahabad with troops belonging to the Bengal establish- 
 ment, overran the often-disputed province of Bundelcund, 
 reducing the forts, and establishing the authority of the 
 Company. Powell fought one pitched battle nearCapsah, 
 routing the enemy with great loss. Fort Calpee, on the 
 south-western side of the Jumna, and Grwalior, were the most 
 important of the fortresses he took. Grwalior, which had 
 once been in our possession (having been gallantly stormed 
 in 1780 by Major Popham), but which had been given up 
 by treaty to a faithless ally, had been ever considered a mili- 
 tary post of the greatest strength and value. As soon as 
 Powell had secured possession of Bundelcund, he detached 
 Colonel Broughton to the eastern provinces of Berar, to 
 block up some ghauts through which the Mahrattas might 
 make inroads to seize the fortress of Sumbulpoor, to expel 
 
 * ' Wellington Despatches.' It should appear, too, that some changes 
 were introduced into the old system, in order to render the brinjarrees 
 more extensively useful to armies in the field. After this Scindiah war, 
 in November, 1804, we find General Wellesley thus describing these 
 indispensable attendants on an Indian army : 
 
 " Brinjarrees. These are a class of carriers who gain a livelihood by 
 transporting grain or other commodities from one part of the country to 
 another. They attend armies, and trade nearly in the same manner as 
 they do in common times of peace. They either purchase grain them- 
 selves in the country with their own money, or with money advanced to 
 them by the Company, and sell it in the bazaar, at the rates of the day, 
 on their own account ; or they take grain at the Company's stores at cer- 
 tain reduced rates, and sell it on their own account in the bazaars ; or 
 they take up grain in the Company's stores, and carry it with the army, 
 and receive a sum of money for every march they make, and the grain is 
 sold in the bazaars on account of the Company ; or they hire their cattle 
 by the month to the Company, and take up grain from the public stores, 
 and carry it with the army, where it is sold in the bazaars on the account 
 of the Company. 
 
 " It is the business of the superintendent of supplies to settle all these 
 various accounts, and to see that the brinjarrees get fresh loads as fast as 
 they empty them ; and to know always, as nearly as possible, the quan- 
 tity of graia which this description of people have got." 
 
1803-4.] OF cuTTACK. 285 
 
 some freebooting bands, and to destroy or scatter the only- 
 force of the enemy which was left anywhere in the country 
 between Bundelcund, Berar, and Cuttack. Cutting a road 
 for his artillery through an immense forest, and overcoming 
 every obstacle, Broughton executed the whole of the task 
 confided to him. 
 
 Colonel Harcourt, with a division of the Madras army, 
 marched from Ganjam on the Stli of September, to drive the 
 Mahratta chiefs out of Cuttack, a province which was nearly 
 in our entire possession before the rajah of Berar formally 
 ceded it by treaty. The Mahrattas on the frontier fled, 
 the Brahmins of Juggernaut placed their pagoda and their 
 idol and their monster car under British protection, which 
 in itself was a very important advantage, and, after some 
 delays, occasioned by the rains, Harcourt entered the city 
 of Cuttack and laid siege to the fortress. This was a place 
 of considerable strength, having only one entrance by a 
 narrow bridge over a wet ditch of enormous dimensions ; 
 and it might have detained Harcourt for a considerable 
 time. But a co-operating force, detached from the Bengal 
 army, and which might be called a sixth corps d'armee, had 
 landed at Balasore, and, after getting possession of all the 
 coast, it sent forward reinforcements to Cuttack to assist in 
 the siege. That fortress was stormed and taken on the 
 14th of October. 
 
 The British troops in Cuttack appear to have suffered 
 more from wild beasts than from the spear of the Mahrattas. 
 The country abounded with forests, the forests swarmed 
 with leopards and other beasts of prey, and these devoured 
 a good many of our drowsy or negligent sentinels. 
 
 Being now undisputed master of the whole of that pro- 
 vince, Harcourt detached Major Porbes to occupy the pass 
 of Bermuth, which formed the only entrance into the pro- 
 vince of Cuttack through the chain of mountains which 
 separated it from the dominions of the rajah of Berar. 
 Forbes performed his duty admirably ; several of the neigh- 
 bouring rajahs fled from the tyranny of the great rajah of 
 Berar, and threw themselves under the protection of the 
 Company ; the pass of Bermuth was fully secured, and in a 
 few weeks Colonel Harcourt and the troops that had con- 
 quered Cuttack defiled through it, and co-operated with 
 General Wellesley, distracting the attention of the enemy 
 while he advance(i and captured Gawil-Ghur. 
 
286 A FLEET OE INDIAMEN [1804. 
 
 The seat of war liad extended over a vast portion of'thr 
 Indian continent, and had exhibited in the short space ot 
 four months, four general and well-contested battles, and 
 eight regular sieges and storinings of fortresses. British 
 valour and militar)^ combination and genius had triumphed 
 over accumulated obstacles, the confederation of truly for- 
 midable powers, and over every advantage arising to the 
 enemy from local position, military means (especially in 
 their immense trains of artillery), and numerical strength, 
 which had been so improved by Perron's French training 
 and discipline. It is calculated that, in the whole course of 
 the campaign, the Mahrattas brought into the field 250,0(X) 
 men, and that corps organized by the French amounted at 
 least to 40,000 men. In all, upwards of 1,000 pieces of 
 cannon had been captured by Lake, Wellesley, and the 
 subordinate officers co-operating with them, together vdth 
 carriages, ammunition, stores, and treasure in proportion.* 
 
 Our conquests went far to secure the navigation of all 
 those immense lines of coast from the mouths of the Granges 
 to the mouths of the Indus, and to cut off the turbulent 
 Mahrattas from any direct communication with the sea, or 
 with the French and other transmarine enemies of the 
 British government. But before this result was obtained 
 the French had despatched an armament to encourage and 
 assist Scindiah and the rajah of Berar. 
 
 The peace of Amiens had not lasted longer than had 
 been expected. War was renewed between France and 
 England in May, 1803. The French admiral Linois, who 
 had reached Pondicherry before the renewal of hostilities, 
 and who had been enabled to escape from that roadstead 
 before our naval commanders were aware that the peace was 
 ended, finding he could do no good in the Mahratta war, 
 hoped to do some mischief to the English and some good 
 to himself, by picking up a few of our stray Indiamen before 
 flying back to France. Many brilliant achievements at sea 
 have of necessity been omitted ; but the following exploit 
 was attended with important results ; and the honour of it 
 belongs too exclusively to the officers of the East-India 
 Company, to be passed over in silence. 
 
 Linois had captured several ships, and plundered the 
 
 * Major Thorn, * Memoir of the War in India, &c., from its Com- 
 mencement in 1803, to its Termination in 180G.' ' Wellington Des- 
 patches.' 
 
1804,] DEFEAT THE ERENCH ADMIBAL LINOIS. 287 
 
 small English factory at Bencoolen, when, on the 14th of 
 February, 1804, he fell in with a rich fleet of East Indiamen 
 and country ships that were coming from China, and on 
 the point of entering the Straits of Malacca. As the French 
 admiral had with him a ship of the line, three frigates, and a 
 brig, and as our merchant vessels had no men-of-war to 
 convoy them, he made quite sure of an easy swoop and of an 
 immense prize. But, by this time, the Company's ships 
 were generally armed and well officered ; and Captain Dance, 
 who was acting as commodore to the fleet of traders, waa 
 both an able and a brave sailor. At sunset, Linois was 
 close up with the English, who expected an instant attack ; 
 but the French hauled to windward, and the battle was not 
 begun until one p.m. on the following day. Our Indiamen 
 behaved most gallantly, and after fighting for an hour, and 
 before half of our ships could come into action, the French 
 hauled their wind, and stood away to the eastward, under aU 
 the sail they could set. At two p.m. Dance made the signal 
 for a general chase, and pursued Linois till four p.m. ; when, 
 considering the immense property at stake, the gallant 
 commodore of this well-conducted merchant fleet made 
 the signal to tack. " The promptitude and firmness of Com- 
 modore Dance and his brave associates," says our naval 
 Mstorian, " undoubtedly saved from capture a rich and 
 valuable fleet : the shghtest indecision in him or them 
 woiild have encouraged the French admiral to persevere in 
 his attack ; and, had he done so, no efforts, however gallant 
 and judicious, could have prevented a part of the fleet, at 
 least, from falling into his hands." * In this case merit 
 was properly and promptly rewarded, and thereby a great 
 incentive was given to other seamen not in the national 
 service. The commanders, officers, and crews were HberaUy 
 recompensed by the Company ; Dance received the honour 
 of knighthood from the king ; and among the sums of money 
 voted to him were 5,000 by the Bombay Insurance Com- 
 pany. Other sums were given to him and to the officers 
 and crews by the committee of the " Patriotic Fund." 
 
 After the war with Scindiah was over, fragments of his 
 armies, and gangs of banditti from nearly all parts of India, 
 gathered behind the Godavery, and began plundering and 
 devastating the whole of the western Deckan. Early in the 
 
 * James's ' Naval History of Great Britain.' 
 
288 GEN. WELLESLET AND THE BANDITTI. [1804. 
 
 spring of the year 1804, General Wellesley crossed the 
 G-odavery to put them down. As they refused the lenient 
 terms he offered, he endeavoured to cut them oif by making 
 forced marches over eighty miles of the roughest countiy. 
 His secret was betrayed by some of the natives following 
 his own army, or he would have taken them by surprise in 
 their camp. As they fled he followed them with the British 
 cavalry, in one column, acting upon the right of their rear, 
 while the Mysore cavalry and the cavalry of the re-esta- 
 blished peishwa pursued the centre and left. The marauders, 
 for the most part mounted, were greatly superior to their 
 pursuers, and were weU fiunished with field-pieces. At one 
 spot they made a stand, but were soon defeated by the 
 British and Mysore cavalry. "Wellesley then followed them 
 with astonishing rapidity from hill to hill, nor did he cease 
 his pursuit until he had entirely destroyed or dispersed 
 them, and captured all their artillery, ammunition, baggage, 
 and bazars.* The fatigue was excessive ; not a few of his 
 men and horses died of it : he himself described the marches 
 made as being " terrible," and after the lapse of many years, 
 and many other arduous services, he still spoke of this as 
 the most laborious service in which he had ever been 
 engaged. 
 
 This flying campaign beyond the G-odavery concluded 
 General Wellesley' s important military service in India. 
 But his civil services had been equally important and 
 equally honourable to himself. Under his master mind and 
 vigilant superintendence, the whole of the Mysore had been 
 well administered; numerous abuses, on the part of the 
 civil as well as the military servants of the Company, had 
 been checked, and agriculture and trade had flourished, 
 while the storm of war was raging in other parts of India. 
 Deserted villages, of which the tigers, the jackals, and the 
 wild dogs of the ghauts had taken possession, were again 
 occupied by industrious and thriving people ; and, while 
 there was a security for the great and the wealthy, such 
 as had never been known under Hyder Ali or his son 
 Tippoo, there was also protection and safety for the poorest. 
 During the five years of General Wellesley' s government, 
 the whole country had, in fact, attained to a higher degree 
 of prosperity than could possibly have been anticipated in 
 
 * 'Wellington Despatches.' Andre Vieusseux, ' Military Life of the 
 Duke.' Major Thorn, ' Memoir of the War.' , 
 
1803-5.] ADDEESSES TO GE>f. WELLESLET. 28^ 
 
 SO short a time ; and tlirough this prosperity it had been 
 enabled in some degree to repay to the Company, during the 
 late [Mahratta war, the benefits which it had derived from 
 British influence, protection, government, and power. And 
 yet, diD-ing all this time, large sums had been annually ap- 
 propriated to the construction or repair of tanks, aqueducts, 
 watercourses, roads, bridges, and other public works, wliich 
 tended to the further improvement of agriculture, trade, 
 and all the resources of Mysore. Great numbers of indus- 
 trious people from other parts of Hindustan came and 
 settled in the country, one of the best of all proofs that 
 the government and administration were good. An excel- 
 lent police was organized, and the T^dldest, the most moun- 
 tainous and wooded districts became, for the first time, 
 amenable to law, and tranquil and orderly. The natives, 
 of all religions and of all castes, well knew to whom they 
 were indebted for these great boons, and were eloquent in 
 the expression of their gratitude. On General Wellesley's 
 return, from the Mahratta war, the following address was 
 presented to him : 
 
 " We, the inhabitants of Seringapatam, have reposed for 
 five auspicious years under the shadow of your protection. 
 
 " AVe have felt, even during your absence, in the midst of 
 battle and of victory, that your care for our prosperity had 
 been extended to us in as ample a manner as if no other 
 object had occupied your mind. 
 
 " We are preparing to perform, in our several castes, the 
 duties of thanksgiving and of sacrifice to the preservmg 
 God, who has brought you back in safety ; and we present 
 ourselves in person to express our joy. 
 
 " As your labours have been crowned wdth victory, so may 
 your repose be graced with honours. May you long con- 
 tinue personally to dispense to us that ftill stream of 
 security and happiness, which we first received with wonder, 
 and continue to enjoy with gratitude ; and, when greater 
 affairs shall call you from us, may the God of all castes 
 and all nations deign to hear with favour our humble and 
 constant prayers for your health, your glory, and your 
 happiness." 
 
 In March, 1805, when the general was preparing to leave 
 the East for ever, these grateful natives again expressed, in 
 the fonn of an address, their exceeding thankfubiess for the 
 tranquillit}-, security, and happiness they had enjoyed under 
 
290 wellesley's eetue2^ eeom ikdia. [1805. 
 
 Ms auspicious protection, concluding with a prayer to Grod 
 to grant him health and a safe and pleasant voyage to 
 Europe, but mth the expression of an earnest hope for his 
 speedy return to India, once more to extend and uphold that 
 protection over them, which his ample local knowledge of 
 their customs and manners was so capable of affording.* 
 
 These touching native addresses confer as much honour 
 on our illustrious duke as all the royal and imperial orders 
 with which he is decorated. 
 
 * * Wellington Despatches.' See also Marquis Wellesley's * Indian 
 Despatches,' for evidence of the good government of Mysore, and the 
 gratitude of the people to his illustrious brother. 
 
1804.] WAE WITH HOLKAR. 291 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 The Mahratta snake was scotched, not killed. 
 
 Notwithstanding the decisive victories of "Wellesley and 
 Lake, in 1802-3, a fresh war broke out in 1804. The con- 
 duct pursued by Jeswunt Eao Holkar, during the late war 
 between the British government, Scindiah, and the rajah 
 of Berar, was in conformity with the most characteristic 
 features of the policy of a Mahratta chieftain. He had not 
 only promised to join the confederacy against the British, 
 but had actually concluded, through the medium of the 
 rajah of Berar, a tieaty with Scindiah, who made great 
 cessions of territory, etc., to induce him to enter the 
 league and to be true to his engagements. But truth 
 never abided in the palace or under the tent of a Mahratta 
 chief. Although Holkar promised everything, he showed 
 no inclination, after hostilities were commenced, to assist 
 the confederates. There was, indeed, ground to believe that 
 he rejoiced in the first reverses which his great rival 
 Scindiah sustained ; and that, if this sentiment underwent u 
 change when he saw the unprecedented rapidity and success 
 of the two English generals, who, in the short space of five 
 months, had annihilated two immense armies, and captured 
 a number of fortresses hitherto deemed impregnable, the 
 course of action was too rapid and decisive to give him 
 time for interference ; although, before the treaties of peace 
 were concluded he had put his forces in motion, and 
 advanced as far as the frontiers of the rajah of Jypoor, who 
 was then under the protection of the British government.* 
 Having thus remained inactive during the progress of the 
 war against Scindiah and the rajah of Berar, and having 
 greatly strengthened himself while they had been rushing 
 to their ruin, Holkar suddenly assumed an attitude which 
 excited alarm or suspicion. He continued to declare that 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, ' Political History of India.' 
 u 2 
 
292 WAE WITH noLKAE. [1804. 
 
 he wislied to remain at peace, he even professed a great 
 friendship for the British government, but his conduct indi- 
 cated other designs, and he kept his marauding army- 
 close on the frontiers to which he had brought it. The 
 governor-general instructed Gleneral Lake to enter into 
 any negotiation that might lead to an early explanation of 
 his views, and relieve the Company from the expense and 
 alarm to which its provinces must be subjected, while such 
 a horde of freebooters as the army of Holkar continued to 
 be assembled on its borders or on tlie frontiers of its allies. 
 On the 29th of January, 1804, Lake addressed a letter to 
 the formidable chieftain, stating generally the terms on 
 which the British government was disposed to conclude a 
 friendly treaty with him ; but requiring as a proof of the 
 sincerity of his amicable professions, that he should with- 
 draw his army from the threatening position it then occupied, 
 retire quietly within his own territories, and abstain from 
 exacting choult (tribute or blackmail) from the allies of 
 the British. Listead of replying iuunediately to this letter, 
 Holkar allowed some time to pass, and during this time 
 more flying and marauding troops of horse joined his 
 standard. At last he sent his vakeels to the British 
 commander-in-chief to make extravagant demands, and to 
 claim the very right of levying choiilt, which he had been 
 called upon to renounce. The very first proposition advanced 
 by his vakeels was that he should be permitted to collect the 
 choult " agreeably to the custom of his ancestors," which 
 ancestorial custom closely resembled that of the most 
 predatory of our Highland clans in the olden time. The 
 second modest proposition was that twelve of the finest 
 districts in the Duab, a district in Bundelkund, and tlie 
 country of Hurriana, should be given up to Holkar. And 
 the vakeels finally demanded in his name that all his territo- 
 ries should be guaranteed to him by the English, and that 
 a treaty should be concluded with him on the same terms 
 as that recently concluded by the Company with Scindiah, 
 who had purchased it by making so many sacrifices to tlie 
 Company. These extravagant demands were, of course, 
 rejected. Holkar then sent letters to the tributaries and 
 dependants of our government, in order to excite them to 
 revolt against the English, whose territories, he informed 
 the rajahs, it was his intentioji to ravage and destroy. He 
 also wrote a most arrogant and insulting letter to General 
 
1804.] holkae's mxjrdees. 293 
 
 "VVellesley, demanding tlie immediate cession of wliole pro- 
 vinces in the Deckan, of some of the best of the possessions of 
 our ally the nizam, upon the plea that, at some distant period 
 of time, they had been the property of the Holkar family. 
 The letter to AVellesley concluded with this boast " Coun- 
 tries of many hundred coss shall be overrun and plundered. 
 General Lake shall not have leisure to breathe for a mo- 
 ment ; and calamities will fall on lacs of human beings, in 
 continual war, by the attacks of my army, which overwhelms 
 like the waves of the sea." * 
 
 If numbers alone could have constituted strength, Holkar 
 had some reason to be confident : he had, at this moment, in 
 the field, from 40,000 to 50,000 cavab-y, 20,000 infantry, and 
 upwards of 100 pieces of cannon. His fortresses also were 
 numerous, and Chandore andGraulnah,the ancient strongholds 
 of his family, ranked among the strongest places in all India. 
 
 The Mahratta's menaces were soon followed by deeds. 
 He sent a vakeel to the camp of Scindiah, to urge that 
 humbled chief to tear up his recent treaty and join him 
 in an attack upon the British possessions ; and, at the same 
 time, he began to plunder the territories of our ally the 
 rajah of J}^oor. G-eneral Lake (by virtue of his achieve- 
 ments in the late war, now Lord Lake) and General Eraser 
 were presently sent against him. Holkar retreated from the 
 advanced position he had occupied, and was pursued to 
 some distance by a part of our forces. His first savage act 
 was the miu*der of three British officers, A^ickers, Todd, 
 and Ryan, who had entered his service when he was in 
 amity with the English, and who bore the rank of captains 
 in his army. These unfortunate men, having signified their 
 intention of retiring, in obedience to a proclamation of the 
 governor-general, were placed under confinement ; and after- 
 wards, on the pretext that Captain Todd had carried on a 
 secret correspondence with Lord Lake, they were brought 
 out and publicly decapitated. Their heads were exposed 
 on pikes, their bodies were denied the ordinary rites of 
 sepulture. 
 
 The savage Mahratta retired up the valley of the Jumna. 
 For some time the most serious difficulty encountered by 
 the advancing British troops was from the stealthy attacks 
 and depredations of the Mewattees, a tribe inhabiting the 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, * Political History of India.' 
 
294 THE MEWATTEES. [1804. 
 
 liills, wlio were all robbers by profession, as their fathers 
 had been before them, and who lived chiefly by cattle-lifting ; 
 they carried off many camels, elephants, and horses from the 
 English pickets, in spite of the vigilance and precaution that 
 were adopted to guard against their crafty, sudden, and des- 
 perate attacks. Many of these sons of the mist and moun- 
 tain were exceedingly well mounted, and all were armed 
 with matchlocks, spears, or tolwars. They often attacked 
 our foraging parties, and were constantly hovering about 
 our camp in numerous bands. "Whenever they could sur- 
 prise an officer or a soldier, they murdered him first, and 
 robbed him afterwards.* Nearly the whole of the hilly 
 territory from Agra to Delhi long in a state of intestine 
 war between Mahrattas, Rajpoots, Seiks, Mewattees, and 
 other tribes was the nursery of thieves and robbers, and as 
 dangerous for travellers as the interior of Arabia is at this 
 moment. The country exhibited little or no cultivation, 
 though very suceptible of it, owing to the savageness of its 
 inhabitants, and the insecurity of all property.f 
 
 By the 20th of February, 1804, the main body of our 
 army, under Lord Lake, was advanced as far as the neigh- 
 bourhood of Hindone, in the province of Agra, which had 
 formerly been a large city, though now sadly reduced by 
 the depredations of the Mahrattas and the other plunderers. 
 Hindone, however, contained some extensive buildings, and 
 might still be called a populous village. It was situated in 
 a very fertile and highly cultivated tract of country. The 
 greatest care was taken, by Lord Lake and his officers, for 
 the preservation of the standing crops ; and, although forage 
 had been for some time scarce, no com was allowed to be 
 cut down, or to be in any way injured. The strict discipline, 
 under which our troops and camp-followers were kept, pre- 
 sented an advantageous contrast to the visitations of a 
 Mahratta army, and excited the astonishment and secured 
 the gratitude of the inhabitants. 
 
 * Major Thorn, * Memoir of the War in India,' &c. 
 
 t For the vast improvements which had taken place in these regions, 
 in the course of the few years they had then been under our control, see 
 Bishop Heber's ' Indian Journal,* vol. ii. pp. 323-4, and pp. 347-8. 
 At the period of the visit of the amiable and accomplished prelate (in 
 1825), the Mahrattas had been subdued and driven out of the country, 
 the Mewattees were in agreat measure reclaimed, the Seiks were fully 
 employed at home, and the Rajpoots were kept in awe by British residents 
 and British garrisons. 
 
1804.] HOLKAR EETEEATS. 295 
 
 In contemplation of these hostilities with Holkar, Gene- 
 ral "WeUesley had drawn up some invaluable memoranda 
 upon the manner in which the war ought to be conducted. 
 In one of his notes he had said, " Tou have now a great 
 game in your hands ; but aU will depend upon your manage- 
 ment of the natives with whom you will have to co-operate. 
 I have only to recommend you to conciliate them as much 
 as possible to treat them with the greatest kindness and 
 attention." 
 
 During his encampment at Hindone, Lord Lake received 
 letters jfrom Holkar, who again pretended to be pacifically 
 disposed. 
 
 " While the flame of contention can be extinguished by 
 the water of reconciliation," said the wily Mahratta, " it is 
 unfit to bring matters to the extremity of war." He pro- 
 tested that before receiving Lord Lake's last letter he 
 had resolved to march quietly homewards, which design he 
 had now begun to accompKsh. 
 
 Yet, at this very moment, a powerful khan, in the service 
 of Holkar, was hovering with a large body of horse on the 
 frontiers of Bundelkund, evidently with the design of 
 invading that province and the countries belonging to the 
 allies of the English to the north of the Betwa. This khan 
 actually entered the territories of Janset ; but he fled beyond 
 the mountains at the approach of the detachment of Colonel 
 Powell, and left that officer to complete the conquest of 
 the interior of Bundelkund by the reduction of those for- 
 tified places which had not yet submitted to the British 
 government, though boimd so to do by the recent treaty con- 
 cluded with Scindiah. While Lord Lake was advancing from 
 Hindustan towards the very heart of Holkar' s dominions, 
 instructions were sent to Colonel John Murray, command- 
 ing the troops in Gruzerat, to enter the province of Malwa, 
 and to advance in the direction of Indore, the residence of 
 Holkar' s family, while part of the troops, stationed above 
 the ghauts, directed their operations against his possessions 
 on the side of the Deckan, and especially agaiQst his strong 
 fortress of Chandore. 
 
 Holkar kept retreating before the main army of Lord 
 Lake, and none of his allies, or detached troops, or forts, 
 made anything like a bold resistance. The chief difficulty of 
 the English now lay in the great length of the marches they 
 were obliged to make, and in the excessive heat of the weather. 
 
296 A HOHEIBLE MAECE. [1804. 
 
 Bj the "beginning of May, however, Lord Lake had tra- 
 versed the central parts of Eajpootana, had captured Tonk 
 Eampoora, a strongly fortified town, and had driven Holkar 
 from the only footing he had in Hindustan north of the 
 Chumbul. That Mahratta hastily fled across that river; 
 but he continued to be followed, on one side, by a detach- 
 ment under Colonel Monson, while, on the other side. Colonel 
 Murray with the troops from Guzerat Avas moving against 
 him. Considering that these tvro detachments would give 
 full employment to Holkar until the cooler season should 
 set in, Lord Lake, in an unlucky moment, thought it advis- 
 able to march the main army back into quarters at Cawn- 
 pore and places in that neighbourhood, as the men were 
 suffering dreadfully in their health, and the cattle were 
 perishing fast through want of forage, the ground being 
 parched up like an Arabian desert. But to go back was as 
 bad as to go forward. The sufferings of the retiring troops 
 continued to be excessive. The roads were exceedingly 
 bad, and the countr}' was everywhere swept by a burning 
 wind, called by the natives the "Devil's breath," which, 
 after passing over the great sandy desert, imparts to the atmo- 
 sphere of these regions an intensity of heat which astonished 
 even those who had long been seasoned to the fury of a ver- 
 tical sun. AVestward of the Jumna, this pestiferous current, 
 this fiery blast, finds no rivers and lakes to temper its seve- 
 rity. One of the officers, who was scorched and withered 
 by it, compares it to the extreme glow of an iron foundry in 
 the height of summer ; " though even that is but a feeble 
 comparison, since no idea can be formed of the causticity of 
 the sandy particles which were borne along with the wind, 
 like hot embers, peeling off the skin, and raising blisters 
 "wherever they chanced to fall."* The European soldiers 
 died fast. Young men, who set out in the morning full of 
 spirits and in all the vigour of health, dropped down dead 
 immediately on reaching the encampment-ground, and many 
 were smitten on the road by the noonday sun, whose rays 
 darted downwards like a torrent of fire. Many brave and 
 athletic veterans fell witliout the possibility of receiving any 
 relief. It was the worst of all coups-de-soleil, except that deatii 
 was almost instantaneous. They, who were thus struck, sud- 
 denly turned giddy, foamed at the mouth, dropped on the 
 
 * Major Thorn, * Memoir of the War/ &c. 
 
1804.] A TEMPEST. 297 
 
 road, and instantly became lifeless. Even wlien encamped, 
 the suiFerings of the poor soldiers were excruciating ; for 
 the tents, in general, were but ill adapted to such a climate, 
 and the thermometer, in the shade, frequently exceeded 
 130 of Eahrenheit. The misery was further increased bj 
 the scarcity of water, owing to the debility and mortality 
 that prevailed among the camp-followers employed in pro- 
 curing that inestimable beverage. Numbers of these water- 
 carriers perished through the fatigue which they under- 
 went in this fiery climate, where the natives suiFered more 
 than even Europeans, when called to make any extraordi- 
 nary exertion. On one day as many as nineteen Euro- 
 peans were bui'ied : " melancholy indeed it was to see the 
 route of the army traced b}^ heaps of earth giving cover to 
 the remains of so many gallant soldiers, who, after escaping 
 the dangers incident to the fire and steel of war, fell pitiable 
 victims to the climate." On the 3rd of June, as the troops 
 were encamping near Karowley, the wind suddenly shifted, 
 impetuous whirlwinds passed over the sandy plains in vast 
 columns of sand and dust, increasing in magnitude, and 
 ascending into the air to a height beyond the reach of the 
 eye. These objects were only the precursors of a still more 
 tremendous demon of the storm the typhoon, which came 
 like chaos on the wings of the tempest, rolling before it 
 immense torrents of burning sand, and giving such a density 
 to the atmosphere that the sun, whicli had hitherto appeared 
 as red as blood, became totally eclipsed. Night in the 
 midst of day night with tenfold terror ^darkened all the 
 scene, and the awfiilness was heightened by the bowl- 
 ings of the tempest. Tliis lasted about half an hour, 
 during which the army and all the affrighted multitude in 
 its train lay prostrate and silent on the ground, as if antici- 
 pating the day of doom. The trees were torn up by the 
 roots ; the tents were carried away and scattered about in 
 every direction ; the bullocks threw off* their burdens and 
 ran wild among the bazar people ; and galloped about the 
 camp in a frenzy of fear. Pro\ddentially, however, the 
 fearful phenomenon was succeeded by a little rain, which 
 cooled the air, and rendered it so very refreshing that the 
 mortality ceased. On the 4th of June, the army rested all 
 day in honour of Greorge the Third's birthday. On the 5th 
 they passed the Jumna, at a ford near the city of Agra, the 
 guns and baggage being conveyed in beautiful style across 
 
^ 
 
 298 CAPTAIN smith's disastee. [1804. 
 
 the river in boats. On the 20th, or just after the com- 
 mencement of the monsoon or rainy season, they reached 
 their comfortable quarters at Cawnpore. They had marched 
 above 1,000 miles. 
 
 In the meanwhile there had been some hard fighting in 
 other quarters. Colonel Powell, charged with the reduction 
 of the fortresses in Bundelkund, fell sick and died. He was 
 succeeded by Lieutenant- Colonel Faucett, who sent a detach- 
 ment of seven companies of sepoys, with some artillery, to 
 take a fort near Kooch. Captain Smith, the officer in com- 
 mand of this detachment, was not sufficiently aware of the 
 craft of the natives, and of the danger of relying upon their 
 faith. Whilst preparations were carrying on in the trenches, 
 the killadar, or commandant, sent out an offer to surrender 
 the place the next morning, provided Captain Smith would 
 suspend his firing. This proposition was agreed to ; but, 
 in the interval the treacherous killadar applied to Meer 
 Khan, who had retreated before Colonel Powell, but who 
 had by this time returned to the neighbourhood -^dth a large 
 body of horse. And on the following morning, the 22nd 
 of May, the khan, with 7,000 or 8,000 of his cavalry, fell 
 most imexpectedly on two companies of sepoys and about 
 fifty of our artillerymen in the trenches. With savages like 
 these it was vain to mention the truce with the killadar, or 
 to plead for mercy ; every man in the trenches, whether 
 officer or private, was cruelly murdered. Meer Khan seized 
 and carried ofi" the little all of the artillery employed for the 
 siege. Captain Smith, however, succeeded in making good his 
 retreat with the remaining five companies of sepoys, protected 
 by a troop of the 5th regiment of native cavalry and a galloper 
 six-pounder, which single gun kept off" the enemy. Embold- 
 oned by their success, Meer Khan and his predatory horde 
 ifti^de an attack upon Calpee, and attempted to force the 
 passage of the Jumna. They w^ere repulsed by Captain 
 Jones at the head of only two companies of sepoys ; and 
 shortly afterwards they were completely defeated and scat- 
 tered by a small force under Colonel Shepherd. 
 
 Captain Gardiner, an officer attached to the service of the 
 rajah of Jypoor, and Lieutenant Lucan, of his majesty's 
 74th regiment, who had both been detached by Lord Lake 
 to watch the motions of Holkar with two divisions of irregu- 
 lars, very soon took vengeance for Captain Smith's disaster, 
 and, at the same time, gave a lesson of good faith and honour. 
 
1804.] TTAGA BANDITTI. 299 
 
 Another khan, in the interests of Holkar, was surprised in 
 his camp, and offered to surrender upon condition that his 
 party should be escorted in safety to the chief camp of the 
 Mahrattas, the khan pledging himself that they would not 
 serve any more against the English. These terms were 
 assented to and punctually performed, the khan's people, 
 amounting to more than 2,000 men, being conducted, as 
 agreed upon, by our irregular cavalry, and leaving in our 
 possession aU their ordnance and stores. 
 
 During this first campaign of 1804, our troops captured 
 450 pieces of the finest cannon, 182 waU-pieces, 5,000 stand 
 of arms, 180 tumbrils and ammunition-carriages, and a vast 
 quantity of military stores of all descriptions. 
 
 Our possession of Bundelkund was troubled by a san- 
 guinary and really formidable congeries of banditti of the 
 Naga race, one of the many scourges of the country. This 
 singular race of hill people abounds in India east of the 
 Ganges. Their rapacity and sanguinary habits had depopu- 
 lated the hills inhabited by less martial tribes. In person 
 the Nagas somewhat resembled the Chinese, but little was 
 or is known of their origin, history, or religion. Their 
 villages were perched like eagles' nests on the most inacces- 
 sible peaks of the mountains. In Bundelkund a commu- 
 nity of them occupied a strong position near Mohobah, sur- 
 rounded by ranges of high rocks, which, on occasion, they 
 lined with matchlock-men and rocket-boys. They inter- 
 rupted communications, and made predatory incursions far 
 and near. Towards the end of June Lieutenant- Colonel 
 MartindeU marched against them in their stronghold with 
 the Bundelkund division, beat them from their rocks, 
 drove them from that range of mountains, captured nearly 
 all their baggage, plunder, camels, horses, and stores, and 
 took the religious standard of the tribe. But disaster and 
 defeat, and even disgrace, attended the operations of another 
 corps. 
 
 Lieutenant- Colonel Monson, after reducing some for- 
 tresses, had encamped near Kotta, on the banks of the 
 Chumbul, to guard the frontier, and then advanced his posi- 
 tion about fifty miles to a place where he had been led to 
 expect supplies and the means of communicating with 
 Colonel Murray, who was on his march from Guzerat towards 
 Tndore. The corps under Monson consisted of five batta- 
 lions of sepoys, a proportion of artillery, and two bodies of 
 
300 SAD DISxVSTERS OF [1S04- 
 
 irregular horse, in all about 3,000 men. On the 7th of 
 July, Monson received intelligence that Hoikar had swept 
 through Malwa, and had recrossed the Chumbul \^dth the 
 whole of his army. The colonel expressed contempt for the 
 superiority of the enemy's numbers, and an eagerness for 
 coming to action with him. He made a movement for that 
 purpose, but soon relinquished his design, in consequence of 
 the deficiency of grain in his camp, the absence of one 
 detachment employed to bring up a supply, and of another 
 that was on its march to join him from one of the forts he had 
 captured. Colonel Monson was also expecting the arrival of 
 an escort with money for his troops, and it is said that what 
 most influenced his conduct was the reception of intelligence 
 that Colonel Murray, instead of pressing forwards towards 
 Indore, had an intention to fall back. Although it was 
 dangerous to retreat in the presence of Hoikar' s numerous 
 cavalry, Monson determined to retire to the Mokundra pass. 
 Accordingly the baggage and stores were sent off at four in 
 the morning of the 8th of July, while the troops, in order of 
 battle, remained on the ground of encampment till half-past 
 nine. As no enemy came up, the troops were then put in 
 motion after the baggage and stores, with the exception of 
 their regular cavalry under Lieutenant Lucan and a Mahratta. 
 chief named Baboojee, who belonged to the family of 
 Scindiah ; both these officers being ordered to follow in half 
 an hour, and to apprise Colonel Monson of any movement 
 on the part of Hoikar. The detachment had marched about 
 twelve miles towards the Mokundra pass, when Monson 
 received intelligence that Lucan had been attacked by the 
 whole of Holkar's cavalry. Orders were now given to. 
 our sepoys to halt and form, with the view of supporting the 
 party in the rear. At this moment Baboojee galloped up- 
 and declared that our irregular cavalry was entirely defeated, 
 and that Lucan was wounded and a prisoner. The Mahratta 
 was a liar and a traitor (he joined the enemy soon after), 
 but this time he spoke the words of truth. Lieutenant 
 Lucan, who had greatly distinguished himself both in this 
 campaign and in the preceding war against Scindiah, was 
 indeed in the hands of a mercdess enemy, and he died 
 shortly afterwards of his wounds, or of poison administered 
 to him at Kotta. As it was now useless to return, Monson 
 continued his march, and on the noon of the folloA\-iiig day 
 he got near the Mokundra pass without any molestation.. 
 
1804.] COLONEL MONSOIS". 301 
 
 But on the mornmg of the 10th the enemy showed a large 
 body of cavalry in front of the pass. Instead of attacking 
 this force at once, Monson remained quiet till noon the 
 next day, when the Mahratta cavalry was greatly increased 
 in numbers, and when Holkar sent a letter to camp demand- 
 ing the surrender of our guns and small arms. This demand 
 being indignantly refused, Holkar made a vigorous attack 
 on Monson's front and flanks. The Mahrattas, however, 
 could make no impression upon oiu' steady native infantry, 
 and after repeated attacks and some loss, Holkar drew oft" 
 his cavalry to the distance of four miles, where he was joined 
 by his infantry and artiller^^ Thereupon Monson con- 
 tinued his retreat upon the town of Kotta, where he expected 
 to find supplies. After two forced and most fatiguing 
 marches, through torrents of rain and across a country com- 
 pletely inundated, our columns reached that town. But the 
 rajah of Kotta, believing that Holkar must be victorious, 
 refused to admit Monson into his town, upon the plea that 
 he could not furnish the troops with provisions. 
 
 The retreat now became truly disastrous, the rivers and 
 rivulets were swollen by the monsoon rains, and the troops 
 were almost reduced to starvation. The guns could not 
 be dragged on ; the colonel was obliged to leave them be- 
 hind him, after rendering them unserviceable and destroying 
 the ammunition. A little farther on he was under the 
 necessity of abandoning his baggage. The Mahratta cavalry 
 hung close on his rear, and made many fierce attacks. On 
 the night of the 2oth of August, after defeating several 
 charges of the Mahratta horse, our sepoys reached Khooshal- 
 ghur, a mud fort with double walls, round bastions, and a 
 ditch, in the province of Agra. Here Monson found Captain 
 Nicholl, with a detachment of sepoys and a company of the 
 12th regiment. Before Monson's arrival, Nicholl had been 
 attacked in the town by one of our faithless allies, of the 
 Scindiah party ; but the captain had succeeded in repulsing 
 the assailants. On the morning after his arrival at Khoo- 
 shalghur, Monson found himself surrounded by the whole of 
 Holkar' s cavalry, and detected a correspondence between 
 Holkar and some of the native officers belonging to his own 
 corps. And now was witnessed the sad and most rare 
 spectacle of desertion, two entire companies from one sepoy 
 regiment, and a large proportion of oiu* Hindustanee cavalry, 
 going over to the enemy. In the evening of that day 
 
302 DISASTKOUS EETEEAT. [1804. 
 
 Monson resumed liis retreat, his troops marching in a com- 
 pact oblong square, and defeating every attempt made by 
 the Mahrattas, mth cavak-y and artillery, to break them. 
 On clearing the ravines near Hindone, where Lord Lake 
 had been encamped, Monson had to sustain a desperate 
 charge of the enemy's horse in three divisions ; but the 
 sepoys reserved their fire till the Mahrattas came within 
 reach of the bayonet, and then compelled them to retreat in 
 every direction. After this affair the Mahrattas charged no 
 more. Monson reached the city of Agra at the end of 
 August, with his detachment fearfully thinned, disordered, 
 and demoralized. His loss in officers had been very great.* 
 A few more such failures would have destroyed our prestige 
 and the discipline and fidelity of our native troops. 
 
 Monson' s conduct has been very severely censured ; but 
 it depended upon the movements of others, and there were 
 some capital defects, if not in the plan itself, in the whole 
 execution of the plan of this campaign. Even Lord Lake 
 had not yet learned with what ease and rapidity the 
 Mahrattas could recruit their armies, increase their horses, 
 change retreat and actual flight into an advance, and 
 repeat their blows. f If Lake had continued in pursuit of 
 
 * Major Thorn, ' Memoir of the War,' &c. Colonel Monson's own 
 letters in ' Wellington and Wellesley Despatches.' Papers printed by 
 the East- India Company in 1806. General Wellesley 's minute account 
 of the retreat will be found in vol. iii. of his own * Despatches,' p. 458 
 to 463. 
 
 t " The Mahratta cavalry is increased as if by magic. In his arrange- 
 ments with the state, the silladar, or head of a troop, has allotted to him 
 a certain proportion of jungle, where he pastures his cattle. In this jungle 
 he and his family reside ; and his sole occupation, when not on actual 
 service, is increasing his pagah, or troop, by breeding out of his mares, of 
 which the Mahratta cavalry almost entirely consists. There are no people in 
 the world who understand the method of rearing and multiplying the breed 
 of cattle equal to the Mahrattas. It is by no means uncommon for a silla- 
 dar to enter the service with one mare, and in a few years be able to 
 muster a very respectable pagah. They have many methods of rendering 
 these animals prolific ; they back their colts much earlier than we do, and 
 are consequently more valuable, as they come sooner on the effective 
 strength. I do not know, however, whether they attempt to improve the 
 breed of their horses by crossing the strain, as we practise in Europe. It 
 is this persevering industry and consummate knowledge which is the true 
 cause of the immense bodies of cavalry that the Mahratta state can bring 
 into the field ; a circumstance that has occasioned surprise in many, who 
 have been at a loss to conjecture from whence such hosts could proceed. 
 Independent, however, of this, there are great numbers of horses brought 
 from Caadahar and Thibet, and sold at the annual fairs in many parts of 
 
1804.] GEK. WELLESLET's EULES in INDIAN WAE. 303 
 
 Holkar, instead of retiring to Cawnpore with the main body 
 of the army, the campaign would have been a short one, and 
 the disasters which befel Monson in his retreat would not 
 have happened. This was foreseen by General WeUesley as 
 early as the month of April. " If," said he, " G-eneral Lake 
 would make a good dash at Holkar, the war could not last a 
 fortnight ; but if he should stand upon the defensive in 
 Hindustan, it will last for a length of time." But Holkar' s 
 rapid retreat had deceived Lake into the belief that he was 
 far weaker than he really was, and that the corps of Colonels 
 Murray and Monson would be more than enough to drive 
 him beyond Indore, if not into the Punjaub ; and sufficient 
 preparations had not been made for the continued advance 
 of the main body of the army serving with Lake. 
 
 No one doubted Colonel Monson' s courage ; Lake, even 
 in mourning over his retreat, described him as being as 
 brave as a lion. If Monson had stopped at first, instead 
 of retiring, his infantry would have been unable to bring 
 the fleet Mahratta cavalry to action ; and every day's delay 
 would have increased the famine in his camp. Eetreats 
 had always been disastrous in India. G-eneral "WeUesley 
 thought that some important lessons were to be learned from 
 this campaign 
 
 " First, We should never employ a corps on a service to 
 which it is not fully equal. 
 
 " Secondly, We should take care to be sure of plenty of 
 provisions. 
 
 " Thirdly, Experience has shown that British troops can 
 never depend upon rajahs or any others for their sup- 
 plies. Our own officers must purchase them; and if we 
 should employ a native in such an important service, we 
 ought to see the suppHes before we expose our troops in 
 the situation in which we may want them. 
 
 " Fourthly, When we have a fort which can support oui' 
 operations, we should immediately adopt effectual means to 
 fill it with provisions and stores in case of need. 
 
 " Fifthly, When we cross a river likely to be full in the 
 
 Hindustan ; but these make a very small proportion in the gross strength 
 of the Mahratta armies." ' A Letter to an Officer on the Madras Esta- 
 blishment : being an Attempt to illustrate some Particular Institutions 
 of the Mahratta People ; principally relative to their System of War and 
 Finance,' &c. By William Henry Tone, commanding a regiment of 
 infantry in the service of the peishwa. Bombay, ] 799. 
 
804 ADVAlsCE OF LORD LAKE. [1804. 
 
 rains, we ought to have a post and boats upon it ; as I have 
 upon all the rivers south of Poonah, 
 
 " In respect to the operations of a corps in the situation 
 of Monson's, they must he decided and quick ; and in all 
 retreats it must be recollected that tliey are safe and easy in 
 'proportion to the number of attacks made hy the retreating 
 corps. But attention to the foregoing observations will, I 
 hope, prevent the necessity of a British corps retreating." 
 
 These are lessons to be borne in mind by every one putting 
 an army in motion in India, and by every officer command- 
 ing, or even serving with, such army. 
 
 Instead of retreating, as Monson had expected he would 
 do. Colonel Murray, with the division from Guzerat, ad- 
 vanced into the heart of Holkar's dominions ; and on the 
 24th of August, the day on which Monson abandoned his 
 baggage he took possession of Indore with hardly any 
 opposition. 
 
 But the turn of affairs produced by Monson's own disas- 
 trous retreat compelled the commander-in-chief to take the 
 field without delay, in order to check Holkar, who was now 
 strengthened by the warlike tribe of the Jauts and their 
 mjah styled the rajali of Bhurtpoor, who had broken the 
 treaty of alliance he had concluded with G-eneral Lake, in 
 the preceding year. Accordingly, the several corps of 
 Lord Lake's army received orders to repair immediately to 
 the general rendezvous at Agra, in order to commence a 
 second campaign this year. By the beginning of September, 
 all the corps were in motion, although the country was 
 under water and the rain still poured down in torrents. 
 
 The straggling sepoys of Colonel Monson's unfortunate 
 division hailed Lord Lake's arrival ^^^th transport. They 
 soon recovered their discipline and gallantry ; and the 
 barbarity of the enemy helped to root out the partial dis- 
 affection which had existed among them. Numbers came 
 daily into camp shockingly mutilated, with their noses 
 and right hands cut off, in consequence of their having 
 refused to enter Holkar's service. Those who had enrolled 
 with tlie jVIahratta sent word to the English officers that 
 they would escape at the first opportunity. The barbarians 
 had reached the banks of the Jumna, had taken possession 
 of Mutra, and had spread consternation over the country. A 
 detachment of tliem had even crossed tlie Jumna, but they all 
 fled precipitately as Lake advanced. By the 3rd of October, 
 
1804.] SIEGE OF DELHI. 305 
 
 Miitra was recovered, and was occupied by our reserve 
 under Lieutenant- Colonel Don. 
 
 Before daybreak on the 7th, an attempt was made to 
 surprise Hol'kar ; but the Mahrattas were already mounted, 
 and they galloped off with such rapidity as to render it 
 impossible to effect a charge upon them ; a few were, how- 
 ever, brought down in their flight by our galloper guns. 
 Other attempts to surprise them in their encampments and 
 to bring them to action were not more successful, for they 
 were exceedingly vigilant, throwing out posts in all direc- 
 tions, who, by firing signals and burning blue lights, gave 
 the alarm. Xow and then some of these outposts were 
 caught. The men expected vengeance and retaliation, but 
 Lord Lake gave them a rupee each, and then dismissed 
 them with a message to their chief, that none but cowards 
 treated their prisoners with cruelty. Our army continued 
 steadily to advance, the cavalry leading, followed by the 
 infantry, and the baggage and bazars moving along be- 
 tween the inner flank and the river Jumna. The road they 
 were following was the high road to Delhi, which capital 
 was besieged by Holkar's regular brigade of infimtry and a 
 large train of artillery. The siege was pressed with all 
 possible vigour, it being a vital object with Holkar to get 
 possession of the person of the poor Mogul before Lord 
 Lake could come up to his rescue. But his lordship reached 
 Delhi on the 17th of October, and the besiegers fled at his 
 approach. Colonel Ochterlony, the British resident at the 
 Mogul's court, and Colonel Burn, the commandant of the 
 garrison, had successfully defended the wide and crumbling 
 walls during several weeks. It was easy for the Mahrattas 
 to make breaches, for they had some heavy guns, and the 
 works were rotten ; but they could not storm through the 
 breaches when they had made them, and all their endeavours 
 to take the place by surprise and escalade were abortive. 
 As there were very few regular troops in the place, and as 
 the garrison was principally composed of a motley rabble, 
 collected in haste from various quarters, and armed only 
 with matchlocks, Ochterlony and Bum must have made 
 extraordinary^ eflbrts, and have given proof of very extra- 
 ordinary ability. In some respects their defence of Delhi 
 might be compared with Clive's heroic defence of Arcot. 
 
 Lake found the Great Mogul's capital little better than 
 a den of thieves. Every night alarms were created by the 
 
306 A l^IGHT MAECH. [1804. 
 
 numerous robbers that infested the bills and the ruins round 
 the city, and that made their way into the bazars of the army. 
 Moving secretly and rapidly to the northward, Holkar 
 now crossed the Jumna, near Paniput, threatening to lay 
 waste our territories in the Duab. But Lake and Eraser 
 were soon after him, crossing the Jumna at a ford at 
 about three miles from Delhi. Orders were issued to our 
 troops to march as light as possible. As they advanced, 
 they found some fierce bands of Seiks, who occupied nearly 
 the whole northern quarter of th^ Delhi province ; but 
 Colonel Burn, who led the van, easily cleared the road with 
 grape-shot, and entered the small mud fort of Shumlee. 
 Here he was surrounded by an immense host ; but it fled 
 on seeing the clouds of dust raised by the march of our 
 main body. On the 6th of IS'ovember, Lake's army marched 
 about twenty-four miles on the road to Soldana, or Sird- 
 hana, a pleasant, highly-cultivated, rich district. On the 
 next day, our foremost column got sight of a body of 
 Mahratta horse, who took instantly to flight. Closely pur- 
 sued by the English, they fled past the town of Meerut, 
 without stopping to plunder it. Having left at Meerut 
 Colonel Bum, with three battalions of infantry and some 
 irregular cavalry, for the protection of the northern parts of 
 the Duab, Lake marched after the marauders, who ravaged 
 and burned the defenceless villages as they swept along, 
 making no attempts upon towns surrounded with any kind 
 of walls. On the 16th of November, his lordship reached 
 AHigunge, which \dllage was still burning when the English 
 entered it. But Holkar was encamped good thirty-six miles 
 ahead, near Emruckabad. Lake, however, resolved to 
 make another attempt to surprise him by a forced night 
 march. The distance was great, but it was likely to add to 
 the Mahratta security or confidence. At nine o'clock in 
 the evening, his lordship mth the British cavalry, moved 
 on without tents or baggage of any kind. Just as they 
 were mounting their horses, they received the welcome news 
 of the victory gained over Holkar' s brigade at Deeg. This 
 made them doubly eager to come up with the chief himself, 
 in order to give the finishing stroke. The moon was up, 
 and the night mild and pleasant. As they spurred along 
 the road, they were cheered by the intelligence, that their 
 foe was motionless in his encampment, and wholly unsus- 
 picious of their approach. 
 
1804.] A MAHEATTA CAMP SUEPEISED. 307 
 
 The day was just begmning to dawn on the 17th, when 
 the head of their column reached the skirts of the Mahratta 
 camp. Still no movement, no suspicion: the Mahratta 
 horses were at picket, and by the side of them the men lay 
 sleeping. Some rounds of grape, fired from our gallopers 
 into the thickest of their camp, was the first intimation they 
 received of Lake's arrival. The fire awakened them, but 
 made the sleep of many a long sleep. The king's 8th light 
 dragoons got first in among them, charging and cutting 
 them down ; our othfer regiments did the same as fast as 
 they came up, so that in a short time the whole camp was 
 covered with the bodies of the killed and wounded. Holkar 
 himself escaped, being the first to fly. He was accompanied 
 or followed by a small party of his cavalry, the only men 
 that could mount and escape and keep together ; and he 
 never drew rein until he had re-crossed the Calini river, at 
 a ford eighteen miles distant. 
 
 By this one blow the cavalry of Holkar was ruined or 
 dispersed, as his infantry and artillery had been at Deeg. 
 On first crossing the Jumna he hjjd 60,000 horse ; after 
 recrossing the Calini he could not collect 10,000. More 
 than 3,000 had fallen in the surprised camp; the rest 
 deserted, and never joined him again. Lake continued the 
 pursuit for upwards of ten miles ; and as his march during the 
 preceding day and night was fifty-eight miles, the distance 
 to which the enemy was followed and the space passed 
 over before he took up a new encampment-ground exceeded 
 seventy miles in the space of twenty-four hours ; an effort 
 scarcely paralleled in military history, for it was made after 
 a long and harassing march of 350 miles in the space of a 
 fortnight. The fatigue was great, but not so the loss : he 
 had only two British dragoons killed and about twenty men 
 wounded ; and of the seventy-five horses that perished or 
 became useless, the far greater part seem to have been 
 foundered on the forced night march. The Mahrattas left 
 plenty of good horses behind them, and these were cap- 
 tured. "With his infantry^ following him almost at the 
 charging pace, Lake pushed on to the city of Furruckabad, 
 whose flourishing condition had enticed Holkar thither, the 
 Mahratta expecting to make a rich prize before the English 
 could come up with. him. His lordship arrived just at the 
 nick of time, for the unruly Patans of the town and neigh- 
 bourhood had not only engaged to co-operate with the 
 X 2 
 
308 VICTOKT OF DEEG. [1804. 
 
 Mahrattas, but had risen upon the English residents, and 
 had driven the Company's weak detachment of sepoys into 
 the fort of Futtyghur. The Patans had already set fire to 
 our cavalry stables and officers' bungalows, and were besieg- 
 ing the fort. Having first knocked a good many of these 
 Patans on the head, Lake's army fired three royal salutes; 
 one in honour of the victory obtained by Maior-G-eneral 
 Eraser at Deeg, another for the capture of Chandore by 
 Colonel Wallace, and another for his own action in the 
 Mahratta camp. * 
 
 While Lord Lake had been preparing to fall upon Hol- 
 kar's cavalry, part of the British infantry and artillery under 
 Eraser had' been sent to look after Holkar's disciplined 
 brigades and his guns, which were knoTVTi to be somewhere 
 Avithin the Bhurtpoor rajah's territories. On the morning 
 of the 13th of November, Eraser came up with the enemy, 
 who were encamped between a large deep tank and an 
 extensive morass, their right being covered by a fortified 
 village, and their left resting on the fort of Deeg. They 
 were twenty-four well-disciplined battalions with a tremen- 
 dous artillery ; and their position was truly formidable. 
 jN'evertheless, at three o'clock, two European regiments and 
 four battalions of sepoys marched gaily and confidently to 
 the attack. This gallant little column had to make a long 
 detour to avoid the morass, so that it was daybreak ere it 
 reached the fortified village on a hill which covered the 
 enemy's right. Here the troops immediately wheeled into 
 line ; the 76th regiment and two battalions forming the 
 first, and the remaining troops the second line. The 76th, 
 with charged bayonets, drove the Mahrattas out of the 
 village ; and then, ruiming down the hill, charged the first 
 range of their guns, under a terrific storm of round, grape, 
 and chain shot. The enemy abandoned their guns as our men 
 came up to them, and retired to fresh batteries. When our 
 second line passed through the fortified village, which had 
 been carried by the first line, the Company's European regi- 
 ment, seeing the brave 76th so far ahead in the thickest of 
 the multitudinous enemy, ran to its support, and was fol- 
 lowed by some of the sepoys, who again kept pace w^ith the 
 British. Erom their second range the Mahrattas opened a 
 stm more destructive fire. Here a cannon-ball took off Gene- 
 ral Eraser's leg. The general was carried from the field, and 
 the command devolved upon Colonel Monson, who had been 
 
1804.] EEDUCTIOK OF CHA^n'DOEE. 309 
 
 very unfortunate, but who had never failed in soldierly bear- 
 ing. The British and sepoy bayonets soon drove the Mah- 
 rattas from their second range ; one battery was charged 
 and carried after another, over the distance of two miles, till 
 coming close under the walls of the fort of Deeg, olu' troops 
 were compelled to fall back. In the mean time a body of 
 the enemy's horse, coming suddenly round, retook their first 
 range of guns, and turned them against our troops ; but 
 Captain Henry Xorford, of the 76th, with only twenty-eight 
 men, charged them with tlie bayonet, drove them off, and took 
 those guns again. Captain Xorford was killed in perform- 
 ing this brilliant exploit. At the lower edge of the morass 
 was a dense body of Holkar's infantry, with a number of 
 heavy guns. AVith only two battalions of sepoys and three 
 six-pounders, Major Hammond had kept this corps in check 
 during the whole of the action. IN'ow Colonel Monson 
 placed a few more six-pounders in Major Hammond's front, 
 and under cover of their fire and smoke moved round upon 
 the enemy's flank. These Mahrattas made a precipitate 
 retreat into the morass, where great numbers perished, and 
 amongst them two of the principal officers of their army. 
 The field was fairly and gloriously won, though not without a 
 very henYj loss for so small a "force. The number of our 
 killed and wounded amounted to 643, among whom were 
 twenty-two British officers. Major-General Eraser died of 
 liis wounds a few days after the battle. But, without count- 
 ing those who had "been swallowed up in the morass, from 
 2,000 to 3,000 of the enemy lay dead on the field ; eighty- 
 seven fine pieces of artillery, of European fabric, were 
 captured; and the flower of Holkar's army, twenty-four 
 well-trained battalions, was broken up and dispersed.* 
 
 The reduction of Chandore, the strongest place Holkar 
 held on the side of the Deckan, had been planned by G-ene- 
 ral AVellesley. The troops appomted to the service consisted 
 of detachments from the Company's subsidiary force serving 
 with the nizam and the peishwa, and of some contingents 
 furnished by those two princes. They were commanded by 
 Colonels AV^allace and Haliburton ; and, through the great 
 care of General Wellesley, they were well supplied with 
 money and provisions. Early in October, Colonel AV^allace, 
 after a long march, succeeded in capturing the dependent fort 
 
 * Major Thorn, 'Memoir of the War,' &c. Colonel Monson's 
 ' Despatch to the Governor-General.' 
 
310 SIEGE OF DEEG. [1804. 
 
 of Lassengong, about twelve miles from Chandore. An easy 
 march then brought him in front of the famed stronghold. 
 The place merited its reputation for strength, and a vigor- 
 ous resistance was expected ; but as soon as "Wallace had 
 established a battery, Holkar's commandant held out the 
 white flag, and surrendered upon condition that private 
 property should be respected, and that the garrison should 
 be allowed to carry off their baggage, &c. The fall of 
 Chandore induced the surrender of a number of small forts, 
 and deprived Holkar of all his possessions south of the 
 Taptee river. 
 
 The war would have been finished by the great battle of 
 Deeg and by his other reverses, if it had not been for the 
 alliance which Holkar had contracted with the warlike Jauts 
 and their ruler, E-unjeet Sing, the rajah of Bhurtpoor. This 
 chief had sent his cavalry to fight with the troops of Holkar 
 at Deeg ; with the artillery of his fortress of Deeg he had 
 caused us much loss ; and when the battle was over he had 
 received into that fortress as many of the Mahrattas as 
 could escape to it. It was therefore resolved to carry the 
 war into the heart of E.unjeet Sing's territories, to reduce 
 all his forts, and even Bhurtpoor, his capital. 
 
 Accordingly Lord Lake, with the cavalry and flying artil- 
 lery with him, marched back from Furruckabad to Delhi, to 
 cross the Jumna near that city, leaving the reserve to 
 follow in a few days. His lordship expected to be attacked on 
 the way by another chief of the Jaut race, who was named 
 Rajah Dyaram Thakoor, and was related to Eunjeet Sing, 
 the rajah of Bhurtpoor ; but he passed through his country 
 without molestation. On the 1st of December, Lord Lake 
 came up with his cavalry and artiller}^, and joined the infan- 
 try which Greneral Eraser had brought into the country, 
 and which were now commanded by Colonel Monson. Thus, 
 after a month's separation, during which the cavalry had 
 marched upwards of 500 miles, the two branches of the 
 army reunited with mutual congratulations, for the cavalry, 
 acting by itself, had gained the great advantage over the 
 Mahratta cavalry in the camp near Furruckabad, and the 
 infantry, acting by itself, had won the victory at Deeg. 
 
 Having been joined by his reserve under Colonel Don, 
 "with a battering train from Agra, Lord Lake marched on 
 the 11th of December, in two columns parallel to each 
 other, to break ground before the fortress of Deeg. As the 
 
1805.] SIEGE OF BHrRTPOOR. ^11; 
 
 army and its accessories moved leisurely across the country, 
 the spectacle was imposing; for the native bazar people 
 and other camp-followers were not fewer than 60,000, and 
 there were 200 elephants, 2,000 camels, and 100,000 bul- 
 locks for carrjing grain, equipage, baggage, &c. The British 
 were in possession of the town of Deeg and all its outworks 
 by the morning of the 24th of December, and on the morn- 
 ing of Christmas day, the Mahrattas evacuated the citadel, 
 flying in a panic, and lea^dng an immense artillery and 
 everything else behind them. 
 
 On the 1st of January, 1805, Lord Lake moved from Deeg 
 to Bhurtpoor, the well-defended capital of the rajah, which 
 stood amidst jungles and water, at the distance of about 
 thirty English miles from Agra. On the 3rd the British 
 took up their encampment-ground for the prosecution of a 
 siege which has scarcely a parallel in the history- of modem 
 India. Bhurtpoor, a maiden fortress, was amazingly strong, 
 both naturally and artificially, and its garrison was a nume- 
 rous and resolute army. When breaches were made, several 
 assaults were most successfully repelled by the besieged. 
 In one of these affairs we lost nearly 300 Europeans and 
 200 sepoys. The enemy butchered in cold blood all the 
 wounded who fell in the ditch or beyond the outer wall, 
 and several of Lake's best officers were thus slain. With 
 great alacrity strong stockades were formed behind the 
 breaches which our guns had made. On the 18th of 
 Januaiy Major-G-eneral Smith arrived in camp with three 
 battalions of sepoys belonging to the garrison of Agra, and 
 100 convalescent Europeans, who, by a circuitous route, had 
 performed a march of fifty miles in twenty-four hours. At 
 the same time Ismael Beg deserted from Holkar and joined 
 the English with 500 native horse. Better advances were 
 then made, and the batteries of the besiegers renewed their 
 fire with greater \-igour. 
 
 Lured by the present of six lacs of rupees, and by the 
 tempting prospect of plunder, Meer Khan, an adventurer 
 of Afghan descent, who was then pillaging in Bundelkund, 
 marched with all his forces towards Bhurtpoor to assist the 
 rajah. 
 
 On the 2l8t of January Lake tried another storm. This 
 was met by the enemy with considerable skill and ingenuity, 
 as well as by great bravery, and Colonel Macrae, in com- 
 mand of the attacking column, was beaten back with the loss 
 
312 DEFEAT OF MEER KHAI^. [1805. 
 
 of eighteen officers and nearly 600 men in killed or wounded. 
 And, as this catastrophe closed, Meer Khan, from Bundel- 
 kund, appeared in the rear of our encampment with crowds 
 of cavalry. The British horse, however, held these forces in 
 check, and towards night the English artillery dispersed 
 them, and killed some fifty of their number with the galloper 
 guns. Lake had commenced the siege with gigantic onate- 
 riel, but he was already in want of provisions and stores, 
 and a convoy of 12,000 loaded bullocks was anxiously ex- 
 pected. As this convoy was guarded only by a small body 
 of matchlock-men, a regiment of native cavalry and a 
 battalion of a European regiment were detached, under the 
 command of Captain AValsh, to meet it on its way and escort 
 it from Mutra to the camp. Walsh joined the convoy 
 without any difficulty, but on the morning of the 23r'd 
 of January, wheii only a few miles from the camp, he was 
 beset and attacked by Meer Khan, at the head of 8,000 horse. 
 Captain Walsh retreated into a large open village with the 
 greater part of the convoy intact, but some of the bullocks 
 were of necessity abandoned. Though assailed on all sides, 
 his musketry and field-pieces repeatedly beat off" the assailants, 
 but two of his guns getting disabled, the enemy made a des- 
 perate push on that point, and gained possession of part of the 
 village. Walsh's guns were heard in the English camp, and 
 forthwith Colonel IS'eed sounded boot and saddle, and, with 
 an English regiment of dragoons and a regiment of native 
 cavalry, galloped towards the spot. The sepoys in the village, 
 on perceiving the clouds of dust which marked the advance 
 of our cavalry, set up a loud and joyous shout, fell upon 
 Meer Khan's guns, and carried them at the point of the 
 bayonet just as Colonel Xeed was arriving. With his two 
 regiments of horse Xeed then dashed among the Mahrattas 
 and put them to flight. Six hundred of Meer Khan's people 
 were left dead on the field, and he himself, in the disguise of 
 a common soldier, escaped with the utmost difficulty, leaving 
 behind him forty flags, all his artillery and tumbrils, his own 
 palanquin, arms, armour, and splendid attire. On the 24th 
 another detaclmient was sent from the camp for the protec- 
 tion of another and much greater convoy coming from Agra. 
 On the 29th Holkar, the rajah of Bhurtpoor, and Mccv 
 Khan, having united for the purpose all the forces they 
 could collect, threatened an attack on this rich convoy ; but 
 Lake had sent out a second detachment to meet the other 
 
1805.] A CHASE. 313 
 
 on the road, aud, although the couvoy was repeatedly sur- 
 rounded, it was brought into camp without the loss of a 
 single bullock. 
 
 As the number of the enemy within the walls of Bhurt- 
 poor was undiminished, and as the two attempted assaults 
 had cost us so great a sacrifice of life. Lord Lake resolved to 
 proceed with more caution. But while he was preparing 
 the means of crossing the broad deep moat of Bhurtpoor^ 
 filled up with water, Meer Khan, wheeling round with his 
 flying horse, made a rush into the Duab, and invaded the 
 Company's own territories, being followed b}" clouds of 
 Pindarrees, the freebooters and moss-troopers of India, who 
 had scorned all political connections, and sought nothing 
 but plunder. The rajah of Bhiu:tpoor had calculated that 
 this unexpected invasion of the Duab would induce Lake 
 to raise the siege ; but his lordship merely detached Major- 
 G-eneral Smitli with a part of his cavalry, and with the 
 horse artillery, and continued his own operations at 
 Bhurtpoor. 
 
 Smith executed the duty intrusted to him in a very masterly 
 manner, and with complete success, crossing and re-crossing 
 the Jumna and the Granges, plimging through other streams 
 which intersected the country, climbing lofty mountains, 
 threading woods and jungles, and making marches which 
 were never surpassed by any army. The burning villages and 
 the wasted coimtr\' showed him the route Meer Khan was 
 taking. He came up with that chieftain on the 1st of 
 March, near the toAm of Afzulghur, and routed him with 
 great loss. The khan's principal officers were killed or 
 wounded or captured, and a band of stout brave Patans, the 
 pride of his army, were literally cut to pieces on the field, as 
 they would neither fly nor surrender, Meer Khan went oft' 
 like the wind, evacuating the Company's territories, and 
 re-crossing the Granges with a very diminutive force. Greneral 
 Smith, after restoring order to the country, returned to 
 Bhurtpoor, the point from which he had started. His chase 
 had lasted him a month, during which he had ridden over 
 700 miles of the roughest country.* 
 
 * Major Thorn, ' Memoir of the War,' &c. The major, who had 
 accompanied Gen. Smith, says, " Our detachment, after this expedition, 
 was somewhat the worse for wear ; but, though many of the horses were 
 completely knocked up, the state of the whole was far better than what 
 might have been reasonably expected. It merits remark, that the Bengal 
 
314 SIEGE OF BnUETPOOR. [1805. 
 
 During the absence of G-eneral Smitli, Lord Lake had 
 been joined by a division of the Bombay army, under Major- 
 General Jones. This division, consisting only of four 
 battalions of sepoys, one entire British regiment, eight com- 
 panies of another British regiment, a troop of Bombay 
 cavalry, 500 native irregular horse, and a few field-pieces, 
 had made another extraordinary march, having traversed 
 the whole of Malwa in central India, and having penetrated 
 through the very heart of the Mahratta empire, including 
 the hereditary dominions of Holkar and Scindiah. 'Not- 
 withstanding this reinforcement, Lord Lake found that to 
 take Bhurtpoor by siege and storm was no easy work. 
 When wider breaches were made and another assault was 
 in contemplation, the rajah's people sallied out in great 
 force, and slew a heap of the besiegers with their long pikes 
 and tolwars. And when that assault was made, it cost 
 Lord Lake nearly 1,000 men in killed and wounded. On 
 the very next day his lordsliip ordered another assault. 
 This time he threw nearly the whole of his European force 
 and several battalions of native infantry against those fatal 
 walls, under the immediate command of Colonel Monson. 
 Our men performed prodigies of valour. Lieutenant Temple- 
 ton, who headed a party, was killed just as he had planted our 
 colours near the summit of the lofty walls, and Major Menzies, 
 who followed him, was slain as he was cheering on his men. 
 And all the while the enemy, who appear to have been 
 aided by some Erench artillerymen, and by people who 
 had studied the art of war under M. Perron, kept up an 
 incessant fire of grape-shot, and the people on the walls 
 continually threw down upon the heads of their as- 
 sailants, great stones, heavy pieces of timber, flaming bales 
 
 cavalry throughout the campaign endured trials and hardships almost sur- 
 passing conception. Independent of their previous long marches up to 
 Delhi, they had pursued Holkar closely for above 500 miles, till they 
 overtook him and completed his overthrow at the battle of Furruckabad ; 
 shortly after which they were called off unexpectedly to the chase of Meer 
 Khan, whom they followed through all his doublings and windings, over 
 rivers of great magnitude, and to the mountains of Kemaon, from whence 
 he was forced back, discomfited, and abandoned by the hardiest of his 
 followers. In this fatiguing course the most harassing part which we had 
 to undergo consisted in our nocturnal marches, which, continuing night 
 after night through the whole month, proved exceedingly distressing to 
 man and beast, in depriving them of that natural rest which they sought 
 in vain during the heat of the day." 
 
1805.] SIEGE OP BHTJETPOOE. 315 
 
 of cotton, previously soaked with oil, and pots filled with 
 gunpowder and other combustibles. At last Colonel Mon- 
 son gave up the attempt as hopeless, recalling the storming 
 parties, and returned to the trenches. This time our loss in 
 killed and woiuided seems to have exceeded 1,000 ; of 
 English officers alone five were killed and twelve woimded. 
 In aU 3,100 men and a very great number of officers were put 
 hors de comhat in the several attempts to carry Bhurtpoor 
 by storm. 
 
 His lordship now converted his siege into a blockade. 
 There appears to have been a want of artillery, skill, and of 
 engineering science, and many errors had avowedly been 
 committed. Our guns, which were nearly all blown at the 
 touchhole, were now withdrawn, detachments were sent off 
 for fresh guns and for supplies, and portions of the army 
 were moved to other positions to block up the roads leading 
 into the town, a difficult undertaking, for the cavalry of the 
 enemy was still very numerous, and our cavalry was absent 
 with G-eneral Smith, who had not yet returned from pur- 
 suing Meer Khan. 
 
 But when the rajah of Bhurtpoor, upon being informed 
 that convoys, with supplies of all kinds from different parts, 
 and battering guns and ammunition from Euttyghur and 
 Alighur, were arriving daily in camp, that he had little or 
 no assistance to expect from his allies, and that nothing 
 seemed likely to interrupt the perseverance of Lord Lake, 
 lost all faith in his lucky star, and sent vakeels to negotiate 
 for a peace. 
 
 But these iiegotiations were suspended by the reappear- 
 ance of Holkar in great force about eight miles to the west- 
 ward of Bhurtpoor. Fortunately the British cavalry which 
 had been pursuing Meer Khan, was by this time in camp, and 
 after resting a few days, it marched silently out by night, 
 headed by Lord Lake himself, who intended to beat up the 
 quarters of Holkar, as he had done at Furruckabad. The 
 Mahratta, having received a hint, was in full flight before his 
 lordship could reach the spot ; but some of the fiigitives were 
 overtaken and slain, their camp was destroyed, and many of 
 their horses, camels, and elephants, were captured. Still, 
 however, Holkar lingered in the neighbourhood, and he was 
 joined by Meer Khan, with the fragment of his own force 
 and some of the Pindarrees, who had suffered no loss from 
 General Smith's chase, because they never stopped to fight 
 
31G SUBMISSION OF THE BIIUETPOOR EAJAH. [1805 
 
 wlien they could gallop away. This accession of force seem!< 
 to have made Holkar less ^dgilant, for, on the 2nd of April, 
 he was overtaken, charged in front and on both his flanks by 
 Lake's cavalry, and put to the route with a terrible loss. He 
 fled across the Chumbul river with about 8,000 horse, 
 5,000 foot, and twenty or thirty guns, the miserable remains 
 of the vast army with which he had opened these campaigns. 
 Several of his chiefs now came over with their followers to 
 the English camp. Some troops that were advancing to his 
 succour were beaten and scattered by a British detachment 
 which marched out of Agra. Holkar fled to join Scindiah, 
 who, notwithstanding the dreadful chastisement he had 
 received at the hands of General AVellesley, and the treaty 
 he had concluded in December, 1803, was contemplating a 
 renewal of the war with the English. 
 
 But the rajah of Bhurtpoorwas in no condition to wait the 
 eifects of a new confederacy, his coimtry was half-ruined by 
 the war, his besieged capital was now useless to him, and on 
 the lOtli of April he repaired in person to the EngUsh camp 
 and implored for peace. This was granted by Lord Lake upon 
 the following conditions : 1. The fortress of Deeg was to re- 
 main in the hands of the English till they should be assured 
 of the rajah's fidelity, who pledged himself never to have 
 any connection with the enemies of Great Britain, and 
 never to entertain, without the sanction of the Company, 
 any Europeans in his ser\dce. 2. He was to pay the Com- 
 pany by instahnents twenty lacs of Eurruckabad rupees, 
 and to give up some territories which the Company had 
 formerly annexed to his dominions. 3. As a security for 
 the due execution of these terms, he was to deliver up one of 
 his sons as a hostage, to reside with the British officers at 
 Delhi or Agra. 
 
 Having received the first instalment of the money and the 
 required hostage, our forces broke up from before Bhurtpoor, 
 where they had been lying three months and twenty days. 
 They began their march on the 21st of April, Lake going at 
 once in search of Scindiah, who had expected that his lord- 
 ship's army would be utterly ruined by the long siege and 
 its other operations. "With JHolkar with him, or not far from 
 him, Scindiah fled towards Ajmeer. Several of his chiefs 
 came over and joined Lord Lake, who found more trust- 
 worthy reinforcements in some divisions of British troops, 
 and sepoys that now came up the country. 
 
1805.] AERIYAL OF MAEQl'lS COEXWALLIS. 317 
 
 As the rainy monsoon approaclied, it was necessary to 
 look for shelter. One part of Lake's army found it in 
 the splendid but decayed palace of the great Akbar, at 
 Puttypoor Sicree ; another part quartered itself in the 
 remains of the palaces of the ancient Mogul chiefs, in and 
 about Agra and Mutra; and two regiments of British 
 dragoons found comfortable lodgings in the immense mau- 
 soleum of the emperor Akbar, about seven miles from Agra, 
 sheltering their horses in the once magnificent garden, 
 and eating and sleeping and pursuing their trooper sports 
 among the white marble tombs of the potentate and his 
 family, and of the Mogul omrahs. The men were rough 
 dragooners, without any of those pretensions to taste and 
 reverence for works of art and antiquity, which Avere at 
 this time set up by or for the armies of Bonaparte ; but 
 they had the English feeling of respect for the dead, and 
 they offered no violence to the sanctity of the tombs, though 
 they were rumoured to contain gold and jewels, and they 
 left the marble slabs and the ornamented Saracenic arches, 
 the cupolas and minarets, the sculpture and carving, and 
 the mosaic pavements, in as good order as they found 
 them. To the honour of our troops, let this conduct be 
 contrasted with that of the French in the sepulchral abbey 
 of Batalha, in Portugal, and in numerous other edifices 
 devoted to the ashes of the illustrious dead and to the 
 services of the Christian religion. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to interrupt the narrative of the 
 interesting war, or to make a separate chapter for the 
 second and very short administration of the Marquis Corn- 
 wallis. But aib this juncture that nobleman arrived to 
 succeed the Marquis AVellesley, and being a military man 
 to couple the office of commander-in-chief with that of 
 governor-general. He commenced by pronouncing sentence 
 of condemnation on the policy of his energetic predecessor. 
 But Comwallis, however good, high-minded, and excellent, 
 was now falling into the second childhood, and his atten- 
 tion had been too exclusively occupied by those who mur- 
 mured at the expenses of a necessary war. Moreover, he 
 had come out shackled by ministerial injunctions and pacific 
 orders. As commander-in-chief, Comwallis could control 
 Lake, but he left him the chief command in the regions 
 where he was. As soon, however, as the weather permitted, 
 the marquis quitted Calcutta to travel to the upper pro- 
 
318 DEATH OF COENWALLIS. [1805. 
 
 yinces and there to confer with Lord Lake and others on 
 the best means of terminating the war. At his advanced 
 age he could ill bear the fatigues of such a journey ; he fell 
 sick on the road, and died, and was baried at Gazipore, 
 near Benares, within three months after his return to India. 
 The government then devolved provisionally upon Sir 
 G-eorge Barlow, senior member of the supreme council, an 
 excellent administrator, a civilian, and one desirous of peace. 
 But Barlow differed from Cornwallis as to the best means 
 of obtaining a general pacification in India. Lord Lake was 
 decidedly of opinion that the British possessions, and those 
 of their allies, would never be secured until both Scindiah 
 and Holkar were driven beyond the Indus and the Mah- 
 ratta powers annihilated. His lordship maintained, that it 
 would be an act of insanity, or of the very utmost impru- 
 dence, to treat with Holkar. Such also had been the 
 opinion of G-eneral AVellesley, who, in a letter dated the 
 29th of January of this year, had said : " We have had 
 glorious successes in the contest with Holkar ; but his 
 power of annoying us, or rather our allies, is by no means 
 destroyed. I consider Holkar to be the chief of all the 
 freebooters and vagrants scattered about all parts of India, 
 every man of whom is the declared enemy of the British 
 government. So long as Holkar exists and is in any 
 strength, we cannot consider the territories of our allies in 
 security, and we must protect them with our troops, as they 
 have no troops of their own to protect themselves."* Lord 
 Lake well knew that treaties with Mahrattas were of no 
 avail, and that either Holkar or Scindiah singly, or both 
 of them combined, would renew the war, were peace granted 
 to them now, before many years were over. Had his lord- 
 ship's advice been followed, both of these great Mahrattas 
 would have been crushed at one and the same time. But 
 what was termed the pacific spirit was again dominant in 
 our councils, and large and impolitic concessions to one of 
 those faithless chiefs were contemplated, including the im- 
 portant fortress of Grwalior, which was oiu's by a second storm 
 and capture, and a part of the country of Gohud, the 
 Hindoo ruler of which had been true to his treaty with the 
 Company, and had rendered important assistance to Lord 
 Lake, during his campaign in Bhurtpoor. We never were 
 pacific in India without being unjust to our allies. Nor, at 
 * ' Wellington Despatches.' 
 
1805.] LAKE PURSUES HOLKAR. 319 
 
 this period, could it be otherwise. The object of our pacific 
 and diplomatic partiality was Scindiah, whose treachery 
 deserved a signal punishment, and whose forces, whether 
 acting separately or with Holkar, would have been despised 
 by Lord Lake and his army. Upon receiving intimation of 
 the favourable dispositions manifested towards him at Cal- 
 cutta, Scindiah parted company with Holkar, and entered 
 into negotiations with Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Malcolm, 
 and thereupon Holkar spiu^red away to the banks of the 
 Indus, giving out that he expected to be joined by the hardy 
 tribes of Afghanistan and by the king of Cabul himself. He 
 had stiU vrith him a few pieces of light artillery and some 
 rabble ; and in the country to the north-west of Delhi, he 
 picked up thousands of adventurers with horses and spears. 
 He eluded Major-G-eneral Jones and Colonel Ball, who 
 marched from different points to intercept him. This induced 
 Lord Lake to follow Holkar himself; and fortunately his 
 lordship was not restrained by orders from Calcutta, and he 
 was again commander-in-chief in India; therefore, what was 
 at once a romantic and a most useful campaign was opened, 
 and it did not terminate until it had extended to the 
 "fabulous streams" of Horace and Milton. 
 
 The force Lake took with him on this extraordinary 
 march consisted of his majesty's 24th and 25th dragoons, 
 and the 6th native cavalry, under Brigadier- General Keed ; 
 of his majesty's 8th dragoons, and 3rd native cavalry, 
 commanded by Brigadier- &eneral Wood ; of his majesty's 
 22nd foot, a European regiment of the Company, and two 
 battalions of sepoys, under Brigadier- General Mercer ; and 
 of a park of horse-artiUery, commanded by Captains Pen- 
 nington and Brown. 
 
 With these corps Lake advanced towards the country of 
 the Seiks, driving Holkar before him, and obhging that 
 Mahratta to cross the Sutledj. The ameers or chiefs of 
 the Seiks assured his lordship that their intentions were 
 pacific : and so they were ; but so they would not have been 
 if Lake had allowed Holkar any rest or time. 
 
 Our little army halted for a day at Paniput, which was 
 famous for the number of terrible battles which had been 
 fought in its neighbourhood. The last of these terrible 
 battles was fought in the year 1761, between the Afghans, 
 under Achmed Shah, the sovereign of Cabul, and the com- 
 bined Mahrattas. It ended, after a most obstinate conflict, 
 
320 AN IRISH EAJAH. [1805. 
 
 in the total defeat of the Mahrattas, 'who lost their whole 
 army, Avith 200 pieces of artillery and everything else they 
 had brought into the field. It is said, that of 500,000 
 soids, including women and children and camp-followers of 
 aU descriptions, who were in the field with the Mahrattas, 
 very few escaped alive. The bigoted Afghans murdered 
 their helpless prisoners in cold blood ; alleging that, on 
 leaving their own country, their dear mothers, sisters, and 
 wives begged them, whenever they should defeat the unbe- 
 lievers, to kill a few of them on their account, that they also 
 might obtain merit in the sight of Grod and his prophet 
 Mahomet. As the Afghans cut oif the heads of the Mah- 
 rattas, they piled them up before the doors of their tents. 
 The son of the peishwa of that day fell in the battle. His 
 body was found and carried to the tent of the king of 
 Cabul. The Afghans cried out, " This is the body of the 
 king of the Unbelievers! We will have it dried and 
 stuffed, that it may be carried home with us to Cabul!" 
 His Afghan majesty was, however, induced to prevent this 
 barbarity, and to order the body to be burned. 
 
 Paniput was also remarkable as having been quite 
 recently the capital of an Irish rajah, the famous Greorge 
 Thomas, an adventurer from Tipperary and a deserter from 
 our fleet, who had made himself master and sovereign of 
 the whole of the Hurriannah, or "The G-reen Country," a 
 beautiful district, extendmg to the verge of the sandy desert 
 of Ajmeer.* 
 
 From Paniput Lord Lake proceeded to Carnaul, and from 
 Carnaul to Ameerghur, on the skirts of the great sandy 
 desert. 
 
 On his left there now appeared sandhills in endless suc- 
 cession, like the waves of the ocean, desolate and dreary 
 to an immense extent ; while to the front and right of 
 these wastes, the eye was deceived by all the illusions of 
 the mirage. t "These optical deceptions," says the his- 
 torian of the march, who himself suftered what he described, 
 
 * For this amusing episode in our Indian history for the marvellous 
 adventures of the Irish rajah and the Begum Sumroo the reader is referred 
 to ' Military Memoirs of Mr. George Thomas,' by Capt, W. Francklin, 
 Calcutta, 1803. To Major Thorn, ' Memoir of the War,' &c. To 
 Bishop Heber's ' Indian Journal ; ' and to ' Life of Lieutenant- Colonel 
 -Skinner, recently edited and published by Baillie Tytler Fraser.' 
 
 t Major Thorn. 
 
1805.] LORD LAKE ON THE HYPHASIS. 321 
 
 " exhibited to us the representations of spacious lakes and 
 rivers, with trees and other objects, in such a lively mamier 
 as almost to cheat the senses of persons familiarly acquainted 
 witli the phenomenon ; while they w^ho were oppressed by 
 excessive heat and parched with thirst cheered themselves 
 with the hope of being soon refreshed with water from 
 the friendly tank or cooling stream, of which they thought 
 they had so clear a prospect. Often were we thus agitated 
 between expectancy and disappointment, flattering our 
 imaginations with a speedy indulgence ; when, just as the 
 delightful vision appeared on the point of being realized, 
 like the cup of Tantalus, the whole vanished, and left us 
 nothing to rest upon but arid plains of glittering and burn- 
 ing sands."* 
 
 Still pressing forward in what had once been the track 
 of the greatest general of the gigantic conqueror Timour, 
 or Tamerlane, Lake crossed the Sutledj, and, skirting the 
 great sandy desert, which stretches from the left bank of 
 the Indus to within 100 miles of Delhi, he plunged into the 
 Punjaub, or the country of the five rivers. On his way he was 
 joined by Colonel Burn, who had brought up a detachment 
 from Paniput by an entirely new route, and by one of those 
 admirable marches which so often challenge admiration in 
 these far-extended campaigns. And then, still pressing 
 onwards, and pointing the heads of his columns towards 
 the spot where the Macedonian conqueror stayed his advance 
 and turned back from the inauspicious gods of India, Lake 
 reached the banks of the Hyphasis now the Beali or Beas 
 the boundary of Alexander the G-reat's conquest, where 
 his Greeks liad erected twelve massive altars as a memorial. 
 The British standard waved majestically over those waters, 
 and the British troops eyed themselves in the same clear mir- 
 ror which had reflected the Macedonian phalanges more than 
 tw^o thousand one hundred years ago. The scenery around 
 was as sublime as the recollections. In the extreme dis- 
 tance, from north to east, towered the snowy ridge of old 
 Imaus a part of the Hemalaya whose loftiest peak 
 exceeds the highest of the Andes by thousands of feet. 
 The fleecy softness of this most faint and irregular outline 
 
 * The Persians call this phenomenon "serab," or " sir-ab" (miracu- 
 lous water). In these western deserts of India it is known by the name 
 of " tchittram" (picture). It is a pity that we English should continue 
 to employ a not very good French word. 
 
 
 
S22 TREATIES OF PEACE [1806. 
 
 rested upon immense masses of nearer mountains : still nearer 
 were rugged eminences and pine-clad liills sloping down to a 
 fine undulating country of hill and dale, covered with luxuriant 
 vegetation, enlivened by niunerous callages, dotted with tem- 
 ples, pagodas, tombs, and ruins, and bounded by the noble 
 river which flowed immediately before the English army on 
 its way to join the Indus and the ocean. Many thousands 
 of the native inhabitants collected on the opposite bank of 
 the Hyphasis to gaze upon our troops; but as here, as 
 during the whole march, the strictest discipline had been 
 observed, and no wrongs offered to the people, these asto- 
 nished spectators soon drew nearer, and, mixing with the 
 bazar of the army, agreed to bring in suppHes of fruits, 
 vegetables, and other commodities.* 
 
 Holkar at this time lay encamped at a place about mid- 
 way between Lord Lake's camp on the Hyphasis and 
 Lahore, the capital of the Seiks, on the Eavee or Hydraotes 
 another of Alexander's rivers. In two days and nights 
 of his rapid forced marches, his lordship could have reached 
 the spot, and have annihilated him if he had stayed to fight ; 
 and if Holkar had continued his flight, which it is almost 
 certain he would have done, in four days he would have 
 been driven beyond the Hydraotes towards the Hydaspes, 
 there to be finished by the Afghan tribes. But, before this, 
 Sir Greorge Barlow had concluded a peace with Scindiah, 
 and had sent Lord Lake instructions not only to treat with 
 Holkar, but also to grant him very favourable terms ; and 
 the chief of Lahore and of the whole Seik confederacy 
 (having called a great council, which unanimously agreed 
 to withhold aU aid from Holkar, and to interpose as media- 
 tors, as the best means of getting rid both of the Mahrattas 
 and of the English), sent, on the 19th of December, a vakeel 
 to the British camp. The negotiations were neither long nor 
 difficult, though they must have been exceedingly painful to 
 
 * Major Thorn, ' Memoir of the War,' &c. " During our march," 
 adds the major, " the most scrupulous regard was paid to the property of 
 the inhabitants, as well that which was exposed as that which they had in 
 their dwellings ; and when any injury happened unavoidably to be com- 
 mitted, a liberal compensation in money soon prevented complaint or 
 restored confidence. Thus our route through this remote part of India, 
 and amongst a people naturally fierce and jealous, was pursued, not only 
 without opposition, but with cordiality on both sides. As all supplies 
 were punctually paid for, we wanted nothing that the country could 
 produce." 
 
1806.] WITH SCINDIAH AlfD HOLKAE. 323 
 
 Ids lordship. He was bound by bis instructions to behave 
 with all courtesy towards the savage murderer the brutal 
 assassin of three brave British officers to reinstate Holkar, 
 not only in his own dominions, from which he had been 
 driven, and which he had deserved to forfeit, but also to put 
 him in possession of territory to which he never had any 
 right. In conformity with the new system of policy which 
 had been adopted, of abandoning all connection with the 
 native states westward of the Jumna, and of making that 
 river (a river everywhere passable except during the rains I) 
 a boundary of the British dominions,* Lord Lake was 
 instructed to dissolve the defensive alliances which we had 
 contracted with the rajah of Jypoor and other inferior 
 powers, who had rendered essential services to his lordship 
 during the war, and who looked upon their ruin at the 
 hand of the Mahrattas as an inevitable consequence of their 
 being abandoned by the Enghsh at the peace. A man so 
 brave and honourable as Lake could not contemplate this 
 act of national treachery for to such the abandonment of 
 our weak allies amounted without feelings of disgust and 
 anguish. 
 
 Although Holkar sent his own vakeel to the British 
 camp, and although that negotiator agreed to the conditions, 
 which were immeasurably more favourable than he had any 
 right or reason to expect, that chief withheld the ratification 
 of the treaty, and had recourse to many objections and 
 evasions. But when some days had been thus lost. Lord 
 Lake told the Mahratta's vakeel that if the papers were not 
 presented didy signed, within eight-and-forty hours, he 
 would cross the Hyphasis and continue his march against 
 Holkar. And, to give more effect to this menace, his 
 lordship marched his army down the left bank of the river 
 to a ford or passage. This was on the 5th of January-, 
 1806, and in the afternoon of the 7th, the treaty, duly rati- 
 fied, was presented to Lord Lake, with great ceremony. 
 
 Having gratified and in part terrified the Seiks (they are 
 said at the sight to have blessed their stars that they had 
 not joined Holkar and gone to war against the English) 
 with a brilliant review on the left bank of the Hyphasit?, 
 and with showing them some of the effects to be pro- 
 
 * Everywhere and always a river is a bad frontier. The particular bad- 
 ness of the Jumna as a frontier line was strongly exposed by Lord Lake ; 
 but those who now governed India for us would not listen to his lordship. 
 y2 
 
324 TEEATIES OF PEACE. [1806. 
 
 duced by our horse-artillery, Lake struck his tents, and 
 retraced his steps towards Delhi.* 
 
 By the treaty with Scindiah, which had been concluded 
 on the preceding 23rd of November, the treaty of peace 
 concluded through General "Wellesley at Surjee Ajijeu- 
 gaum was considerably modified and modified in favour of 
 the faithless Mahratta. Gwalior and the greatest part of 
 Gohud were ceded, "from considerations of friendship." 
 For some jagheers which Scindiah yielded he was to receive 
 an annual pension of four lacs of rupees ; and his wife and 
 daughter were to be put in possession of other jagheers in 
 the British territories in Hindustan, worth three more lacs 
 of rupees per annum. The Company engaged to enter into 
 no treaties with the rajahs of Oudepoor, Jodepoor, Kotah, 
 or with any other chiefs, the tributaries of Scindiah, in 
 Malwa, Mewar, or Merwar ; and to interfere in no respect 
 vrith the conquests made by Scindiah between the rivers 
 Taptee and Chumbul. Again was a river taken for a fron- 
 tier line, the Chumbul, as afibrding a distinct line of demar- 
 cation, being declared to be the boundary between states 
 which were sure not to live long in friendship. The treaty 
 promised Scindiah further restitutions and other advantages, 
 provided his conduct should be such as to satisfy the Eng- 
 lish of his amicable intentions towards them and their 
 allies. 
 
 By the treaty mth Holkar, which, as we have seen, was 
 not ratified until the 7th of January, 1806, that chief 
 renounced all claims upon any territories lying on the 
 northern or English side of the Chiunbul, as also upon 
 Poonah and Bundelkund, and all claims whatsoever upon the 
 British government and its allies. He bound himself never 
 to molest the territories of the Company or of its allies or 
 dependants. But the Company agreed to restore, eighteen 
 months after the conclusion of this treaty, Chandore, Graul- 
 nah, and other forts and districts south of the Taptee and 
 
 * Major Thorn, * Memoir of the War,' &c. 
 
 Lord Lake quitted his command in India in February, 1807, leaving 
 behind him a high and well-merited reputation. He appears to have 
 possessed nearly every one of the good qualities of a British officer and 
 gentleman. He died on the 21st of February, 1808, in the G4th year 
 of his age, and just six months previously to the death of his beloved and 
 affectionate son and brave companion in arms. Col. George Lake, who, 
 after sharing in the toils and dangers of his father's brilliant Indian cam- 
 paigns, fell in Portugal at the battle of Roli^a. 
 
1806.] 
 
 A TEANSITORY CALM. 
 
 325 
 
 G-odavery, provided the cliief fulfilled liis engagement and 
 remained in a friendly attitude. He was to be allowed to 
 return immediately from the Punjaub into Hindustan, but 
 by a route prescribed to him, by which he would avoid 
 injuring the territory of the Company and its allies.* 
 
 As General Wellesley, Lord Lake, Sir John Malcohn, and 
 every other enlightened man in India whose eyes were not 
 distracted by the prospect of a present saving in money 
 had clearly foreseen and predicted, such treaties as these 
 could give only a transitory calm to the country. And this 
 calm was purchased by a sacrifice of that moral force which 
 must always be our greatest force in India. 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, ' Sketch of the Political History of India.' Sir 
 John was himself the negotiator and agent in all these transactions. But 
 grieved would he have been to have taken upon himself the responsibility 
 of a diplomacy which had been imposed upon him. I knew him well, 
 and shall never forget the warm, eloquent language in which he was 
 accustomed to denounce the base abandonment of our allies. 
 
326 THE MAEQTJIS WELLESLET. [1805. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVII. 
 
 The MarquisWellesleyquitted India on the20tli of August, 
 1805, stortly after the arrival of the Marquis Comwallis 
 at Calcutta. He was not left to accompHsh his own great 
 plans, and some portions of his great scheme were impeded 
 or spoiled by his immediate successors, or by the policy 
 dictated to them by the home government. During the 
 latter years of his administration, when his difficulties were 
 greatest, he was not cordially supported in England by any 
 party whatever ; and his schemes were severely criticised 
 by men who did not comprehend them, and who could 
 not see that present expenditure would be attended by 
 immense future savings. The British legislature had but 
 slowly followed the progress of the power of the Company 
 in India. It had legislated for factories, when the Com- 
 pany was in possession of provinces ; and by the time the 
 laws were completed to govern provinces, the Company 
 had acquired kingdoms. At no time was there a system 
 formed fully calculated to the greatness of the empire.* 
 Too frequently both the king's government and the direc- 
 torial government were disposed to apply the old tiny 
 factory scale to the vast empire, or to pretend that the 
 laws laid down for merchants and traders ought to regulate 
 the conduct of statesmen, soldiers, and conquerors. Cam- 
 paigns were examined like debtor and creditor ;^account. 
 Yet war was a necessity inherent in our position. Greneral 
 "Wellesley, as well as his illustrious brother, knew that there 
 could be no permanent peace in India, untU the Mahrattas 
 were deprived of the means of invading and plunderiug 
 their neighbours. "If," said he, writing to Malcolm, in 
 January, 1804, "a Mahratta could sit down quietly, and 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, 'Political History of India.' I have followed 
 the second and enlarged edition of this valuable work, which was pub- 
 lished in 1826. 
 
1805.] POWEE OF THE MAHEATTAS. 327 
 
 establish a regular government, with a view to future pros- 
 perity^, I should not despair of peace : but unless Scindiah 
 changes his nature, and that of a great proportion of his 
 subjects, and dismisses a very large part of his army of 
 horse (who must eat up more revenue than he can afford to 
 pay them), and obliges the men to adopt habits of industry, 
 which are entirely foreign to their nature, I do not see how 
 a peace is to last."* 
 
 As was Scindiah, so were all the great Mahratta chiefs ; 
 and there was no difference between ^ their several subjects 
 and followers. It was next to useless to destroy one of the 
 two great chiefs without destroying the other at the same 
 time. As Scindiah was humbled, Holkar rose and took his 
 place, being enabled so to do by the old practice of the 
 Mahratta horsemen, who were ever ready to desert from an 
 unfortunate leader to join a fortimate one, even though it 
 were the rival and foe of the master they had last served. 
 These eastern Dugald Dalgetties looked merely to the best 
 pay, or the best chances of provende and booty. The 
 chiefs were at once capricious and faithless, cunning and 
 passionate, so that it was very possible to gratify them in 
 their real interests, without securing their fidelity to a 
 treaty ; for, in a moment of caprice or rage, their spears 
 were in their hands, and their fleet hordes of horsemen were 
 in motion. 
 
 ^o army, however great, could, by acting merely on the 
 defensive, protect and effectually secure the far-extending 
 frontiers of Oude, the Deckan, Mysore, Malabar, etc., 
 frontiers which measured, altogether, many thousands of miles 
 and to have made the attempt would have been to incur 
 a ruinous expense together with most of the disadvantages 
 of actual war, without any of its excitement, or glory, or 
 profit. When as at Lord Wellesley's first arrival in 
 India this INIahratta confederacy contained within it the 
 nucleus of a European system of military organization and 
 discipline, which might, in a few years, have rivalled the 
 sepoy system estabHshed by the Company ; when M. Per- 
 ron and other French officers could bring into the field 
 20,000 well-trained native infantry, and an immense and 
 well-served artillery, to back the Mahratta horse the dan- 
 ger which threatened the British power was assuredly so 
 
 * * Wellington Despatches.' 
 
328 COLLEGE OF [1805. 
 
 great as to justify tlie policy aud the bold measures which 
 the governor-general adopted. This was allowed by all the 
 able men in the country- and England has not had abler 
 men than those who were at this moment advancing her 
 fame and her interests in India and all these statesmen 
 and soldiers were convinced that the 1 rench must be driven 
 out, that the Mahrattas must be broken up, and that the 
 British must either be the first power in India, or cease to 
 be a power at all. The happiness of the native populations 
 was as much at stake as our fame and profit. More than 
 a hundred millions of people were beginning to enjoy peace 
 and prosperity under our dominion, or were entertaining the 
 hope of escaping the evils of imasion, ci^il war, and anarchy, 
 by being included in our system, or taken imder our pro- 
 tection. 
 
 During the whole of his Indian administration, Marquis 
 "WeUesley laudably exerted himself to promote the welfare 
 of the natives. Like Warren Hastings, he was the patron 
 of every project which seemed likely to improve the condi- 
 tion and civilization of the people, or to be useful in giving 
 the European servants of the Company the means of 
 becoming better acquainted with their languages, their 
 manners and modes of thinking, their ancient laws and 
 institutions. As soon as he reached Calcutta, he con- 
 templated the foundation of a college in that city for the 
 proper education of civil servants. Like all his conceptions, 
 this plan was on a large and liberal scale. In the college of 
 Eort William he was supposed to have projected a magni- 
 ficent repository of European learning and principles and 
 Asiatic erudition a vast moral magazine or treasury, ia 
 which the stores of learning and wisdom might indefinitely 
 accumulate, and in which the sages of the East might find 
 studious solitudes more attractive even than the sacred 
 shades of Benares.* But his first great object was cer- 
 tainly one of a nature more practical, more immediate, and 
 more pressing. It was, as his lordship expressed it in his 
 own minute, " to supply the actual deficiencies of the civU 
 service." Many of the servants of the Company had edu- 
 cated themselves, and had acquired most extensive knowledge 
 under very difficult and often discouraging circumstances ; 
 but no proper provision had been made, either in England 
 
 * ' Quarterly Review,' No. xxxiii. 
 
1805.] PORT ST. WILLIAM. 329- 
 
 or ill India, for a general and systematic education of such 
 civil servants. These sen-ants of the Company had now 
 offices to fill very different from those allotted to them in 
 the days when young Clive sat in a warehouse, making out 
 invoices. Lord Wellesley said : " The denominations of 
 writer, factor, and merchant, by which the several classes of 
 the civil service are still distinguished, are now utterly in- 
 applicable to the nature and extent of the duties discharged 
 and of the occupations pursued by the civil servants of the 
 Company. To dispense justice to millions of people of 
 various languages, manners, usages, and religions ; to ad- 
 minister a vast and complicated system of revenue through 
 districts equal in extent to some of the most considerable 
 kingdoms in Europe ; to maintain civil order in one of the 
 most populous and litigious regions in the world ; these are 
 now the duties of the larger portion of the ci\dl servants of 
 the Company. The senior merchants, composing the Courts 
 of Circuits and Appeal under the presidency of Bengal, 
 exercise in each of these courts a jurisdiction of greater 
 local extent, applicable to a larger popidation, and occupied 
 in the determination of causes infinitely more intricate and 
 numerous, than that of any regularly constituted court of 
 justice in any part of Europe. The senior or junior 
 merchant employed in the several magistracies and ziilah 
 courts, the writers or factors filling the stations of regis- 
 trars and assistants to the several courts and magistrates, 
 exercise, in different degrees, functions of a nature either 
 purely judicial, or intimately connected with the admi- 
 nistration of tlie police, and with the maintenance of the 
 
 peace and good order of their respective districts 
 
 Those civil servants who are invested with the powers of 
 magistracy, or attached to the judicial department in any 
 ministerial capacity, although bearing the denomination of 
 merchants, factors, or writers, are bound by law, and by the 
 solemn obligation of an oath, to abstain from every commer- 
 cial and mercantile pursuit ; the mercantile title which they 
 bear not only affords no description of their duty, but is 
 
 Entirely at variance with it The civil servants of 
 
 the East-India Company, therefore, can no longer be consi- 
 dered as the agents of a commercial concern ; they are, in 
 fact, the ministers and officers of a powerful sovereign .... 
 They are required to discharge the functions of magistrates, 
 judges, ambassadors, and governors of provinces ..... 
 
330 THE COLLEGE. [1805. 
 
 Their duties are those of statesmen in every other part of the 
 world, with no other characteristic diiferences than the 
 obstacles opposed by an unfavourable climate, a foreign 
 language, the peculiar usages and laws of India, and the 
 manners of its inhabitants." * 
 
 He proposed that the institution should contain professors 
 of ethics, jurisprudence, law of nations, English law, classi- 
 cal literature, the modern languages of Europe, history, 
 geography, and the physical sciences. He made a good 
 begin nin g., and appointed some able teachers of the Oriental 
 languages, laws, and the like ; but his plan was considered 
 as too expensive, and was objected to upon other grounds. 
 The college of Port William was reduced to little more than 
 a seminary for the instruction of the Bengal civil servants 
 in the languages used in that presidency. But, at home, 
 the East-India college of Haileybury arose soon after. 
 
 Lord "Wellesley's strenuous eiforts were also directed to 
 the extension of the commerce and commercial intercourse 
 of India, and to the commencement and formation of those 
 important financial reforms which in the course of a few 
 years doubled the revenues of the Company, with advan- 
 tage to British commerce and without injustice or oppression 
 to the natives. He saw that the employment of cheap India- 
 built ships in the trade with Europe would be of equal 
 advantage to England and to India ; and therefore he pre- 
 pared so to employ them, and gave encouragement to those 
 who extended the building of country ships. 
 
 Warren Hastings himself was not more indifferent to 
 money for his own use and profit : though, for his rank and 
 station. Lord Wellesley was a poor man when he embarked 
 for the East, he returned to England, after seven years' 
 residence in India, little or not at all richer. On the fall of 
 Seringapatam, the sum of 100,000 was set apart for his 
 share of the spoil ; but he wished to encourage the army, 
 and to reward it well for the labours of the campaign, and 
 he gave up every farthing of that money to the troops. 
 Where there was so much that was high and noble, petty 
 faults ought never to be looked for, or ought to be forgotten 
 if discovered. His administration in India was not only 
 
 * Rev. T. R. Malthus, ' Statement respecting the East-India College,' 
 &c. Marquis Wellesley, ' Minute relative to the College of Fort William. ' 
 Thomas Roebuck, captain in the Madras N.I. ' Annals of the College of 
 Fort William,' &c. Calcutta, 1819. 
 
)5.] THE COMPAKl'S SERVICE. 331 
 
 brilliant, but also productive of lasting good ; and though 
 his great political system, for making the power of England 
 supreme, was interrupted for the time, it has been found 
 absolutely necessary to carry it out under his successors. 
 The same rules which justified his conduct with respect to 
 Tippoo Sultaun and the Mahrattas, must be applied to sub- 
 sequent and recent proceedings against the Mahrattas, the 
 Burmese, the Afghans, the Seiks, and others, or those pro- 
 ceedings must be given up, as incapable of justification. 
 
 "The great success," says Sir John Malcolm, "which 
 attended Lord Wellesley's administration of British India 
 is, on a general view, calculated to excite astonishment : nor 
 wiU that be diminished by a nearer contemplation of the 
 manner in which he ruled the large empire committed to his 
 charge. His great mind pervaded the whole ; and a portion 
 of his spirit was infused into every agent whom he employed ; 
 his authority was as fully recognized in the remotest parts 
 of British India as in Fort WiUiam ; all sought his praise ; 
 all dreaded his censiu-e : his confidence in those he employed 
 was imh'mited ; and they were urged to exertion by every 
 motive that can stimulate a good or proud mind to action. 
 He was as eager to applaud as he was reluctant to condemn 
 those whom he believed conscientious in the discharge of 
 their public duty. It was the habit of his mind to be slow 
 in council, but rapid in action ; and he expected the greatest 
 efforts from those he employed in the execution of his 
 measures, whom he always relieved from every species of 
 vexatious counteraction and delay which could arise from 
 the untimely intrusion of official forms, or the unreasonable 
 pretensions of lesser authorities. It was, indeed, with him, 
 a principle to clothe them with all the power they coidd 
 require to effect those objects which they were instructed to 
 attain ; and, though there can be no doubt of the great and 
 extraordinary merit of the distinguished officers who com- 
 manded the British armies during his administration, it is 
 to that liberal confidence, which gave them all the impression 
 of the fullest power, and the most complete scope for the 
 exercise of their judgment, that their unparalleled success is 
 chiefly to be ascribed." * 
 ^^The habit of contemplating objects of magnitude and in 
 ^Hp vast field of India nearly everything was large of act- 
 
332 ATTEMPTED IMPEACHMENT [1806. 
 
 ing on a great scale, and of depending on their own abilities 
 and resources, which, on account of distance from head- 
 quarters and other causes, they were frequently obhged to 
 do ; together with the necessity of finding intellectual occu- 
 pation and amusement in remote up-country stations, had 
 qualified many officers of the Company, both civil and 
 military, to perform whatever duty might, on an emergency, 
 be allotted to them. It was from among a class of men like 
 these that the marquis selected his officers and agents, and 
 they found their reward in his patronage, with inducements 
 to farther improvement. These men, again, became objects 
 of emulation to younger officers and civil servants; and 
 thus both branches of the service were improved and elevated. 
 
 During the administration of Lord Wellesley, the esta- 
 blishments of the Anglican Church in India were enlarged 
 and improved ; without any offence being offered to the reli- 
 gious prejudices of the natives, missionaries were encouraged 
 in their arduous efforts at conversion, and countenance and 
 protection, and a most hberal hospitality, were bestowed on 
 the learned and scientific men of all nations that visited or 
 dwelt in India. The dark superstitions and revolting rites 
 of the Hindus could not be suppressed at one blow, or in a 
 short series of years ; any premature or rash attempt would 
 have ruined our empire, and have deluged the coimtry with 
 European and native blood ; but a commencement was made, 
 and the horrible annual sacrifices of human victims at the 
 island of Sagor, near one of the mouths of the Ganges, were 
 suppressed.* 
 
 The marquis was not recalled; he voluntarily resigned. 
 It is said that he had only been prevailed upon to retain the 
 governor-generalship so long, at a most critical period of 
 Indian history, by the earnest intercession of Mr. Pitt's 
 govemment.f This, indeed, may be discerned in his lord- 
 ship's despatches, and in those of his brother the duke. 
 
 * Sagor Island, on the east side of the Hooghly river, was a celebrated 
 place of pilgrimage among the Hindus, on account of the great sanctity 
 arising from its situation at the junction of the holiest branch of the 
 Ganges with the ocean. Many human sacrifices were in consequence 
 annually performed of aged persons of both sexes, which were voluntary, 
 and of children, which were forced. The periods fixed for the celebra- 
 tion of these sacrifices were, the full of the moon in November, and the 
 fall of the moon in January. 
 
 t Lord Brougham, ' Statesmen of the Time of George III.' third 
 series. 
 
)7.] OF THE ilAEQUIS WELLE SLET. 333 
 
 On reaching England the marquis was well received by 
 the government of the day ; but that government was fast 
 approaching its dissolution, for Mr. Pitt was dying when he 
 gave the hand of welcome to his noble friend, and he died a 
 few days after the interview. The financial repinings of the 
 Court of Directors seem to have died away on his return, 
 though many years were allowed to pass before his merits 
 were fally recognized, or before he received substantial 
 marks of the gratitude of that body. "When, in his old age, 
 the marquis published his Indian despatches, the libraries of 
 Calcutta, and of other presidencies, were, at the expense of 
 the Court, liberally supplied with copies, and in an address 
 which was unanimously voted to his lordship in the year 
 1837, the Directors said : " To the eventful period of your 
 lordship's government, the Court look back with feelings 
 common to their countrymen ; and, anxious that the minds 
 of their servants should be enlarged by the instruction to 
 be derived from the accumulated experience of eminent 
 statesmen, they felt it a duty to diffuse widely the means of 
 consiilting a work unfolding the principles upon which the 
 supremacy of Britain in India was successfully manifested 
 and enlarged, under a combination of circumstances in the 
 highest degree critical and difficult." 
 
 These Indian despatches, together with the first three 
 volumes of the duke of "Wellington's despatches which relate, 
 entirely to India, ought, indeed, to be consulted as oracles by 
 all the servants of the Company, whether military or civil. 
 
 We did not, like the French, bastille, or gag and decapi- 
 tate our great rulers in the East; but it had become a fashion 
 with a certain portion of the British parliament to denounce 
 the conduct of every active governor-general while in. 
 India, and to endeavour to get up an impeachment against 
 him on his return to England. A very crack-brained person, 
 named Paull, originally a tailor in Perth, who had lived 
 some years in India as a trader, and who had there received 
 sundry important favours from the governor-general, who 
 had, in fact, saved the man from utter ruin at Lucknow,* 
 stepped forward as chief accuser in the present instance, 
 
 * For tlie extent of Mr. Paull's obligations to the Marquis Wellesley, 
 and for the warmth of the gratitude and the profound respect he had 
 expressed for his lordship, see Mr. Paull's own letter to Major John 
 Malcolm, dated Lucknow, 9th February, 1803, as printed by P. Auber, 
 Esq., in the second volume of his work. 
 
334 THE MAEQUIS WELLESLEi" TRIUMPHS. [1809. 
 
 and did his little best to demonstrate that his lordship and 
 his brother, the general, had committed deeds in India which 
 ought to exclude them for ever from the honour of serving 
 their country in any capacity. The ultra-oppositionists 
 took Paull by the hand (to leave him, when his fortune was 
 ruined, by political contests, to despair and suicide), and 
 Sir Philip Francis did his usual spiriting. But the articles 
 of impeachment against the noble marquis, presented 
 by PauJl, and supported by Francis and his party, and after- 
 wards reproduced by Lord Folkestone, were thrown out by 
 a large majority of the House of Commons, and were repro- 
 bated by the general sense of the nation. But these vexatious 
 proceedings ran over a period of three years, during which 
 Wellesley was exposed to obloquy and kept out of state 
 service, for he would not accept the office of secretary for 
 foreign affairs, which was offered to him, until the parliamen- 
 tary proceedings were all over.* 
 
 * * Rise and Progress of the British Power in India.' By Peter 
 Auber, M.R.A.S., late secretary to the Honourable the Court of Direc- 
 tors of the East-India Company. Sir John Malcolm, ' Sketch of the 
 Political History of India.' Parliamentary Papers. The Marquis Wel- 
 lesley's Ind. Despatches. For further information regarding Haileybury 
 College, the reader is referred to, ' View of the System and Merits of the 
 East-India College at Haileybury,' &c. &c. by Robert Grant. ' A Letter 
 to the Chairman, Deputy-Chairman, and Court of Directors of the 
 East-India Company on the subject of their College at Haileybury.' By 
 a Civilian. ' Statutes and Regulations for the Government of the East- 
 India College. Printed by Order of the Honourable Court of Directors.' 
 1823. 
 
 For information regarding the Company's Military School at Addis- 
 combe, see 'Memoir of the East-India Company's Military Seminary.' 
 
1805.] THE BAELOW ADMIIS'ISTEATION. 335 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Sir GrEOEGE Baelow had filled various subordinate offices 
 in an able and honourable manner, and had deservedly 
 acquired great reputation as a civil administrator. He had 
 been a member of the supreme council during the last four 
 years of the Wellesley administration, and was senior 
 member when Lord Cornwallis died. By act and charter, 
 the powers of government fell provisionally into Sir G-eorge's 
 hands by this death. But the Court of Directors deemed 
 Barlow a fit person to be confirmed in the office of governor- 
 general, and the Board of Control approved of the measure, 
 though only as a temporary arrangement. The death of 
 Mr. Pitt had brought Mr. Pox and his friends into office, 
 and these Whigs were desirous of nominating a governor- 
 general out of their own party. The Court of Directors 
 were anxious to retain Sir George Barlow, and pleaded 
 their right to nominate the governor-general. Hence arose 
 an angry collision at home between the king's government 
 and the Court of Directors, and not a little confusion and 
 obstruction to public business in India. 
 
 Sir Greorge expressed his resolution to follow the peace 
 policy which Lord Cornwallis, on his second appointment, 
 had come out to promote. He urged that the British 
 interests woidd be best promoted by throwing off a number 
 of our allies, and by narrowing our connections. Indeed, he 
 appears to have been animated by the wish which Lord 
 Cornwallis had at one time expressed, that the English would 
 never think of extending their frontier line beyond Benares. 
 It was in this spirit that the recent treaties with the 
 Mahrattas had been concluded. But Sir Greorge, like others 
 who had followed what was called the pacific system, thought 
 it would be very advantageous to revive the contests and 
 commotions which formerly prevailed among the states of 
 Hindustan, and which kept all those states poor and weak, 
 
536 PEACE POLICY. [1805. 
 
 except the Mahrattas. The war policy of Lord Wellesley 
 was not a tenth part so destructive of human happiness as 
 this base peace policy : then a few great battles decided the 
 contest, but now an interminable series of hostilities was to 
 be kept up among the natives ; then war had been deprived 
 of half its horrors by the discipline of the British troops and 
 the Company's sepoys ; but now all the atrocities of the 
 Mahratta mode of warfare were to be let loose, in order to 
 save the Company the sin and the eo'pense of waging war 
 or maintaining troops in Upper Hindustan . Lord Wellesley 
 had exposed, in spirited language, the dishonour the abomi- 
 nation of this policy. " In the termination of hostilities," 
 said h^, " my solicitude has been directed to the important 
 purpose of effecting a general pacification of India, on prin- 
 ciples of reciprocal justice and moderation. The power, 
 reputation, and dignity of the British empire in India will 
 derive additional security and lustre from the establishment 
 of peace and good order among the native states. In the 
 decline of intrinsic strength, inferior states may, perhaps, 
 have gained a temporary safety by fomenting the discord 
 of contiguous powers ; but in any extremity such a policy is 
 unwarrantable and disgraceful, nor can permanent repose be 
 secured upon such precarious foundations."* 
 
 Upon finding themselves abandoned to the mercy of the 
 Mahrattas, the rajah of Jypoor, the rajah of Boondee, and 
 others of our allies, exclaimed against the bad faith of the 
 English, and materially injured the reputation of the Com- 
 pany. Other small states, threatened by Scindiah or by 
 Holkar, called for a protection which Sir George Barlow 
 would not afibrd, lest he should involve himself in hostilities 
 with the Mahrattas. Scindiah, far from resting satisfied 
 with the very advantageous treaty which he had obtained 
 when his fortunes were desperate, lost no time in advancing 
 claims to more and more territory. The province of Berar 
 suffered severely from inroads made by thePindarree robbers, 
 who were encouraged by Scindiah ; and it was in vain that 
 the people applied for the protection of the British. Yet 
 Greneral Wellesley had made a treaty with the rajah of 
 Berar, in which the Company was bound to afford protection. 
 Terrible dissensions arose among the Rajpoot chiefs, wliich 
 threatened to plunge the whole of Rajpootana into anarchy 
 
 * 'Wellesley Despatches,' &c. Reply to the address of the British 
 inhabitants of Calcutta, on the 29th of February, 1804. 
 
1805-(>.] CHANGES IN" THE ARMY. 337 
 
 and misery ; but Sir Greorge declined interfering, even as a 
 mediator. Other commotions began to rage in various and 
 distant parts of the country ; and, if this peace policy had 
 been pursued much longer, every part of India not occupied 
 by our troops, would have been in a blaze. 
 
 But the event which rendered memorable the brief admi- 
 nistration of Sir Greorge Barlow was the mutiny and mas- 
 sacre at Vellore. 
 
 LordAYilliam Bentinck had succeeded Lord Clive as gover- 
 nor of Madras, at the end of August, 1803, and had imme- 
 diately set on foot various reforms, or changes which were 
 called reforms by his lordship's friends, and dangerous inno- 
 vations by those who did not agree with him. So long as the 
 Marquis AVellesley and his brother, the general, were in India, 
 this reforming spirit was kept in check; but after their 
 departure, it took its own course. When it had failed, it was 
 lU'ged by his friends, that, in the particular reform which caused 
 the terrible disaster, Lord William Bentinck liad very little 
 to do, and that it originated with Sir John Cradock, after- 
 wards Lord Howden, who became, in 1805, commander-in- 
 chief of the forces in the Madras presidency ; but it should 
 appear that Lord William, who showed himself, at a later 
 period, and in other countries besides India, a very impatient 
 reformer, was rather zealous in enforcing Cradock' s plan. 
 His lordship fully approved of a code of military regulations 
 drawn up by Major Pearce, the deputy adjutant-general, 
 mider the directions of Greneral Sir John "Cradock, and which 
 contained regulations of a nature highly offensive to the 
 prejudices of the native troops. Among these offensive 
 regulations were tlie following ^the sepoys were required to 
 clip their moustaches, to appear on the parade with their 
 chins clean-shaved, and never to wear the distinguishijig 
 marks of caste on their forehead, or their ear-rings when in 
 uniform. A turban of a new fashion, and of one unvarying 
 cut, was also ordered for the sepoys. 
 
 Very soon these Madras sepoys were found to be as angry 
 as the Russian Strelitz had been when Peter the Great first 
 took them by the beard. A battalion of their 4th regi- 
 ment, which then composed part of the garrison of Vellore, 
 in the fortress of which the family of the late Tippoo Sul- 
 taun still resided, upon being called upon (on the 6th and 
 7th of May, 1806) to wear the new regulation turban, 
 became disorderly, and vowed they would wear no such 
 
 z 
 
338 MtjTiNY^ [1806. 
 
 abomination.* Sir John Cradock held a court of inqnir^-, 
 broke the native non-commissioned officers, and left two 
 men to receive 900 lashes each. The' governor in council 
 regretted that the turban order had ever been adopted, but 
 agreed with Sir John Cradock that to revoke the order 
 would be to commit the authority and respect due to those 
 who had issued it. The governor in council, however, drew 
 up a general order to the native troops, containing the most 
 positive assurances, that " no intention existed to introduce 
 any change incompatible with the laws or usages of their 
 religion." But Sir John Cradock thought it unnecessary 
 to publish this general order, and, in an unhappy moment, 
 the governor in council adopted his opinion, and the order 
 was not published at all. A very few days after Sir John 
 had assured Sir George Barlow that the reports received 
 about the discontents of the sepoys had been greatly exag- 
 gerated, the massacre of Vellore was perpetrated. 
 
 It appears, beyond a doubt, that there were other elements 
 of discord besides the beards and turbans. The lesson 
 taught by the wild outbreak of Yizier Ali at Benares had 
 been thrown away upon our Indian governments, for the 
 family of Tippoo and their numerous adherents had not only 
 been allowed to remain at so short a distance from the fron- 
 
 * I have before me a description of the turban, and an account of the 
 troubks to which it gave rise, written by an English officer on the staff 
 of the naval commander-in-chief, who was at Madras at the time of the 
 insurrection : 
 
 " The turban was made of English broadcloth, covering a slight iron 
 frame ; the only other material employed was a small cockade of leather, 
 to which some objected, suspecting it to be the skin of a hog, which is an 
 impure animal, though the chief disUke arose from a fancy that the whole 
 resembled a hat, which particularly marks a European. 
 
 '* The author was at that period at Madras, and well remembers that 
 the sentries at his own door mounted guard for some days with a shawl 
 or handkerchief bound about the head, rather than wear this hateful 
 turban. In no other respect did the troops at the presidency show any 
 disposition to resist the authority of their officers, though considerable 
 pains were taken by the malcontents to instigate them to mutiny." 
 * Massacre of Vellore,' in the ' Plain Englishman,' vol. ii., London and 
 Windsor, 1821. 
 
 The excellent officer and man who furnished this article Edward 
 Hawke Locker, esq., late commissioner of Greenwich Hospital was joint 
 editor with Mr. Charles Knight, of the ' Plain Englishman.' 
 
 The article contains a most interesting narrative of the insurrection, 
 drawn up by the widow of the murdered Colonel Fancourt, who, with her 
 children, narrowly escaped sharing the fate of her husband. 
 
1806.] MASSACEE AT YELLOEE.' 339 
 
 tier of their own country, but had also been indulged with 
 a liberty of intercourse and correspondence which might 
 easily be abused. The splendour which the sons of Tippoo 
 were enabled, by the liberality of the Company, to keep up, 
 attracted a continual influx of visitors, including all that 
 came to Vellore from the countries which had once belonged 
 to their father. Among these men were very many who 
 had lost by the change which had taken place in. Mysore, 
 who hated the tranquillity which we had introduced into 
 their country, and who longed for the old days of rapine 
 and violence. It is believed that these desperadoes contri- 
 buted to get up a regular conspiracy, and to facilitate the 
 execution of the daring design. It is said that the con- 
 federates intended that all who were brought to join in the 
 insurrection should act upon a preconcerted plan, which had 
 been digested and privately circulated by some of the tur- 
 bulent Marawa chiefs ; and that in connection with these 
 desperadoes were some few Frenchmen, disguised as fakeers 
 or dervishes, who went about the country inveighing every- 
 where against the English as robbers and t}Tants.* It is 
 also stated that placards were fixed up within the mosques 
 and Hindu temples, where Europeans never entered, to 
 excite a general spirit of revolt among the whole native popu- 
 lation of Madras .f 
 
 Colonel Eancourt, an experienced and brave soldier, who 
 commanded the garrison of Vellore, was taken completely 
 by surprise- He was in bed and asleep at two o'clock in 
 the morning of the 10th of July, when the conspirators 
 began the massacre by attacking the European part of the 
 garrison, which consisted of only four companies of his 
 majesty's 69th regiment. The mutinous sepoys being joined 
 by colleries, or professional robbers, from Marawa, by the 
 rabble of Vellore, a large and populous town, and by other 
 desperadoes, were as ten to one to the British soldiers of 
 the 69th, who, moreover, were taken as completely by sur- 
 prise as was Colonel Eancourt. Several warnings had been 
 
 * Biographical Memoir of the late Major-General Sir R. R. Gillespie, 
 as cited in the ' East-India Military Calendar ; containing the Services 
 of General and Field Officers of the Indian Army.' 
 
 f Massacre of Vellore, in the * Plain Englishman.' 
 
 The police must have been carelessly managed, for many hundreds of 
 vagrants, fakeers, dervishes, jugglers, and the like, had been allowed to 
 settle in the town, and to live upon the bounty of the Mysorean princes. 
 z 2 
 
340 MASSACRE AT VELLORE. [1806. 
 
 given, but none had been heeded. Except the ordinary- 
 weak night-guards, men and officers were in their beds. 
 Just as the moon had risen above the horizon, the Euro- 
 pean barracks were silently surrounded ; and then a most 
 destructive fire was poured in at every door and window, 
 from musketry and a six-pounder, upon the poor defenceless 
 soldiers. At the same moment the European soldiers doing 
 duty with some of the sepoys on the main guard, and even 
 the sick in the hospital, were assaulted and inhumanly- 
 butchered. This being done, the assassins hastened to the 
 houses of the British officers, where they put to death 
 all who fell into their hands. Colonel Fancourt, Colonel 
 MacKerras, jNIajor Armstrong, Major Harriot, and eleven 
 other officers, and about 100 British soldiers were massacred, 
 and some officers and a good many more men were wounded. 
 At about seven o'clock in the morning, two English officers 
 and a siu-geon, whose quarters were near to the European 
 barracks, contrived to get into that building, and there 
 they took the command of the remains of the four companies 
 of the 69th regiment. These few men soon made a sally 
 from the barracks, gained possession of a six-pounder, 
 which the mutineers had been using, fought their way 
 through their assailants, and reached the ramparts and a 
 gateway, on the top of which Serjeant Brodie, with a small 
 European guard, had made a long and most gallant stand. 
 This Brodie was the hero of the night, for he had fought on 
 and maintained his post several hours after aU his officers 
 had been killed. 
 
 Such was the state of things a handful of English sol- 
 diers keeping possession of the top of the gateway and a 
 comer of the ramparts, and the mutineers and the rabble 
 committing havoc in the town when Colonel Gillespie, who 
 commanded at Arcot, received the dismal intelligence of 
 what was doing at Vellore. Colonel Eancourt and Grillespie 
 were old friends and fellow- soldiers, having served together 
 in the "West Indies, and they had been made happy by being 
 stationed near to each other in the Carnatic. Grillespie had 
 appointed to dine with his friend and family on the preced- 
 ing day, and to sleep in their quarters at Vellore ; but just as 
 he mounted his horse to ride over, some letters had arrived 
 from the government, and these requiring immediate answers, 
 compelled him to send an excuse and postpone his visit till 
 the morrow. 
 
1S06.] MUTIJTY SUPPRESSED. 341 
 
 Had it not been for the imperative circumstance of duty 
 which detained him at Arcot, Colonel Grillespie would almost 
 inevitably have shared the catastrophe of his brave friend. 
 On the morning of the 10th he mounted his horse at six 
 o'clock, with the intention of riding over to Yellore in time 
 for breakfast. It was at this instant that he received tlie 
 news of the tragic fate of Colonel Eancourt, and of the 
 horrors that were still prevailing. ISTot a moment was to be 
 lost ; and, therefore, collecting instantly a troop of the 19th 
 dragoons, whose horses were already saddled, and ordering 
 the gaUoper-guns to follow with aU possible speed, he applied 
 the spur and went off at the racing pace. The distance from 
 Arcot to Yellore is about sixteen Enghsh miles. It was 
 seldom performed in so short a time. So eager was Colonel 
 Grillespie to reach the place, that he was considerably in 
 advance of his troop of dragoons, when Serjeant Brodie, who 
 had biu-ned almost his last cartridge, descried him from the top 
 of the gateway. Brodie, who had served with him in St. Do- 
 mingo, turned to his drooping comrades and said, " If Colonel 
 Gillespie be alive, here he is at the head of the 19th dragoons, 
 and God Almighty has sent him from the "West Indies, to 
 save our lives in the East !" Regardless of his own safety, 
 and in the face of a furious fire, poured upon him from the 
 wails and close round towers, the colonel pushed towards 
 the bastion and the gateway. There, a chain, formed of 
 the soldiers' belts, being let down by Serjeant Brodie, the 
 colonel grasped it, and was pulled up the face of the work. 
 The poor survivors of the 69th welcomed him as a deliverer ; 
 and, at his word of command they promptly formed, charged 
 with the bayonet, and drove the mutineers from that part 
 of the works. Gillespie then waited till his dragoons and 
 galloper-guns came up. Upon their arrival, orders were 
 given to blow open the gate, and, this being done, the 
 dragoons dashed through the gateway into the fortress, 
 and were soon followed by some native cavalry of Port 
 St. George, who were quartered at Arcot. The mutineers 
 and insurgents were numerous, and they were desperate : 
 they seemed determined to maintain the battle in the inte- 
 rior of the fortress ; but the sudden charge of our cavalry, 
 and then the fire of our gallopers, broke them and dis- 
 persed them. From 300 to 400 were cut to pieces on 
 the spot; some hundreds threw down their arms and 
 cried for quarter, while the rest fled in all directions. A 
 
342 MILITABT EXECUTIONS. [1806. 
 
 considerable number escaped through the sally-port ; but 
 some hundreds were taken in hiding-places and imprisoned. 
 The disaffection had not reached the native cavalry, for they 
 charged as fiercely as our own horse, and their sabres were 
 as deeply stained as those of the English dragoons with the 
 blood of their misguided mutinous countrymen.* 
 
 The standard of Tippoo Sultaun had been hoisted on the 
 palace within the fortress almost as soon as the insur- 
 rection broke out, and no doubt was entertained that 
 the sons of Tippoo, who inhabited that palace, were par- 
 takers in the plot. Colonel Gillespie felt so well assured 
 of this fact, that in the first emotions of indignation and 
 horror occasioned by the death of his dear friend Fancourt, 
 and the shocking spectacle which presented itself on all 
 sides, he would have consented to the demands of our 
 enraged soldiers, who were bent upon entering the palace. 
 But he yielded to the entreaties of some of the persons who 
 had the care of the Tippoo &mily ; and though he could not 
 be persuaded of their innocence, he condescended to take the 
 Mysorean princes under his protection ; and he sent them 
 shortly after with a good guard down to Madras. It was 
 reported and believed in the army, that, if Colonel Grillespie 
 had not acted with such promptness and spirit, the insur- 
 gents, in the course of a few days, would have been joined 
 by 50,000 men from Marawa, Mysore, and other parts.f 
 
 Two of the princes were clearly convicted of having tam- 
 pered with the garrison previously to the mutiny. They 
 were all treated as prisoners, and, in a very short time, 
 shipped off for Calcutta. Hundreds had been cut to pieces 
 in the fight by the 19th dragoons and the Madras native 
 cavalry ; but the punishment of the mutineers who were 
 captured was not cruel or excessive. A general court- 
 martial sentenced a few to death, as having been the most 
 culpable in the massacres. The executions took place 
 under circumstances of peculiar solemnity. On the firing 
 of a signal gun, a certain number were hanged, and others 
 shot by their comrades or blown from the mouths of 
 
 * "We state this fact," says a writer in the ' Quarterly Review,' 
 * * upon the high authority of a respectable officer, who belonged to the 
 19th dragoons, and was with them on this memorable occasion." 
 No. xxxvi. 
 
 t Biographical memoirs of the late Major-General Su" R. R. Gillespie, 
 as quoted in the ' East-India Military Calendar.' 
 
1806-7.1 
 
 PACIFIC ADMINISTEATION. 
 
 343 
 
 cannon, at the same instant, in presence of all the troops. 
 The spectacle struck horror along the whole line. But the 
 abandonment of the objectionable regulations proved the 
 most effectual means of re-establishing discipline and the 
 public tranquillity.* 
 
 Lord William Bentinck and Gi-eneral Sir John Cradock 
 were recalled by the Court of Directors as soon as the 
 tragedy at Vellore was kno-^n in England. 
 
 By too strictly and suddenly enforcing orders of retrench- 
 ment and economy, Sir George Barlow spread discontent 
 through the whole army, Europeans and natives, officers 
 and men. Perhaps our empire in the East was never in 
 more real danger than during this short "pacific " adminis- 
 tration, some of the evils of which were severely felt by Sir 
 Gleorge's successor. t 
 
 * Account, in the ' Plain Englishman.' 
 
 t Professor H. H. Wilson, ' Continuation of Mill's History of British 
 India.' 
 
344 LOED MINTO, GOYEKNOE-GENEBAL. [1806-T. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 A DISPUTE at home as to the appointment of governor- 
 general ended in a curious compromise. Ministers gave up 
 Lord Lauderdale, whom they had wished to force upon the 
 Company, the Court of Directors gave, up Sir Greorge 
 Barlow, whom they had wished to retain, and, by mutual 
 consent, Lord Minto, president of the Board of Control, 
 was named governor-general. 
 
 Though nominated in July, 1806, Lord Minto did not 
 reach India until July, 1807. 
 
 Having touched at Madras, his lordship reached Calcutta 
 and entered upon the business of his high office at the 
 beginning of August, Sir Greorge Barlow condescending to 
 accept the inferior appointment of governor of Madras. 
 
 Lord Minto, when Sir Grilbert Elliott, had been one of 
 the bitterest enemies of AVarren Hastings, and had taken a 
 most active part on the impeachment and trial of that great 
 man. Like some of his predecessors, he had come out to 
 India impressed with the notions that our true poHcy was 
 non-interference, that no attempt ought to be made to 
 extend the limits of our possessions or to increase the 
 number of our connections with the native princes. No 
 man had inveighed more bitterly than he against the ambi- 
 tious, encroaching, aggrandizing spirit of Mr. Hastings, or 
 had dwelt more pathetically on the wrongs done to the 
 native princes. Yet his lordship had not been many days 
 on the banks of the Hooghly ere he confessed that the 
 security of our empire depended upon the actual superiority 
 of our power, upon the sense which the natives entertained 
 of that power, and upon the submissiveness of our neigh- 
 bours, and before he had been many months in India, he 
 found himself under the necessity of interfering in the 
 internal affairs of our neighbour and ally, the nizam of the 
 Deckan, whom he soon reduced to be a mere cipher in his 
 
1807.] MEEE KUA^. 345 
 
 own capital. The nizam's minister, Meer Alum, died. The 
 nizam wished to appoint Moonir-ul-Miilk his successor ; but 
 the government of Bengal preferred Eajah Chundu Loll, as 
 being more favom-ably disposed towards the English interests, 
 and by virtue of their military' force at Hyderabad the rajah 
 was appointed, and from this moment the nizam ceased to 
 take any active part in public aftairs. 
 
 In another direction Lord Minto saw the necessity of 
 departing from the non-interference system ; and, though he 
 declined more extensive engagements, he assisted the peishwa 
 in reducing to submission some of his refractory tributaries. 
 His lordship also was made to feel that our ally, the rajah of 
 Berar, had been unfairly and impoliticly abandoned by Sir 
 G-eorge Barlow's treaties with Scindiah and Holkar, and at 
 the call of the rajah, or at the alarming prospect of fresh inva- 
 sions and convulsions on or near to the Company's frontiers, 
 he prepared to establish a permanent force on the Nerbuddali 
 river, far in advance of the frontier line which Sir George 
 Barlow had fixed as our ne plus ultra. And this advance 
 was indeed absolutely necessary to oiu* preservation and to 
 the tranquillity of our dominions. The Patau chief, Meer 
 Khan, who had joined Holkar, and had given so much trouble 
 to Lord Lake and our pursuing cavalry during the siege of 
 Bhurtpoor, after committing many wholesale murders, and 
 making various invasions, was threatening, with a mixed army 
 of Patans, Mahrattas, Jauts, and Pindarrees, to overrun the 
 whole of Berar, and to press upon the Company's territories.* 
 He was advancing towards Najpoor, a large to^ii in the 
 Gundwana province, when a British force, under the com- 
 mand of Colonel Barry Close, met him and drove him back. 
 Had he not been impeded by orders from the governor- 
 general. Close would have followed up the savage and 
 have destroyed him, a measure as necessary as the destruc- 
 tion of Dhoondiah Waugh by General Wellesley. As 
 matters stood, Meer Khan was allowed to withdraw into 
 Malwa, in order to desolate that interesting country, to 
 collect there more Pindarree robbers, and to re-appear at 
 a more opportune moment. 
 
 Active warfare was also waged in Baroda and Guzerat, in 
 reducing some turbulent chieftains, and in preventing the 
 
 * For an account of the atrocities of this Meer Khan, and of his 
 treacherous massacre of the Rajpoot chief Sevaee Sing, and 500 of his 
 followers, see Sir John Malcolm, * Memoir of Central India.' 
 
346 AFGHANS AST) SEIKS. [1808-9. 
 
 crime of infanticide, which was very prevalent in that part of 
 India. The troops under Colonel Walker planted the Com- 
 pany's flag in several places where it had never floated 
 before, captured the fort of Kindador, stormed that of Mallia, 
 and extended our real dominion on the side of the Gruico- 
 war's territory, and over one of the most flourishing tracts 
 in Hindustan. 
 
 The renewed alarm about the designs of Bonaparte upon 
 our Eastern empire forced Lord Minto into many embas- 
 sies, and into a great extension of diplomatic relations, and 
 it was now that the Indian government for the first time 
 courted a close connection with the Afghans and the ameers 
 of Scinde. At the close of the year 1807, it was confidently 
 reported that the French, who had for a time destroyed our 
 influence at Petersburgh, Constantinople, and Teheran, en- 
 tertained the design of invading India with the co-operation 
 of Russia, Turkey, and Persia. This was a fantastical hydra, 
 a mere chimera; nevertheless the apprehensions which it 
 excited were real and rather lasting. 
 
 Two hardy, fierce, and warlike nations, the Afghans and 
 the Seiks of Scinde, occupied the countries which lie between 
 Persia and Upper India, and through which the invaders 
 must advance. These two nations had been mortal enemies 
 to each other ; but Lord Minto courted the alliance and 
 friendship of both. The Honourable Mountstuart Elphin- 
 stone, who had risen rapidly in the Company's service, and 
 had given proofs of eminent abilities as resident at the 
 Mahratta court of Poonah, was despatched as ambassador 
 extraordinary to the Afghan court of Cabul. 
 
 Zemaun Shah, who had twice invaded Upper India, and 
 against whom our diplomacy and the mission of Sir John 
 Malcolm had anned the Persians, had long ceased to reign, 
 having been betrayed by his own family, and dethroned 
 and then blinded by Prince Mahmood. Shujah-ul-Mulk, 
 the full brother of Zemaun Shah, made war upon Mahmood, 
 drove him from Cabul, and placed himself upon the throne. 
 His success was owing to his being in possession of almost 
 all the jewels and other property of the croTVTi, which had 
 been committed to his charge by his brother Zemaun. 
 Between the years 1800 and 1809 some half-dozen more 
 revolutions or civil wars had taken place, but when Mr. 
 Elphinstone and his splendid embassy reached the court, 
 Shujah-ul-Mulk was in possession of the throne. He was a 
 
1809.] ME. elphijj'stone's embassy. 347 
 
 handsome man, about thirty years of age, of an olive com- 
 plexion, with a thick black beard. " The expression of his 
 countenance," adds our distinguished elchee, "was dignified 
 and pleasing, liis voice clear, and his address princely. We 
 thought at first that he had on armour of jewels ; but, on close 
 inspection, we found this to be a mistake, and his real dress to 
 consist of a green tunic, with large flowers in gold and preci- 
 ous stones, over which were a large breastplate of diamonds 
 shaped like two flattened fleurs-de-lis, an ornament of the 
 same kind on each thigh, large emerald bracelets on the arms 
 (above the elbow), and many other jewels in different places. 
 In one of the bracelets was the Koh-i-noor, known to be one 
 of the largest diamonds in the world. * 
 
 But in the midst of all this barbaric show, oiu* quick- 
 sighted elchee saw that many things fell far short of his ex- 
 pectations, that " all bore less the appearance of a state in 
 prosperity than of a splendid monarchy in decay;" and 
 that " nothing could exceed the meanness and rapacity of 
 his majesty of Cabul's officers." t At this moment, though 
 seated on the throne. Shah Shujah-ul-Mulk was not in posses- 
 sion of his o\\ii capital, and the embassy was received, not at 
 the city of Cabul, but at Peshawer ; and civil war, or a war of 
 clans, was raging in all the countries between the cities of 
 Cabul and Candahar. Nevertheless Mr. Elphinstone ably did 
 what he was sent to do ; and in June, 1809, he concluded a 
 treaty with Shujah-ul-Mulk, in which the co-operation of the 
 Afghans was promised against the designs of the Trench, 
 who were declared in the treaty to have entered into a 
 confederacy against the kingdom of Cabul with ulterior 
 views on Lidia. The English, of course, bound themselves 
 
 * The Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, ' Account of the Kingdom of 
 Caubul and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India ; comprising 
 a View of the Afghaun Nation, and a History of the Dooraunee Mo- 
 narchy. ' 
 
 t " Lord Minto had sent many splendid presents to the king. The 
 Afghan officers who received charge of these presents kept the camels on 
 which some of them were sent, and even seized four riding camels which 
 had entered the palace by mistake. They stripped Mr. Elphinstone's 
 elephant-drivers of their livery ; and gravely insisted that two English 
 footmen, who were sent to put up the chandeliers, were part of the 
 governor-general's present to their shah. 
 
 " His Afghan majesty himself seems to have been rather craving ; for 
 having admired the EngHsh silk stockings worn by Mr. Elphinstone and 
 the gentlemen of his suite, he sent a message desiring that some might be 
 given to him."' Account of the Kingdom of Caubul,' &c. 
 
3 IS ME. elphinstone's embassy. [1809. 
 
 to pay for this co-operation, or to provide for the expense 
 this new ally might incur in preventing the French and 
 other enemies of the English from traversing his dominions 
 and entering upon India. 
 
 The state of affairs was much too critical to allow the 
 English embassy to prolong their stay. The king was about 
 to take the field with a nvmierous but disorderly army ; and 
 on the 14th of June Mr. Elphinstone and his retinue com- 
 menced their return towards the Indus. They had not tra- 
 velled four miles from Peshawer ere they were plundered by a 
 band of robbers, of a mule loaded with fine shawls, and with 
 rupees to the amount of about 1,000 sterling. On the 
 20th of June they crossed the broad Indus at Attock.* In 
 three marches from the southern bank of the Indus, they 
 reached the valley of Hussein Abdaul, famous in all ages for 
 its beauty, and which had been a favoured resting-place 
 of the Great Moguls on their annual migrations to Cashmere, 
 that garden in perpetual spring, that land of lakes, cool 
 streams and cascades, of the violet, tlie rose, and the Idy, 
 where the song of the nightingale is sweetest, where the 
 women are fair-complexioned and beautiful. Here, in the 
 famed valley of Hussein Abdaid, they were to await the 
 decision of the fate of the kingdom of Cabul ; but here Mr. 
 Elphinstone received orders to return immediately to the 
 British provinces. It was, however, necessary to wait for a 
 letter from Shah Shujah-ul-Mulk, now in the field, and also 
 1 to settle with the Seiks about a passage through their 
 Mihratfsi^^' which at first the ameers positively refused. 
 extraordinary"i^4 ^ !^f ^^ *^^ ^f/^. "1 *^^ beauUful valley. 
 Zemaun Shah,^^.^^* ^^ 7^^.^ ^.^^^^ .l^^^i^^^^' ^^'^*\*J^^P^^'- 
 against whom our cixf^e fugitive harem of Shujah-ul-Mulkar- 
 Malcohn had armed th^^' This boded no good to our new ally, 
 having been betrayed bf 1^?.^ ^f .^^Y^^^^ a letter from the un- 
 andthen blinded by Prince J^fed that he had been defeated. 
 tJie full brother of Zemann Shah, i^^be king s army had been 
 drove him from Cabul, and placed hin-^ad, and too deep and rapid 
 His success was owing to his being in d in boats ; and, notwitb- 
 aU the iewels and other property of thVsed qyicker here tban at 
 l,een committed to tis charge by his <>: ^IZtLltt 
 Between the years 1800 and 1809 some bodies in the water, 
 revolutions or civil wars had taken place.nd it brought to Mr. 
 Elphinstone and his splendid embassy rea of these regions in 
 Shujah-ul-MuIk was in possession of the thro?"* 
 
1809.] AFGHAN ANAKCHT. 349 
 
 suddenly attacked, as it was straggling or mixed with the 
 baggage, in a mountain pass; that it had been defeated before 
 the king could get from the rear to the front, and that his 
 majest}' had fled to the mountains. Prince Mahmood, who 
 had dethroned and put out the eyes of Zemaun Shah, liad at 
 one time been the captive of Shujah-ul-Mulk, who had sluit 
 him up in the Balla Hissar, or citadel of Cabul, but had 
 spared his eyes, a piece of clemency which he had afterwards 
 reason to deplore, and which, as Mr. Elphinstone observes, 
 was probably the first example of the sort in Afghanistan. 
 It was a partisan of this Mahmood who had beaten the 
 shah's army in the mountain defile. Another battle, in which 
 Mahmood himself appears to have been present, was fought 
 soon after, and, being again defeated, Shujah-ul-Mulk was 
 compelled to fly with only thirty horsemen. Mahmood re- 
 established his throne in Cabul, but the people of the city 
 of Peshawer, and several powerful clans of mountaineers 
 living in that neighbourhood, adhered to the cause of 
 Shujah-ul-Mulk, who assembled a fresh army, and being 
 aided by the subahdar of Cashmere, advanced once more 
 against Shah Mahmood. Being again defeated, our unlucky 
 ally fled to the south of the Indus, and took refuge in the 
 fortress of Attock. Shah Mahmood, however, was foiled 
 and beaten in his attempts against some of the mountain 
 clans of Afghanistan, and quitted Attock. Shujah-ul-Midk 
 returned to Peshawer, and re-established his authority over 
 the western part of those immense regions which are occu- 
 pied by the Afghan race. But no authority among this 
 wild people could be either strong or durable ; other princes 
 and chiefs revolted at the head of their tribes and partisans ; 
 and while some made war upon Shah Mahmood, who lived 
 at Cabul, others made war upon Shujah-ul-Mulk, who lived 
 at Peshawer. The monarchy, which had been so powerful 
 under Zemaun Shah, was completely broken up. Nearly 
 ever}^ mountain chief, and every great khan, became a sort 
 of king on his o\\-n account. It was indeed idle to think of 
 forming a treaty of a binding character with a state subject 
 to such vicissitudes. Yet the trouble and expense of Mr. 
 Elphinstone' s embassy were not thrown away ; they procured 
 to u5 an extension of knowledge, a most admirable book, 
 and such an acquaintance with the rugged country, and the 
 more rugged clans and tribes that inhabited it, as ought to 
 have left no fear of French, Russians, or Persians pene- 
 
350 THE AMEEES OP SCINDE. [1809. 
 
 trating through it, even if they could traverse the deserts 
 lying between the Euxine and the Caspian seas, and the 
 wilds of Bokhara. And if the information which Mr. Elphin- 
 stone collected and gave to the world about the country and 
 the people had been properly attended to, and had not been 
 set aside by the confident dicta of a later and much less 
 able observer, the lamentable catastrophe which befel our 
 Afghanistan campaigns in 1841-2 woLild never have hap- 
 pened. 
 
 As Mr. Elphinstone was travelling through the Seik 
 country, he was overtaken by Shujah-ul-Mulk's Hying harem, 
 and in the train of these women was the dethroned, blind, 
 and helpless Zemaun Shah. Our truly honourable elchee, 
 whose heart is as good as his head, waited upon the unhappy 
 prince on the 10th of July, and treated him with the respect 
 due to a monarch, whose reputation had, at one time, been 
 widely spread both in Persia and in India. His valuable 
 book contains an interesting account of the interview. 
 Zemaun Shah spoke of reverses and great calamities as the 
 common portion of kings, and alluded to the astonishing 
 revolutions in the fortunes of princes. " Had he gone over 
 all the history of Asia," says Mr. Elphinstone, "he could 
 scarcely have discovered a more remarkable instance of the 
 mutability of fortune than he himself presented, blind, 
 dethroned, and exiled, in a country which he had twice 
 subdued."* Mr. Hankey Smith was Lord Minto's ambas- 
 sador to the ameers of Scinde, whose country was in as 
 turbulent and lawless a state as Afghanistan. A treaty, or 
 amicable arrangement, was, however, concluded on the 9th 
 of August, 1809, the ameers pledging themselves to permit 
 no enemy of the English to cross their territories, and to 
 exclude the tribe of the Erench from settling in their 
 country. Grholam Ah, then one of the most powerful of 
 the ameers, wished the British to engage to assist him ii 
 conquering the neighbouring country of Cutch ; but he w:; 
 told that the British government had no desire to exten<: 
 its dominions in any direction, or to aid their powers ii 
 
 * * Account of the Kingdom of Caubul,' &c. 
 
 I recommend this admirable work as containing a vast fund of variou"- 
 and correct information, and as presenting a model for all young writer 
 who may have to describe a new or little-known country. I have paid 
 tribute to the excellence of the writer's heart ; this, and the kindline^ 
 and generosity of his nature, are visible in every chapter. 
 
1809.] Malcolm's embassy to peesia. 351 
 
 projects of conquest. As soon as the ameers found tliat 
 no warlike assistance was to be expected from the English, 
 they scorned the treaty and made plans for conquering 
 Gutch A\ithout their aid. 
 
 The Eajah Eunjeet Sing, now the ruler of Lahore, whose 
 dominions included thePunjaub,and reached from the borders 
 of Cashmere almost to the southern frontier of the province of 
 Dellii, and whose subjects consisted of Seiks, Sings, Jauts, 
 Eajpoots,and other Hindus of lower castes, and Mahometans, 
 was making advances towards the confines of the Company's 
 north-west frontier. Lord Minto opened some communica- 
 tions with him at the beginning of 1808 ; but it was found 
 necessary to march a British force in that direction. The 
 presence of Colonel Ochterlony and his disciplined troops 
 had more eifect than the governor-general's representations, 
 in making Eunjeet Sing express a warm desire to live in 
 friendship with the English. Mr. Metcalfe was despatched 
 to Lahore, and in August, 1809, a treaty was concluded with 
 Eunjeet Sing, who agreed not to attempt conquest or 
 occupy territory to the south of the Sutledj ; and to sus- 
 pend immediately the siege of Multan, and certain other 
 operations which he had commenced. The whole countrj'- 
 of Lahore could, at this moment, have put 100,000 armed 
 men on horseback. Eunjeet Sing was much pleased with 
 an English carriage and pair of horses which were presented 
 to him, " to cement harmony ;" but he was evidently 
 chagrined at the governor-general's refusing to enter into 
 his schemes of territorial aggrandizement. 
 
 But, in the groundless panic about invasion. Lord Minto's 
 diplomacy extended far beyond India and Afghanistan. He 
 sent into the dominions of the Shah of Persia, Colonel J. 
 Malcolm, who had gained a high reputation by his conduct 
 and success, in his previous embassy to that country. 
 Malcolm was invested \iv-ith plenipotentiary powers in Persia, 
 the Persian Gulf, and Turkish Arabia, the separate political 
 powers possessed by the Company's residents at Bagdad, 
 Bussorah, and Bushire being for the time suspended. He 
 was furnished with credentials as envoy, or ambassador of 
 the governor-general to the coast of Persia, and to the 
 divan of the pasha of Bagdad, in the event of his finding it 
 practicable to proceed to either of those courts. This event 
 seemed very hypotlietical, for, after Admiral Sir Thomas 
 Duckworth had forced the passage of the Dardanelles, and 
 
352 Malcolm's embassy. [1809, 
 
 had threatened Constantinople with bombardment, the Turks 
 had thrown themselves entirely into the arms of the French ; 
 and, ever since the arrival, at the court of Teheran, of an 
 embassy, and numerous French officers, from Bonaparte, 
 the Persians had become even more Frenchified than were 
 the Turks. Lord Minto could not have found a better 
 iigent than Malcolm for overcoming these difficulties.* But 
 Greneral G-ardanne and his Frenchmen had gained such 
 ground in the Persian court, that the Scottish elchee saw 
 no chance of succeeding ; and being wisely of opinion that 
 it woidd do mischief, rather than good, to remain at Bushire, 
 or to proceed to the capital in an humiliating condition, or 
 without the certainty of being honoiu\ably received, Malcolm 
 hastened back to Calcutta, and proposed to the governor- 
 general a bold plan for overawing the impotent Persian 
 court, and for procuring the speedy dismissal of Gardanne. 
 This plan was to take possession oi* the island of Kismis, in 
 the Persian Gulf, and to make it at once an emporium of 
 commerce, a depot of military stores, and the seat of poli- 
 tical negotiation. Lord Minto readily adopted the project, 
 and Malcolm, by the month of January, 1809, was ready to 
 start from Bombay for the Persian Gulf, with a force 
 amounting to 2,000 men. Events, however, had occiu'red 
 which rendered the sailing of this armament unnecessary. 
 
 The embassy of Gardanne and the prevalency it was ob- 
 taining, had determined the British government to send an 
 
 * After being rooted out of Egypt, Bonaparte seemed to think that he 
 could injure our Eastern empire through the medium of Persia. On the 
 10th of September, 1807, the French mission for Teheran left Constanti- 
 nople. It consisted of General Gardanne, the ambassador, his brother, 
 who was homme de lettres, six engineer officers, two officers of artillery, 
 and about a dozen other Frenchmen, mostly of the military species. 
 Bonaparte constantly employed military men as his diplomatic agents. 
 Gardanne and his subalterns went to work in the usual manner, by repre- 
 senting the English as the tyrants of the world, and the French as the 
 friends of liberty and peace, and by prognosticating that the friendship 
 and alliance between Napoleon the Great and the Persian shah would be 
 everlasting, and attended with incalculable advantage to both of the high 
 contracting parties. Gardanne seemed to be carrying everything before 
 him, when Lord Minto hurried off Colonel Malcolm to the Persian Gulf. 
 The French had been received at the court of Teheran with marked atten- 
 tion, and some of them had been employed to train a corps of Pei-sians in 
 disciphne and tactics. The officers of the French mission were employed 
 in every quarter, surveying the country and examining its resources. 
 Some of them were casting cannon for the king. The Persians, at this 
 time, were waging an unsuccessful war with the Russians. 
 
1809.] DIPLOiTACT IX PEESIA. 353 
 
 envoy extraordinary from his majesty George III. to the 
 Persian shah. Sir Harford Jones, who was selected for 
 this service, reached Bombay on his way to the Persian 
 Grulf. Here, for a time, he doubted what course he should 
 pursue, as Malcolm intimated that an embassy, not backed 
 by an armed force, might be subjected to Persian and to 
 Prench insolence. But soon news arrived that the Persians 
 were irritated against Gardanne for the non-performance 
 of tlie promises about Pussian restitution and evacuation. 
 Sir Harford Jones therefore proceeded to the Persian Gulf, 
 and landed in the shah's dominions. He carried presents 
 from the king of Great Britain worth many thousand 
 pounds ; and he paraded these things, and made such a 
 display of riches on the road, that the pauperized Persians 
 took him for a second Aladdin, and the fame of his mag- 
 nificence reached Teheran before he himself had got to 
 Shiraz. The venal government of Persia hailed his ap- 
 proach with joy. " Mashallah," said the khans, " the English 
 are not ruined; but the French are the grandfathers of lies, 
 and liave made us eat dirt !" Gardanne, with all his suite, 
 was unceremoniously dismissed before the English mission 
 had arrived at the capital. Sir Harford offered English 
 money, as something more solid than Bonaparte's promises ; 
 the shah cheerfully accepted the subsidy, and concluded a 
 treaty, by which he bound himself to have nothing more 
 to do with the Prench. The king's ambassador was soon 
 followed by the Company's ambassador. Colonel Malcolm 
 but mthout his armament arrived at Bushire in Pe- 
 bruary, 1810, and assumed the functions of envoy and pleni- 
 potentiary to the Persian court. He also met with a very 
 gracious reception ; but his residence was not of long dura- 
 tion, as another mission, with Sir Gore Ouseley at its 
 head, was on the point of starting from England. The 
 three missions of Malcolm, Jones, and Ouseley did much 
 temporary good, and produced some benefits of an enduring 
 nature, in the shape of various excellent and amusing books 
 descriptive of Persia and its inhabitants. If we sum up 
 the amount of our literary and scientific obligations to the 
 servants of the East-India Company, and the many able 
 men employed in traversing the countries of the East, in 
 connection with the affairs of our Indian empire, the 
 total amount will be found to be exceedingly large. Lord 
 Minto, in addition to all the embassies we have mentioned, 
 2a 
 
354! ixcrESioxs or the goekiias, [lSlO-11. 
 
 negotiated with ^STepaul and Ava, and hj these means more 
 acquisitions of knowledge were obtained. The rajah of 
 Nepaul had long been a merciless despot in his own do- 
 minions, and a most troublesome neighbour to those of the 
 Company. In 1806, some 1,600 of the rajah's oppressed 
 subjects fled from J^s^epaul into the British provinces ; and, 
 in 1808, a border-quarrel, or dispute about boundaries, took 
 place between the rajah and the English. The governor- 
 general, being prevented from making war by his instruc- 
 tions from home, and being led into the belief that it 
 would be, at any time, an easy matter to bring the Nepaulese 
 to reason, by giving him a sound beating, did nothing for 
 the present. But in 1810, when the rajah, growing bolder 
 in the impunity he enjoyed, seized upon some territories 
 belonging to the zemindar of Bimnughur, a subject of the 
 Company, the rajah was warned that force would be resorted 
 to, unless he made immediate restitution. Force, however, 
 was not employed the?i. At nearly the same time the 
 dominant tribe or family of the Gorkhas, who were making 
 conquests in some parts of Nepaul, which they had not 
 yet subdued, and waging a war of destruction upon the hill 
 chiefs towards the Jumna and Sutledj, prepared to en- 
 croach upon some Seik chieftains south of the Sutledj, 
 who were living under British protection. And in 1811, 
 these fierce and warlike Gorkhas, who as they advanced 
 erected forts and stockades, and strong lines of posts to 
 secure what they had gained, overran the district of Kyndee 
 5)r Kyndeenuggur, in the province of Behar, contiguous to 
 the great Benares road, and erected a fort in the Com- 
 pany's territories. To such encroachments it was impos- 
 sible to submit ; and the governor-general apprised the 
 Court of Directors that there was no hope of obtaining 
 restitution and satisfaction from the Xepaulese and Gor- 
 khas, except by force of arms. At the end of the year, 
 some troops were sent to expel the encroachers ; and in 
 May, 1813, Major Bradshaw was deputed by the Company 
 to settle the disputes about boundaries. But none but a 
 precarious settlement could be made; and the confidence and 
 insolence of the Gorkhas convinced Lord Mintothat a little 
 sooner or a little later, our pacific system must give way to an 
 energetic war. Even while Major Bradshaw was at Bootwul, 
 negotiating with theJS'epaulese commissioners, fresh encroach- 
 Vients were attempted by that active and daring people. 
 
ISll.] AND OF THE BURMESE. 355 
 
 Ava and the Burmese empire either held a direct sove- 
 reignty or exercised control over nearly one-half of the vas^ 
 regions described in maps as India beyond the Ganges. 
 The Burmese, the real masters of the soil, resembled the 
 Chinese rather than the natives of Hindustan ; but with the 
 superior physical strength and activity of the Chinese, they 
 had a much more warlike spirit than the subjects of the 
 Celestial Empire. In civilization they were far beyond the 
 Chinese, the people of Hindustan, or even the Siamese and 
 Cochin-Chinese. By a series of conquests they had over- 
 thrown all the adjacent nations, and had advanced their 
 frontier to the shores of the Bay of Bengal, and close to 
 the limits of the Company's territories. They proved but 
 troublesome and encroaching neighbours. During Lord 
 "Wellesley's administration, in 1799, when the mass of the 
 Anglo-Indian army was engaged in the last war against 
 Tippoo Sultaun, the Burmese made frequent attacks, and 
 were very troublesome on our then weak eastern frontier.* 
 As exclusive and anti-social as the Chinese, and quite as 
 proud and insolent in their bearing towards foreign envoys 
 and foreigners of all classes, it was difficult to establish any 
 intercourse with them, or to obtain, by pacific representa- 
 tions, any redress of grievances. Their government, too, was 
 subject to frequent and sanguinary revolutions, insurrec- 
 tions, and rebellions, one tyrant being murdered and suc- 
 ceeded by another. In 1795, during the pacific administration 
 of Sir John Shore, Colonel Symes was despatched on an 
 embassy to the Golden Foot, or the Lord of the AYhite 
 Elephant ; but little came of the mission, except a very 
 interesting book of travels.f In the year 1809 a French 
 
 * Marquis Wellesley, * Indian Despatches,' &c. 
 
 + Syme's ' Embassy to Ava,' &c. It was owing to certain transactions 
 daring Sir John Shore's spiritless administration, that the Burmese inso- 
 lence increased. In 1795 a Burmese army of 5,000 men pursued three 
 rebellious chiefs, or, as they termed them (and as they might be) robbers, 
 right into the English district of Chittagong. A strong detachment was 
 sent from Calcutta to oppose these Burmese ; but the officer in command 
 had orders to negotiate not to fight. After some tedious negotiations, 
 which ought not to have been allowed to occupy a single hour, the vio- 
 lators of our frontiers condescended to agree to retire ; and they retired, 
 accordingly, into their own country. Is'or was this all. The three men 
 who had taken refuge in our territories were subsetjuently given up to the 
 Burmese, and two out of the three were put to death with atrocious tor- 
 tures. '* This acquiescence on the part of the English government had a 
 very prejudicial effect on the subsequent conduct of the Burmese, for it 
 2 a2 
 
356 seetoijS disturbances in [1S08-9. 
 
 ship attacked a small island belonging to the Burmese, aud 
 Ithe Groldeii Foot, not understanding the difference between 
 Erench and English, sent a sort of mission to Calcutta to 
 expostulate against the proceeding, and to demand satisfac- 
 tion. As this seemed to open the door _ of the jealously- 
 guarded court of Ava to some diplomatic intercourse. Lord 
 Slinto despatched Lieutenant Canning on an embassy. This 
 officer reached Rangoon ; and the Iving of Ava, from the 
 midst of his white elephants, decreed that the Englishman 
 should be allowed to proceed to the capital in all safety and 
 honour; but the incursions into the Company's territories 
 at Chittagong of a predatory tribe of Burmese, called the 
 Mughs, and other untoward events, broke off an intercourse 
 which could never have promised any very satisfactory 
 result. Both our embassies to Ava appear to have been 
 capital mistakes, for they exhibited to a semi-barbarous and 
 vain-glorious people a number of Englishmen in a very 
 humiliating condition, and in the attitude of supplicants. 
 
 Lieutenant Canning returned to Calcutta, and disputes 
 continued to occur on the frontiers of Chittagong and Tip- 
 pera. As they were not met by bayonets, the Burmese 
 grew more and more audacious ; and, at the time when Lord 
 Minto gave up his authority in India to the earl of Moira, 
 the King of tlie World and the Lord of the "White Elephant 
 was threatening to march with 40,000 soldier-pilgrims from 
 Ava to Benares. 
 
 During this peace-seeking administration violent disturb- 
 ances, and even an open mutiny, broke out in the Madras 
 establishment. Sir George Barlow, as governor-general, had 
 carried his economy too far with regard to the army, and 
 Sir Greorge was now governor of Madras, and equally intent 
 upon reductions and savmgs. Pactions also displayed them- 
 selves among the civil servants at Madras, and, for a long 
 time, that council appears to have been as divided and violent 
 as the supreme council at Calcutta in the days when AVarren 
 Hastings was opposed by Erancis, Clavering, and Monson. 
 One party at Madras took part with the discontented army. 
 I cannot, in this epitome, afford room for the discussion of 
 these alarming transactions. They had a tendency to 
 destroy, in brief time, the splendid empire which had been 
 
 was impossible to convince this most self-important people that the men 
 were given up from any other motive than that of fear." Walter Hamil- 
 ton, ' East- Indian Gazetteer.' 
 
1808-9.] THE MADEAS PEESIDElfCY. 357 
 
 raised, in many years, by so mucli wisdom and valour, and at 
 the cost of the lives of so many brave men : I believe I am 
 justified, by all that I have read upon the subject, in believ- 
 ing that some portion of blame attaches to every party to 
 his majesty's government and Court of Directors at home, 
 to Lord Minto at Calcutta, to Sir George Barlow at Madras, 
 and the party there which opposed Sir Greorge to nearly 
 all classes of the civilians as well as to the military on that 
 establishment. But, with my notions of military discipline 
 and subordination, I can find no excuse for British officers 
 who rose in arms against the civil power and to this extre- 
 mity our officers on the Madras establishment did certainly 
 proceed. 
 
 Lieutenant- General Hay Macdowall, of the king's service, 
 who had been named commander-in-chief of the coast army 
 in lieu of Sir John Cradock (who had certainly contributed 
 to the mutiny at Yellore), claimed a seat in the Madras 
 council, and had his claim sternly refused by Sir George 
 Barlow. The general very soon complained that military 
 arrangements were made in the council without any military 
 knowledge, and without consulting him, the commander-in- 
 chief. He even accused the governor of usurping his mili- 
 tary authority. 
 
 Colonel Munro, the quartermaster- general, had been 
 charged, during Lord William Bentinck's government, to 
 draw up a report upon the eligibility of abolishing a certain, 
 monthly allowance, which it had been the practice to grant 
 to the commanders of native corps for the provision of camp 
 equipage, and which was thence commonly called " the Tent 
 Contract." Munro prepared a detailed report on the subj ect, 
 in which he expressed an opinion very adverse to the conti- 
 nuance of the practice, which he described as a system which 
 " placed the interest and the duty of officers in direct oppo- 
 sition to each other." Lord AVilliam Bentinck and General 
 Sir John Cradock had both approved the report, which had 
 been transmitted to the supreme government in Bengal, with 
 a strong recommendation that " the Tent Contract " should 
 be universally abolished. The report received the sanction 
 of the supreme government, and directions were sent to 
 Madras to carry it into eft'ect. It was by virtue of these 
 instructions of the supreme government at Calcutta that 
 Sir George Barlow, wlio had succeeded to the post of gover- 
 nor of Madras, abolished " the Tent Contract," by a general 
 
35S CO'FLICT BETWEEN THE [ISOD. 
 
 order, dated May, 1808. The Britisli officers commanding 
 native corps took great offence. They afterwards took pains 
 to prove that the seat of the quarrel was not in the purse 
 that the abolition of the old monthly allowance for camp 
 equipage was, in a pecimiary light, no sensible evil to them, 
 and that their dissatisfaction and mutiny did not originate 
 in motives of so sordid a nature, but proceeded from the 
 sense of other injuries, and of many insults offered either to 
 themselves or to their commander-in-chief, Greneral Mac- 
 dowall. They said, for example, that Colonel Munro's. 
 report conveyed an insinuation unfavourable and outrageous- 
 to the honour of their whole body. Macdowall might be a 
 hot-headed, but he certainly was not a low-minded or mer-^ 
 cenary man. Though smarting under other injuries, or 
 under things which he considered as injuries, he cared not 
 a straw about the emoluments of " the Tent Contract."" 
 Numerous letters of complaint were addressed to him by his 
 officers ; but he always replied that the question had been 
 settled before he came to the command, and that the matter 
 ought to be considered as now at rest. The officers, how- 
 ever, prepared charges against the quartermaster-general. 
 Colonel Munro, for having made (in his report) use of false 
 and infamous insinuations, injurious to their reputation; 
 and demanded that he should be brought to a court-martial. 
 For more than two months the commander-in-chief did 
 nothing in the matter ; but, when his own quarrel with the 
 Madras government about his exclusion from the council, 
 etc. reached its climax, he very unexpectedly put Colonel 
 Munro under arrest. But for Macdowall' s exclusion from 
 the council-board, and the other wrongs of which he com- 
 plained, the discontents of the officers under his command 
 would, in aU probability, have died out in a few murmurs. 
 
 The army now fully took up the quarrel of the comman- 
 der-in-chief, and Sir George Barlow espoused the cause of 
 the arrested quartennaster-general. Sir George and his 
 colleagues peremptorily ordered the release of that officer. 
 General Macdowall answered that he could not comply ; 
 that the question was strictly military, and that he could 
 not evade bringing it to issue before a court-martial without 
 committing the honour of the whole Madras army. Here- 
 upon the civil government liberated the military prisoner by 
 its own authority. 
 
 Upon this on the 28th of January, 1809 Macdowail 
 
1809.] CITIL AND MILITARY AL'TIIOEITIES. 359 
 
 embarked for England, having previously forwarded to the 
 governor in council an address to the Court of Directors 
 from sundry officers of the Madras army, who complained of 
 several grievances, and amongst them of the exclusion of 
 their commander-in-chief from a seat in council. Mac- 
 dowall also left behind him a general order, in which the 
 conduct of the quartermaster-general was strongly con- 
 demned. The deputy adjutant-general, Major Boles, in the 
 absence of his senior, complied with the injunction or the 
 wish of the departed commander-in-chief, who had gone 
 away without leaving his formal resignation, and issued the 
 general order. The governor in council then suspended the 
 deputy adjutant-general, and issued a general order of their 
 own, declaring that Greneral Macdowall was removed from 
 the offi.ce of commander-in-chief. Colonel Capper, the adju- 
 tant-general, informed the governor that he, and not Major 
 Boles, was the responsible person ; as the paper would have 
 been issued luider his signature if he had not been engaged 
 in accompanying the commander-in-chief on board ship. Sir 
 George Barlow then, without removing the suspension from 
 Major Boles, suspended Colonel Capper also. A consider- 
 able portion of the officers of the Madras army drew up, 
 and circulated for signatures, a memorial to Lord Minto, as 
 governor-general, repeating their grievances and condemn- 
 ing the treatment which their commander-in-chief had 
 received from the civil power. The same officers also drew 
 up a flattering address to the deputy adjutant-general, 
 whom Sir Greorge BarloAV had suspended. This was looked 
 upon by the Madras government as downright mutiny ; and 
 on the 1st of May, 1809, another general order was issued, 
 severely censuring the officers who had circulated the two 
 offensive papers, removing some of them from their par- 
 ticular commands and suspending others altogether. This 
 spread the flames, instead of extinguishing them. In Tra- 
 vancore, at Masulipatam,Seringapatam, Hyderabad, and other 
 stations, they burst into open mutiny. Blood was shed 
 and in no small quantity in Mysore ; for, as a mutinous 
 battalion was marching from Chitteldroog to join the muti- 
 neers at Seringapatam, they encountered resistance from a 
 body of dutiful troops, and fired upon and received the fire 
 of their own countrymen or friends and fellow-soldiers. 
 From 200 to 300 sepoys were killed or wounded. This was 
 a most dangerous spectacle to exhibit to the native army and 
 
3G0 SFPPEESSioN or the [1809. 
 
 inliabitants ! It was the inevitable comaction of this clanger 
 that brought the Eiiglisli officers rapidly to their senses. 
 
 First, those at Hyderabad submitted to the voice of the 
 civil authority, and 'their example was soon followed at all 
 the other stations. Colonel Barry Close, who was at the 
 time political resident at the Mahratta court of Poonah, 
 behaved with admirable skill, firmness, and courage. At the 
 voice of the supreme government, he flew from Poonah to 
 Hyderabad ; and, although he did not succeed in the first 
 instance, the sepoys obeying their mutinous English officers, 
 and pointing their muskets and bayonets against him and 
 his escort, his heroic bearing, his prudent advice, and his 
 evident and great eagerness to prevent the effusion of 
 blood, soon produced a great and healing effect. Other 
 superior officers and servants of the Company behaved most 
 admirably at this moment of crisis. In Mysore, Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Davis, the commanding officer, and the Honour- 
 able Arthur Cole, resident at the court of the rajah (though 
 Davis was enfeebled by sickness, and Cole but a very young 
 man), conducted themselves Avitli rare prudence, wisdom, 
 and fearlessness, and contributed very essentially to the 
 restoration of order and the prevention of sanguinary extre- 
 mities. Colonel Gribbs and Colonel Montresor also distin- 
 guished themselves greatly under circumstances more difficult 
 than any that English officers had been placed under in 
 India. 
 
 Lord Minto, very laudably, went to Madras, whence all the 
 mischief had sprung, but before he reached that presidency 
 (on the 11th of September) all signs of the mutiny were 
 over, except the feelings of contrition of those who had been 
 engaged in it. His lordship applauded "the inflexible 
 firmness of Sir G-eorge Barlow, which had preserved the 
 authority of legal government unbroken and unimpaired ;'* 
 and reprobated the recent revolt, of which the object 
 had been to overawe and control the civil government. 
 Many of the mutinous officers were very young men, 
 who had believed that they were doing right in support- 
 ing their commander-in-chief, who held the king's commis- 
 sion. Only a few were pimished in any way. Macdowall, 
 who had been so long living in a fire, perished in water, the 
 ship in which he took his passage being lost at sea. If he 
 had reached England alive, he would probably have been 
 subjected to some severe punishment or ruinous prose- 
 
1809.] MADEAS MUTINY. 361 
 
 cution. Yet the Court of Directors seemed to acknow- 
 ledge that they had been in the wrong in opposing the 
 wish of the Board of Control and refusing Macdowall a 
 seat in the council, for they lost no time in giving a 
 seat in the council to their new Madras commander-in- 
 chief, Sir Samuel Auchmuty. Mr. Petrie, who led the oppo- 
 sition in council, was recalled, and a minority of the Court 
 of Directors would have recalled Sir George Barlow likewise, 
 but he was warmly supported by Mr. Perceval's cabinet, 
 and by the majority of the court, who declared that he had 
 come out manfully from a desperate contest with the mili- 
 tary, who had long been disorderly at Madras, and who had 
 aimed at nothing short of erecting their own power as 
 supreme over the civil power.* 
 
 * A detail of these unhappy proceedings, which were terminated much 
 sooner than might have been expected, would fill a large volume. Many 
 hundreds of pages were written and printed at the time in England. 
 Among these volumes and pamphlets was a paper by Mr. Petrie, who 
 attributed a vast deal of blame to Sir George Barlow. In an article in 
 the ' Quarterly Review ' (No. ix.), which fills sixty-five closely-printed 
 pages, the whole story is told in a very clear and interesting manner. The 
 facts are carefully, and, on the whole, candidly sifted, making allowance 
 for a shght bias on the side of Sir George Barlow. , 
 
 The account of the ' Rise, Progress, and Termination of the Disturb- 
 ances at Madras,' in the ' Edinburgh Annual Register' for 1810, which 
 evidently proceeded from the pen of Southey, who then wrote the histo- 
 rical part of this periodical work, is clear and good, and considerably 
 shorter than the account given in the ' Quarterly Review.' In some 
 points it severely censures the conduct of Sir George Barlow. It says 
 " The ablest and wisest governor might have found his situation difficult ; 
 and whether a system of conciliation, uniting generosity with firmness, 
 could have allayed the general agitation, is doubtful; but it certainly 
 was not attempted. Sir G. Barlow seems to have thought that firmness 
 alone was sufficient, and that the way to make the authority of govern- 
 ment respected, was to punish any person ivho displeased the governor. 
 Upon this angry and vindictive system some persons were displaced from 
 their official situations, others degraded, others, by distant and unwelcome 
 appointments, banished from Madras. Some of these examples may have 
 been expedient, but, most assuredly, some of them were arbitrary, oppres- 
 sive, and cruel ; and the general ferment and general disgust which such 
 measures created encouraged the discontented officers, who found the civil 
 servants of the Company ready to sympathize with them, because they 
 were exasperated by their own grievances. Things were in this state when 
 General Macdowall embarked for England, and from this time it is diffi- 
 cult to say whether the conduct of the army or of the government was 
 most censurable, till, by the imprudence and intemperance of both, a 
 crisis was brought on, which decided the guilt of one party, without ex- 
 culpating the other." * Edin. Ann. Register.' 
 
 General Sir Thomas Muitland, at this time governor of Ceylon, and 
 
3G2 CAPTURE OF AMBOTXA. [ISIO. 
 
 If conquests and annexations were not made in Hin- 
 dustan, there was no laclt of them in other directions. In 
 fact, during the peaceful administration of Lord Minto, our 
 conquests and operations in the Eastern Archipelago, or 
 Insular India, wei-e widely extended so widely, indeed, 
 that the forces and resoiu-ces employed in this direction 
 would have made it difficult to prosecute any important war 
 on the Indian continent. 
 
 Our fleets commanded in every sea, so that the Dutch 
 and French colonies could receive only a scanty and preca- 
 rious support from the mother countries. All the IVIalacca 
 or Spice Islands, which had been colonized by the Dutch, but 
 which now in reality belonged to the French, Bonaparte 
 having annexed Holland to his empire, were reduced with 
 very little difficulty by Anglo-Indian expeditions. The first 
 attack was made upon Amboyna, which had been taken by 
 the English during the first revolutionary war, but which 
 had been restored at the peace of Amiens. A small flotilla 
 of Company's armed vessels, commanded by Captain Tucker, 
 and a small military force, consisting of a part of the Com- 
 pany's Madras European regiment and a few artillerymen 
 (about 400 landsmen in all), under the command of Captain 
 Court, stormed the princijml batteries on the 16th of 
 February, 1810 ; and, on the following day, the whole of 
 the island was surrendered to the British, although it was 
 defended by 1,300 men and a great quantity of artiUer}^ 
 The five dependent islands quietly submitted to the con- 
 querors. Being reinforced by Captain Cole, the Amboyna 
 expedition drove the Dutch from their very strong works 
 on Banda J^eira, and in the course of the month of August, 
 1810, reduced the whole of the group called the Banda Isles^ 
 so productive in nutmegs. 
 
 Xothing now remained to the Dutch subjects of jSTapoleon 
 
 afterwards the *' King Tom" of Malta and the Ionian Islands, was, as all 
 the world knows, no very great admirer of weakness or laxity of govern- 
 ment, yet he censured the conduct of Sir George Barlow as being too 
 rigid. In 1810, Sir James Mackintosh, who was then visiting Colombo, 
 was told that he (Sir T. M.) thought that Lord Minto had slackened the 
 cords of government as dangerously as Sir George Barlow tightened 
 them. ' Diary, in the Life of the Right Hon. Sir James Mackintosh, 
 edited by his Son.' 
 
 But the shortest and best of all the comments made oa these disturb- 
 ances proceeded from the pea of our great duke, and will be found in 
 the ' Wellington Despatches.' 
 
1811.] CO>'QUEST OF JAVA. 363 
 
 in those seas except the rich island of Java and some settle- 
 ments on the coast of the richer and far larger island of 
 Sumatra. The reduction of these settlements was first sug- 
 gested to the governor-general by Mr. Stamford Raffles, one 
 of the many men of rare talent that had been trained 
 under the East-India Company. Eaffles, during only a short 
 residence on the coast of Malacca, had contrived to obtain 
 a vast mass of information concerning the Indian Archi- 
 pelago ; and he not only suggested the expeditions, but 
 accompanied and materially aided those who were intrusted 
 with the commands. Though bred to the law, and never in 
 any degree a military man. Lord JMinto himself determined 
 to go with the troops. His lordship left Calcutta on the 
 9th of March, 1811, for Madras, which establishment was to 
 furnish part of the forces. The Bengal troops were embarked 
 in the middle of April, and, about the middle of May, the 
 whole of the expedition arrived at Malacca, the place ^f 
 rendezvous, as the best starting-point for the conquests pro- 
 posed. Great was the difficulty of making a voyage with a 
 large fleet through an archipelago where the wind blows 
 strongly from one point of the compass for several months 
 together, where the passage between the islands is often so 
 narrow that only one ship can pass at a time, and then so close 
 to the land that the sides of the vessel are shadowed by the 
 luxuriant vegetation which extends to the water's edge.* 
 
 The accounts of this navigation were contradictory and 
 obscure. Few or none of the British naval officers engaged 
 in the expedition had ever threaded that perplexing maze, 
 and their opinions were divided as to which was the best 
 course to pursue in order to reach Java expeditiously. 
 There was no time to waste in disputations, for the favour- 
 able monsoon was near terminating when all our forces were 
 collected at Malacca. Many insisted that the only practical 
 course for a fleet was the northern route round Borneo ; 
 
 * ' Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford 
 Raffles, F.R.S., &c. &c., particularly in the Government of Java, 1811- 
 16 ; Bencoolen and its Dependencies, 1817-24 ; with Details of the Com- 
 merce and Resources of the Eastern Archipelago, and Selections from his 
 Correspondence. By his Widow.' 
 
 This is another admirable book, and full of useful lessons and high 
 encouragements to young men entering into the Honourable Company's 
 service, a service in which Raffles, by his own merits, self-education, 
 and great industry, rose from a very poor and obscure condition, to emi- 
 nence, fortune, and fame. 
 
361 SIR STAMFOED BAPFLES. [1811. 
 
 but Raffles, tlie real planner of the whole expedition, recom- 
 mended the south-west passage, between Carimata and 
 Borneo, " and staked his reputation on the success which 
 would attend it." Eaffles had previously ascertained the 
 practicability of this passage by an experiment in a small 
 vessel called the Minto. The governor-general ordered that 
 that passage should be taken ; and, in less than six weeks after 
 quitting Malacca, the fleet, counting more than ninety sail, 
 was in sight ofBatavia, without accident to a single vessel.* 
 
 Our land troops were under the command of Greneral Sir 
 S. Auchmuty : they were divided into four brigades, and 
 amounted to nearly 12,000 men, of which about one half 
 were British. The climate on that coast, however, proved 
 so noxious, that the hospitals were soon crowded with our 
 native Indian sepoys and with our British soldiers. It is 
 said that at one time there were 5,000 men on the sick- 
 list and incapable of duty. But neither these disastrous 
 circumstances nor the strength of the works prevented the 
 easy conquest of the island. Batavia, the capital, to which 
 the Dutch had given the proud title of " Queen of the East," 
 was surrendered on the 8th of August, by the burghers, the 
 garrison having retreated to "Weltevreeden. 
 
 On the morning of the 10th of August, Colonel Grillespie, 
 with part of our troops, marched to Weltevreeden. The 
 Dutch had abandoned their cantonment there, and had 
 taken post about two miles farther up the country, at Cor- 
 nells. Their position was strong, and defended by an 
 abattis, occupied by 3,000 of their best troops and four guns 
 of horse-artillery; and behind them were the fort of Cornells 
 and other very strong works. Thus posted, the Dutch, for a 
 time, defended themselves stoutly ; but at length their four 
 guns were captured, and they were driven from the abattis, 
 at the point of the bayonet. They left on the field about 
 500 in killed and wounded, including a brigadier-general, 
 who was wounded dangerously. The loss of the British 
 was but trifling. 
 
 * * The whole fleet," says the governor-general, " had assembled on 
 the coast of Java by the 30th of July. l:\i& Modeste, if alone, would 
 have done it in a fortnight sooner. I have been the more particular in 
 detailing these circumstances, because this expedition must have been 
 abandoned for the present year (an earlier departure than actually took 
 place from India having been found totally impracticable) if I had yielded 
 to the predicted difficulties of the passage." * Memoir of the Life and 
 Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, by his Widow.' 
 
1811.] STOEMING OF BATTEEIES. 365 
 
 The enemy now took slielter close under their batteries. 
 Their main body was strongly intrenched in a position 
 between the great river of Jacotra and a deep canal dug by 
 the Dutch, and called the Sloken: this position was shut up in 
 front by a deep trench, strongly palisadoed ; neither the river 
 nor the canal was fordable : seven redoubts and many batte- 
 ries, moimting heavy guns, occupied the most commanding 
 points of ground within the lines, the key-fort of Cornelis 
 being in the centre. The heat was too violent, the malaria 
 of the spot too destructive, and the number of our forces 
 too smaU, to admit of regular approaches. The Dutch works 
 must be taken by battery and assault, or not at all. Sir S. 
 Auchmuty came up with more troops, Eear- Admiral Stop* 
 ford spared 500 of his seamen to assist at our batteries ; 
 and these were worked so well, that, one by one, the nearest 
 Dutch batteries were silenced. At last, on the 26th of 
 August, the assault was made, under the immediate direction 
 and gallant leading of Colonel Grillespie, Colonel Gibbs, 
 Lieutenant- Colonel Macleod, and Major Tule ; and the 
 works were all carried, and the whole of the enemy's army 
 was killed, taken, or dispersed. The combat had been most 
 obstinate. A tremendous explosion of the magazine of one 
 of the Dutch redoubts (whether by accident or by design 
 was not ascertained) took place at the instant of its capture, 
 and destroyed a number of our officers and men, who were 
 crowded on the ramparts, which the enemy had abandoned. 
 Colonel Macleod, who attacked another of the redoubts, fell 
 in the moment of victory. In all, twenty-seven sepoys, and 
 114 British were slain, 123 sepoys, and 610 British were 
 wounded, and thirteen were missing. But 5,000 Dutch 
 were taken prisoners, about 1,000 were buried in the works, 
 multitudes were cut down in the retreat, some of the rivers 
 were choked up with the dead, and the huts and neighbour- 
 ing thickets were filled with the wounded. Among the 
 prisoners were three general officers, thirty-four field officers, 
 ninety captains, and 150 subaltern officers. Greneral Jansens, 
 the Dutch commander-in-chief, who had thrice rallied his 
 retreating troops, escaped with difficulty, followed by a weak 
 cavalry escort, the sole remains of an army of 10,000 
 men.* 
 
 * Sir Samuel Auchmuty's ' Despatch to Lord Minto.* 
 On the 27th of August, the day after the bloody battle of Cornelis, the 
 warm-hearted, the good, the learned, the poetical Doctor John Leyden, 
 
SGG IMPORTANCE OF JATA. [1811. 
 
 The final capitulation of the vast island, or of all of it that 
 had been occupied by the Dutch, was not signed, at Sama- 
 rang, bv General Jansens and Sir S. Auchmutj, till the 
 18th of September. Such of the natives or Asiatic settlers 
 as had been subjects to the Dutch rejoiced in the change ; 
 and many of the independent chiefs, who occupied the 
 principal *part of the country, came in and courted the 
 alliance of the new conquerors. Lord Minto did not over- 
 rate the importance of Java in his despatches to the autho- 
 rities in England. 
 
 "An empire," said his lordship, "which for two centuries 
 has contributed greatly to the power, prosperity, and grandeur 
 of one of the principal and most respected states in Europe, 
 
 the associate and friend of Walter Scott, the bosom friend of Stamford 
 Raffles, the admired of all who knew him, died of the country fever at 
 Weltevreeden. He expired in the arms of Raffles, who deeply mourned 
 his loss : 
 
 " Where sleep the brave on Java's strand, 
 Thy ardent spirit, Leyden, fled ; 
 And fame, with cypress shades the land 
 Where genius tell and valour bled. 
 
 When triumph's tale is westward borne, 
 
 On Border hills no joy shall gleam ; 
 And thy loved Teviot long shall mourn 
 
 The youthful Poet of her stream." 
 
 From ' Verses,' by Sir John Malcolm. 
 
 Many congenial spirits at home mourned his premature fate. Southey, 
 in giving an account of the conquest of Java, paid a merited compliment 
 to the learned Dutch writers of an earlier age, who had visited and 
 described the island, and then concluded with this beautiful tribute to 
 Leyden: 
 
 " But the writings of Nieuhoff", and Baldseus, and Valentyn, and Rum- 
 phius remain ; and time, which destroys the work of the conqueror and 
 of the statesman, will but increase their value. Unhappily our conquest 
 cost us the life of one who, had his days been prolonged, would probably 
 have added more to our knowledge of Eastern literature and antiquities 
 than all his predecessors: I speak of Dr. John Leyden, who, for the 
 sake of increasing his stores of knowledge, accompanied Lord Minto upon 
 this expedition, and fell a victim to the climate ; and whose early death 
 may be considered as a loss so great, so irreparable (for generations may 
 pass away before another be found, who with the same industry, the same 
 power of mind, and the same disinterested spirit, shall possess the same 
 opportunities), that I will not refrain from expressing a wish that Java 
 had remained in the hands of the enemy, so Leyden were alive." ' Edin- 
 burgh Annual Register.' 
 
 Walter Scott drew up and published, in this same miscellany, a very 
 touching biographical memoir of his dear friend Leyden, whom he never 
 afterwards mentioned but with feelings of the greatest affection. 
 
1810.] EEDL'CTIOX OF SOURIDOy AND ISLE OE TEANCE. 367 
 
 lias been thus ^Tested from the short iisurpation of the 
 French government, has been added to the dominion of the 
 British crown, and converted, from a seat of hostile machi- 
 nation and commercial competition, into an augmentation 
 of British power and prosperity." Eaffles, who could not 
 foresee how soon the British government would be induced 
 to restore to the emancipated Dutch these splendid con- 
 quests in the Eastern Archipelago, was even warmer than 
 the governor-general in describing the value of Java. " It 
 is, in fact," said he, ^^the other India f' Baffles himself, 
 under the title of lieutenant-governor of Java and its de- 
 pendencies, was appointed to preside over this new empire, 
 " as an acknowledgment of the service he had rendered, 
 and in consideration of his peculiar fitness for the office." 
 
 Mr. Hare was appointed resident at Banger-Masiug, with 
 the view of checking the war, which was almost constantly 
 raging among the native chiefs, and of putting down the 
 practice of piracy, which was nowhere carried on in a more 
 ferocious manner or on a larger scale. 
 
 It was also during Lord Minto's administration that 
 Bourbon and the Isle of France were reduced. In the 
 month of July, 1810, a small Anglo-Indian force under 
 Colonel Keating, and a small squadron of his majesty's 
 ships under Commodore Bowley, subdued the French in 
 the first of these two islands, with no other loss than 
 eighteen killed, seventy-nine wounded, and four drowned in 
 landing. In the month of November, in the same year, 
 ships and troops from Madras, from Bombay, and from 
 Bengal, formed their junction at an appointed rendezvous 
 near to the Isle of France. 
 
 They were to be joined by a division of king's troops from 
 the Cape of Grood Hope ; but as these royal forces did not 
 arrive in time, the attack was made without them. The 
 army was commanded by Major-G-eneral J. Abercromby, the 
 fleet by Vice- Admiral Bertie. The island was surrounded 
 by dangerous reefs ; but the whole of the leeward side was 
 carefully examined and sounded, and a passage for vessels 
 was found where none was supposed to exist. On the 29th 
 of November, at 10 o'clock in the morning, the whole fleet, 
 consisting of nearly seventy sail, got safely to anchor at the 
 point of debarkation in Grande Baie, about twelve miles to 
 the windward of Port Louis ; and the army, with their 
 artillery, stores, and ammunition, several detachments of 
 
368 BOUBBON BESTOEED TO FRAJfCE. [181-1'. 
 
 marines, and a large body of seamen, were landed in the 
 course of the day, Adthoiit a single loss or accident. The 
 Prench had considered such a landing, or any landing except 
 opposite to Port Louis, as an impracticability ; and, in con- 
 sequence of this old and confirmed persuasion, while the 
 seaward fortifications of their capital were very formidable, 
 their works on the land side where they never expected to 
 be attacked were contemptible. The island, in fact, was 
 gained the moment that the passage through the reefs was 
 discovered; or, at latest, the moment that the landing of the 
 troops was so successfully efiected. ^Numerically, the Prench 
 were too weak to offer any great resistance in the country 
 which lay between the point of debarkation and the capital 
 of the island. They slvirmished a little in a wood, they 
 attempted to defend a narrow defile, and they made a short 
 stand in some lines behind the town of Port Louis ; but, 
 on the morning of the 2nd of December, as Greneral Aber- 
 cromby was preparing to make a general attack, De Caen, 
 the Prench governor and commander-in-chief, sent out a 
 white flag, and proposed to capitulate. The attack was 
 suspended, and the capitulation was hastily concluded. 
 Considering the relative situations of the two forces, it was 
 thought by many persons that the British commanders 
 allowed the Prench conditions much too favourable. De 
 Caen and his garrison were sent to Prance, without being 
 bound not to serve against England or her allies during the 
 war a very idle and useless condition, as the Prench of the 
 revolutionary school had long ceased to respect any such 
 engagement. But the rich colony and its dependencies, the 
 forts, well-stored magazines, etc., were given up ; the con- 
 querors obtained possession of 209 pieces of ordnance in 
 excellent condition, of four large Prench frigates, one Prench 
 sloop, and one brig ; of two small English frigates which 
 had been captured by the Prench, and of a number of mer- 
 chant ships, many of the later being prizes picked up by the 
 privateers of the island, and some of them being of great 
 value. And, what was most important of all, the Prench 
 were dispossessed of a stronghold, from which, during the 
 whole of this war, they had sorely annoyed our East-India 
 trade. Both these neighbouring islands ought always to 
 remain in the hands of the power which holds the empire of 
 India ; but, at the peace of Paris, in 1814, the British govern- 
 ment, keeping the Isle of Prance, very unwisely gave back 
 
1808.] EXPEDITION TO CHI25-A. 369 
 
 Bourbon. In making these two important conquests, the 
 troops had but few opportunities of displaying their valour. 
 Counting Europeans and natives, our loss in the Isle of 
 France amounted only to twenty-nine killed, ninety-nine 
 wounded, and forty-eight missing.* But the facility with 
 which large detachments from the three presidencies of 
 Bengal, Madras, and Bombay were wafted to distant islands 
 and peninsulas, seas and gulfs, and then formed into strong 
 and compact armies, was every way calculated to raise our 
 military reputation ; and if much of the merit was due to our 
 national navy, still the East-India Company, its governors, 
 officers, troops, and servants, may fairly claim a large share 
 in the honours. 
 
 The pirates in the Persian Gulf, forgetful of several severe 
 chastisements they had previously received, attacked and 
 plundered an English trading vessel, and treated the crew 
 and passengers with, great barbarity. Forthwith a small 
 expedition was despatched from Bombay to chastise these 
 ruffians and destroy their shipping. Through the good 
 diplomacy of Colonel J. Malcolm, the imaum of Muscat was 
 induced to co-operate, and, in quick succession, the pirates 
 were driven out of Mallia, Shenass, and all their other 
 nests, and their vessels were destroyed. 
 
 Another of Lord Minto's expeditions was not so fortunate 
 or so honourable. At the very beginning of his govern- 
 ment (in 1808), when Bonaparte seemed on the point of 
 subduing both Spain and Portugal, and when fears were 
 entertained that the Erench might obtain possession of the 
 Spanish colony of Manilla, and thence make an attack upon 
 the Portuguese possession at Macao, a small armament was 
 sent to the Canton river. It was found now, as it had been 
 found in the year 1802, under the administration of Marquis 
 AYcllesley, that the Chinese considered Macao as a portion 
 of their empire, and the Portuguese as mere tenants at 
 will ; that the Chinese wxre furious at the landing of any 
 British force, and that the Portuguese, or men of mixed 
 race, that dwelt at Macao, were far from being disposed to 
 give our troops a hearty welcome. Our troops, not quite a 
 thousand men, were, however, landed, and with the consent of 
 tlie local Portuguese authorities. A general feeling of enmity 
 
 * Unfortunately, however, Lieut. -Col. Campbell and Major O'Keefe, 
 two excellent officers, were killed in clearing the defile, which the French 
 attempted to defend. 
 
 2b 
 
370 nUMILTATTNG CONVENTION. [1808. 
 
 on the part of the Chinese inhabitants manifested itself in 
 repeated affrays and in assaults, particularly on our sepoys. 
 An order soon came do^Yn from Canton for our troops to 
 depart, our trade at Canton was stopped, and provisions 
 were denied both to our Indiamen and to the squadron of 
 his majesty's ships. And shortly after this, some of the 
 pasteboard warriors of the celestial empire began to march 
 towards Macao, and a line of war junks, with pateraro 
 guns, was drawn across the river to intersect all communi- 
 cation with Canton. Admiral Drury made a demonstration 
 of breaking through this line. The boats of all our men-of- 
 war, and of all our Indiamen, were manned and armed. They 
 could have cut through with very little difficulty or loss, 
 but the admiral, instead of fighting, pulled up to parley. 
 Upon this the Celestials in the junk began to fire into the 
 English boats. One man was wounded in the admiral's own 
 boat, and hereupon the admiral ordered the signal to be 
 made for the attack. But "the signal was not observed, 
 and ordered not to be repeated. The admiral then declared 
 his intention not to force the Chinese line, and returned 
 with the boats to the fleet. Though a man of undisputed 
 courage, Admiral Drury seems not to have possessed that 
 cool and deliberate judgment which was essential to the suc- 
 cess of the business he had been engaged in . . . The attempt 
 to proceed to Canton in the boats ought never to have been 
 made, or it should have been carried through. A pagoda 
 was built by the Chinese near the spot, to commemorate 
 their victory over the English."* Our humiliation was com- 
 pleted by a convention, entered into at Macao in December 
 (1808), in conformity with which our troops were re-embark- 
 ed, and Admiral Drury sailed away for Bengal. The trade, 
 which had been stopped for more than three months, was 
 then renewed. The pecuniary loss incurred by the English 
 through this squabble about Macao was very heavy ; and it 
 was soon discovered that no trifling addition was made to 
 the usual arrogance of the Chinese.f 
 
 * Sir John Francis Davis, late chief superintendent in China, governor of 
 Hong-Kong, &c. Parliamentary Evidence, as quoted by, in * The Chinese ; 
 a General Description of the Empire of China and its Inhabitants.' 
 
 f It isbutjusticetostate that the conduct of Lieutenant-Col. Weguelin, 
 the officer in command of the forces that were landed at Macao, was pru- 
 dent, discreet, vigilant, active, and spirited. This was liberally acknow- 
 ledged by the governor-general himself. 
 
 See services of Lieutenant-Col. Thomas M. Weguelin, In * East-India 
 Military Calendar.' 
 
1813.] EESIGNATION OF LORD MINTO. 371 
 
 Lord Miiito resigned his office, and took liis passage for 
 England towards the close of the year 1813. It is said 
 that when he returned from India he frankly confessed that 
 his notions about the first and greatest of our governors- 
 general were very different from what they had been a 
 quarter of a century before, when he harangued in the 
 House of Commons or sat with the managers of Hastings's 
 impeachment in Westminster Hall. More than tliis, his 
 lordship recommended carrying out the system of aggran- 
 dizement, connection, and supremacy which Hastings had 
 been the first to adopt ; and lie confessed that without this 
 supremacy, by conquest or by connection, our empire in the 
 East could not stand ; and that the timid, neutrality, non- 
 interference system, which had now been so long cherished 
 by the British legislature and government, and by the 
 Court of Directors, was altogether inapplicable to our 
 situation in India. 
 
 If his government had lasted six months longer, he must 
 have found himself involved in extensive wars in Hindustan. 
 
 B 2 
 
372 ALTEBATIOyS IN TKE CHABTEK. [1813. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 The commercial monopoly of the East-India Company 
 had long been a subject ofjealousy and complaint with some 
 of the mercantile interests of the United Kingdom ; and at 
 every renewal of the Company's charter, efforts had been 
 made to throw open some portions of the India or China 
 trade. Many merchants, of London, Liverpool, and other 
 ports (not sufficiently reflecting that the trade in India 
 had been acquired by the Company through conquest and 
 dominion, and that this conquest and dominion could not 
 have been acquired if the Company had not been allowed 
 the profits derivable from the trade of the country), had, 
 for a very long time, contended that they, and Great Britain 
 at large, had a just right to participate in the India and 
 China trade. 
 
 The first great inroad on the Company's exclusive privi- 
 leges did not, however, take place until the year 1813. On 
 the 22nd of Eebruary, the Company, well aware of the 
 many and strenuous efforts that were making to break up 
 their monopoly, represented, by petition to parliament, that, 
 without their commercial privileges, they could not maintain 
 their political privileges or territorial possessions ; the com- 
 mercial monopoly being but an instrument for political pur- 
 poses, &c. A modification of the system had, however, been 
 previously resolved upon by ministers; and before the session 
 closed, a bill (act of the 55 Greo. III.) was carried through 
 both houses. The trade with India (but not with China) 
 was thrown open in ships of a given tonnage, under license 
 from the Court of Directors, on whose refusal to grant such 
 license, an appeal lay to the Board of Control. The resort 
 of individuals to India for commercial or for other purposes 
 was put under similar regulations. Thus there was intro- 
 duced a divided authority in matters of commerce, as there 
 had previously been in politics. Henceforward it was 
 
1813.] EDUCATION IN INDIA. 373 
 
 enacted that tlie Company's accounts should be kept under 
 the two separate heads oi* " territory" and " commerce." A 
 general authority was given to government, through the 
 Board of Control, over the appropriation of the territorial 
 revenues and the surplus conmiercial profits which might 
 remain, after a strict observance of the appropriation clauses 
 and the claims of the Company's creditors. Prom this 
 time forward no governor-general, governor, or commander- 
 in-chief was to be appointed by the Company without the 
 approval of the crown ; and no suspended or dismissed ser- 
 vant of the Company was to be restored without the consent 
 of the Board of Control. The bounty of the Court of 
 Directors was also restricted, it being laid down that in the 
 bestowal of any sum exceeding 600, the concurrence of 
 the Board of Control was indispensable. Moreover the 
 Board of Control was to hold and exercise authority over the 
 Company's college and seminar}^ in England.* 
 
 At a very early period the Company had paid considerable 
 attention to the establishing of schools and chapels in their 
 factories, and to the means of diffusing the doctrines of the 
 Christian faitli among their native servants, and among 
 other natives living in the neighbourhood of their settle- 
 ments. By the charter of 1698, the Company were bound 
 to maintain a minister and schoolmaster in every garrison 
 and superior factory, and to set apart a decent place for the 
 performance of divine worship. They were also required to 
 have a chaplain to every ship of 500 tons or upwards, whose 
 salary was to commence from the ship sailing outwards. 
 Such ministers were to be approved by the archbishop of 
 Canterbury, or the bishop of London, and were to be at all 
 times entertained with proper respect. Eesident ministers 
 in India were to learn the " Portuguese and Hindu lan- 
 guages, to enable them to instruct the Gentoos and others 
 in the Christian religion." On the union of the two Com- 
 panies in 1708, it was declared by the charter, that the 
 chaplain should have precedence next after the fifth member 
 of council at his factory. 
 
 Even at earlier periods, we find the Company employing 
 missionaries, sending out bibles and catechisms, and bestow- 
 ing attention on the education of the native children. In 
 1677, they sent out a new schoolmaster Mr. Kalph Orde, 
 
 * The establishments at Haileybury and Addiscombe. 
 
371 EELIGIOrS IKSTEUCTIOir. [1813. 
 
 with a liberal salary and appointments, telling their agents 
 that " He is to teach all the children to read English, and 
 to write and cipher, gratis ; and if any of the other nations, 
 as Portuguese, Grentoos, or others, will send their children 
 to school, we require that they be also taught gratis, and 
 you are to appoint some convenient place for this use ; and 
 he is likewise to instruct them in the principles of the Pro- 
 testant religion; and lie is to diet at our table. '^^ In the 
 same missive, which has a savour of the naivete of the olden 
 times, the agents were told that they might give two rupees 
 apiece to such as should be able to repeat the catechism by 
 heart, " for their encouragement." 
 
 The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, founded 
 at the beginning of the last century, soon directed its attention 
 towards India, and sent thither missionaries as well as books. 
 In the year 1744, and again in 1752, we find the Company 
 giving hearty assistance to this religious society. They 
 ordered that the missionaries sent out by the society should 
 have the use of a church at Cuddalore, and of a church 
 at Madras. "And," wrote the Company to their agents, 
 "as a further encouragement to the said missionaries to 
 exert themselves in propagating the Protestant religion, we 
 do hereby empower you to give them, at such times as you 
 shall think proper, in our name, any sum of money, not 
 exceeding 500 pagodas, to be laid out in such manner, and 
 appropriated to such uses, as you shall approve of; and you 
 are hereby directed to give us, from time to time, an account 
 of the progress made by them in educating children and 
 increasing the Protestant religion, together with your opinion 
 upon their conduct in general, and what further encourage- 
 Mient they deserve." In the same year in which this was 
 written to Madras (1752), the Court wrote to Bombay : "As 
 it will be greatly for the interest of the Company to have as 
 many of the soldiery, and others our dependants in the 
 presidency of Bombay, instructed in the principles of the 
 Protestant religion, Ave have thought proper to add two more 
 chaplains to your' establishment, who are to reside at TeUi- 
 cherry and Anjengo, or wherever else you shall think proper 
 to station them, so as will best answer our intentions ; and 
 that we may have the advantage of a rising generation 
 instructed in the same principles, we recommend it to you, 
 
 * Correspondence, quoted by P. Auber, ' Rise and Progress.' 
 
1S13.] ITATIVE CONVEllTS. 375 
 
 to form a plan for the setting up and establisliing charity- 
 schools, wherein the children of onr soldiers, mariners, 
 topasses, and others, may be educated as well at the subor- 
 dinates as at Bombay. When you can reduce your plan 
 to practice, you may depend upon our giving an assistance 
 becoming the Company ; and we most earnestly recommend 
 it to every one of our servants and others, who are in good 
 circumstances, to contribute freely to an undertaking of 
 such utility to the presidency in general. 
 
 " AVhen schools are erected in consequence of this recom- 
 mendation, our chaplains are frequently to visit them, to see 
 what improvement the children make, and to give their 
 utmost assistance in instructing and confirming them in the 
 principles and profession of the Protestant religion." * 
 
 Although not in sufficient numbers considering the 
 vast extent of the country and its teeming population 
 India had not been left Avithout chaplains or without mis- 
 sionaries ; but the labours of the latter had not been attended 
 with any great success, and the more cautious Anglo-Indians 
 had shrunk from the risks attendant on a too energetic 
 spirit of proselytizing. The Hindus, submissive in all but 
 that, had always seemed ready to rush into insurrection at 
 the slightest interference with their religious rites and ancient 
 customs customs and rites not more ancient than (in many 
 cases) re\'olting and degrading to humanity. Partly through 
 their own lault in attempting to translate the whole of the 
 Scriptures into most difiicult languages, with which they 
 were most imperfectly acquainted, and partly through the 
 sense-striking, attractive, and splendid ritual of the lioman 
 Catholic church, the success of the English missionaries, wke- 
 ther of tlie Established Church or Baptists, had been very 
 inferior, at least in numerical amount, to that of the papist 
 missionaries. And yet the most able and best member of 
 the great Koman Propaganda had been fain to confess, after 
 residing forty years in India, that only the very worst of the 
 natives he had converted remained steadv to their new 
 faith. 
 
 The best result of the efforts of our missionaries was to 
 be seen in Tinnevelly ; and it was such as to encourage 
 the hope that what had been done there might be found 
 practicable elsewhere. In the very centre of the south of 
 
 * Correspondence, quoted by P. Auber. 
 
376 APPOINTMENT OF [1813. 
 
 Tiunevellv there vrere two villages, one of 500 and the 
 other of 400 native Christians, with regular churches, native 
 priests, catechists, and boys' and girls' schools. They were 
 living as Christians, in harmony, without a vestige of idola- 
 try to be seen in either village, nor an idol to be found. 
 Begular service in the church was held daily. Groups of 
 women were to be seen assembled together under the shade 
 of the palmyra-tree, spinning cotton and singing their 
 Lutheran hymns to the motion of their wheels, while the 
 men were at' the same time labouring in the field. " It was 
 like an oasis in the moral desert of the immense country.'* 
 The Hindu tehsildar * bore the strongest testimony to their 
 conduct, as being an inoficnsive, quiet people ; and said that 
 he should rejoice if all the inhabitants around Avere like 
 them. The name of the one village was Mothelloor, the 
 name of the other was iS'azareth. They were a part of the 
 labours of the Christian Knowledge Society in Tinnevelly. 
 They had been without an}'- missionary for many years, but 
 they had retained the faith and doctrines which had been 
 taught them, and they performed all the ofiices of religion 
 among themselves.f 
 
 In the debates in parliament, on the new charter, much 
 was said respecting the propagation of Christianity, and the 
 appointment of missionaries, to be salaried by the state. 
 Nearly every man who lived in India opposed this last 
 measure. 
 
 Nevertheless, it was now hoped that a regular and well- 
 appointed hierarchy, headed by prelates of the Anglican 
 church, of learning and virtue, might contribute to diffuse 
 the Protestant religion among the natives ; w^hile the vast 
 and constantly increasing numbers of Englishmen settled or 
 serving in India seemed to demand more spiritual care than 
 had hitherto been bestowed upon them. A bishop of Cal- 
 cutta, with diocesan authority over the whole of British India, 
 and three archdeacons to superintend the chaplains of the 
 presidencies and of all the settlements, were appointed. 
 But it was not deemed prudent to enter fully into the wishes 
 expressed in petitions presented to parliament from various 
 parts of the kingdom, praying that provision might be made 
 for the resort of missionaries, &c. to India. A few indiscreet 
 
 * A native collector of taxes. 
 
 + Letter of one of the Company's chaplains, as quoted by P. Auler, 
 in Rise and Progress of the British Power in India.* 
 
1813.] anglica:n- bishops. 877 
 
 missionaries spread over Hindustan miglit have jeopardized 
 our empire, without doing any spiritual good to the natives. 
 In the debate a Scotch member stated that the majority of 
 the British residents in India were Scotchmen and Presby- 
 terians, and therefore would have no provision for their 
 public worship, and he proposed a clause for the appoint- 
 ment of three superior Scotch clergymen, one at each 
 presidency, with a salary of 1,000 each. The proposition 
 was rejected ; but at a subsequent discussion, it was made 
 known that the Company had given an assurance for the 
 maintenance of ministers of the Scotch kirk at its own 
 expense.* 
 
 The first appointments to the Calcutta bishopric were 
 admirable, for the lawn has not often been worn by better 
 men than Bishop Middleton and Eeginald Heber. AVe do 
 not know that the diffusion of our religion among Hindus, 
 Mahometans, or Parsees has been very materially accele- 
 rated ; but we believe there is no doubt that the discipline 
 of our church, and the general morals and devotion of the 
 British subjects in India, have been improved by the eccle- 
 siastical institutions provided for by the legislature in 1813. 
 The obscene and bloody superstitions which disgrace Hin- 
 dustan (speaking of merely mortal means) can be removed 
 only by time, and slow and cautious measures : but it is 
 consoling to reflect that some of the worst abominations 
 have been at the least dwarfed and checked. 
 
 As isolated beings, unconnected with government, the few 
 Protestant missionaries in the country caused little or 
 no alarm to the guardians of the Hindu religion, or to 
 the professors of Mahometanism ; but if the legislature 
 had complied with the wishes of some well-meaning and 
 pious persons at home, and had suddenly thrown into India 
 a great number of " Act-of- Parliament missionaries," to be 
 protected by and connected with our Indian government, 
 there can be no doubt but that a great alarm would have 
 been immediately excited. But a respectable church esta- 
 blishment, with a suffragan bishop at the head of it, and 
 with the clergy intrusted with the care and zealous in the 
 superintendence of the public schools in Calcutta, Madras, 
 and Bombay, might, without exciting any jealousy or alarm, 
 silently and gradually effect a favourable change, not only 
 
 * ' Annual Register,' for 1813. 
 
87S Bisuor's college. [1813-24. 
 
 in the religion and morality of the British subjects, but in 
 those of the natives also. The establishment of the 
 " Bishop's College " at Calciitta, by Dr. Middleton, the first 
 Protestant bishop in India, was calculated to do infinite 
 good ; and since its improvement and enlargement by the 
 accomplished Eeginald Heber, our second bishop, great good, 
 we beheve, has been done by it. It has been well said that 
 much may be expected from the institution of schools on a 
 liberal plan for the benefit of the rising generation of the 
 Hindus ; and that to convey instruction through the medium 
 of the English language, in every branch of useful know- 
 ledge, and in the principles of religion and moral rectitude, 
 will do more to open their minds to conversion, and to con- 
 vince them of the monstrous absurdity of their own poly- 
 theism, than all the translations of the Scriptures and 
 rehgious tracts which have been circulated among them. 
 " A general knowledge of history or geography will at once 
 disperse that cloud of more than Egyptian darkness, which 
 for so many ages has confined their view. . . . When they 
 cease to consider Mount Meru as 20,000 miles high, and the 
 world as a flower, of which India is the cup, and other 
 countries the leaves, their minds may become more open to 
 rational views on the subject of religion." * 
 
 * * Quarterly Review,' No. Lxv. 
 
 Read also Ainslie (Whitelaw), ' Historical Sketch of Christianity in 
 India, and other Eastern Countries,' 8vo., Edinburgh, 1835. ' Bengal^ 
 Historical and Ecclesiastical Sketches of, from the Earliest Settlement 
 until the Conquest of the Country by the English, in 1757.' Calcutta, 
 1831. Whitehead (Edward), ' Sketch of the Established Church in 
 India,' 12mo., London, 1848. Lushington (Charles), 'History, Design, 
 and Present State of the Religious and Charitable Institutions founded by 
 the British in Calcutta and its Vicinity.' Calcutta, 1824. 
 
1813.] MAEQUIS OF n^STINGS GOYEKKOE-GEXERAL. 379 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 The earl of Moira, soon afterwards marquis of Hastings, 
 succeeded LordMinto as governor-general. As LordEawdon, 
 lie had greatly distinguislied himself in the war of American 
 independence, more than thirty years before his Indian 
 appointment. He had the well-earned reputation of being 
 a brave soldier, and, if not throughout a consistent politi- 
 cian, he was a nobleman of the most honest intentions, 
 sincerely attached to his sovereign, high-minded beyond 
 most of his contemporaries, and liberal and generous in the 
 extreme. He had also a grace and dignity in his manners, 
 which will not be forgotten by tliose who ever saw him, and 
 which could not be without their eftect in a country like 
 India. 
 
 His lordship was nominated on the 18th of November, 
 1812, and, arriving in India, Lord Minto resigned the 
 government to him, on the 4th of October, 1813. He was 
 obliged to attend almost immediately to matters of war, for 
 the Birmans, or Burmese, continued to trouble one of our 
 frontiers, while the Nepaulese made encroachments on 
 another, both being encouraged by the pacific system of Lord 
 Minto. The Birmans were brought to reason for the pre- 
 sent ; but the Nepaulese spurned negotiations. The Gor- 
 khas, who domineered in Nepaul, retained that passion for 
 war and conquest to which they owed their recently-esta- 
 blished dominion, and except in the neighbourhood of our 
 military stations on that frontier, it Avas found impossible to 
 check their border forays, or their constant quarrels with 
 our subjects. In the month of May, 1814, while some 
 negotiations were opening, the Nepaulese treacherously 
 attacked and murdered all our pohce officers stationed in 
 Bootwul. The earl of Moira determined to send armies to 
 deal with these troublesome neighbours. He had been 
 named commander-in-chief of the forces as well as governor- 
 
3S0 NEPAULESE WAE. [1814-15. 
 
 general. Age had not chilled his military ardour ; his lord- 
 ship still was every inch a soldier. He quitted Calcutta in 
 June, to make a tour of inspection, to concert measures for 
 the campaign, and to make defensive arrangements against 
 the marauding Pindarrees, who were threatening our north- 
 ern frontiers. 
 
 The Nepaulese frontier was about 600 miles in length, 
 and for the most part very rugged ; and the enemy had the 
 command of all the passes of the forests and hills.* Very 
 few parts of the country had ever been examined by Euro- 
 peans. The Nepaulese were as jealous and vigilant as 
 the Chinese, from whom most of their tribes originally 
 descended. 
 
 Lord Moira, however, resolved that his forces should act 
 offensively along the whole line of the frontier, and break into 
 the country from different points. For the whole plan of 
 the campaign which was clearly defective through want of 
 local information his lordship seems to be answerable. 
 Major-Greneral Marley, with the principal force, consisting 
 of about 8,000 men, was to march upon Catmandoo, the 
 capital ; Major-Greneral "Wood was to overrun all Bootwul, 
 and to menace Pulpa ; Major-Greneral Grillespie was to seize 
 the passes of the rivers Jumna and Granges, in order to cut 
 off the retreat of the enemy to the eastward ; and Major- 
 General Ochterlony, with the 4th corps, was to invade the 
 western provinces of the Grorkhas. The Grorkhas alone had 
 at this time about 12,000 fighting men, dressed, armed, and 
 disciplined in imitation of the Company's sepoys ; and if 
 this imitation was not very perfect, the men were robust, 
 active, and courageous. The strength of the country was 
 great, being skirted and intersected by lofty mountains, and 
 abounding in excellent defensive posi'tions.'t As our forces 
 advanced towards the frontiers, the Grorkha officers ordered 
 that all the wells should be poisoned ; but this is a threat 
 which has often been used, and has never been carried 
 extensively into practice. The Nepaulese mode of making 
 stockades in excellent positions, and the stubbornness with 
 which they defended them, proved more mischievous to the 
 
 * ' History of the Political and Military Transactions in India, during 
 the Administration of the Marquis of Hastings, 1813-23.' By Henry 
 T. Prinsep, Esq. 
 
 t Walter Hamilton, ' Account of the Kinsdom of Nepaul, and of the 
 Territories annexed to this Dominion by the House of Gorkha.' 
 
1816.] SECO^'D CAMPAIGiN". 381 
 
 invaders. General Gillespie, who had had so narrow an 
 escape at the massacre of Yellore, fought his way well into 
 the country, but was killed on the 30th of October, 1814, in 
 a too hasty assault on the fort of Kalunga. General AVood 
 failed completely in his operations, and General Marley 
 failed so miserably as to be taxed by the commander-in- 
 chief with gross neglect and imbecility. The mistake com- 
 mon to all these commanders in the first Nepaul campaign 
 appears to have been a too great contempt for these new 
 and untried enemies. But the whole campaign must be 
 considered as a war of experiment as a war in a novel 
 field, where almost everything was yet to learn. General 
 Ochterlony, however, with his single division, gained bril- 
 liant successes in the western provinces of the Gorkhas, 
 defeated the enemy in several battles, drove them into the 
 fort of Maloun, and there forced them to capitulate. By 
 these victories the countries between the Jumna and Sut- 
 ledj were eflectually cleared, to the great satisfaction of the 
 Seiks, and of the hill chieftains who were allied with the 
 Company. But the war was not yet terminated, though it 
 had already lasted more than a year. Those who held 
 authority at Catmandoo, the capital of jN'epaul, consented to 
 a treaty, and then refused to ratify it, and then defied the 
 English to another campaign in the heart of their own 
 country.* 
 
 The entire management of this second campaign in 
 Nepaul, which commenced in February, 1816, was left to 
 Major- General Ochterlony, who had so ably conducted all his 
 part of the first campaign. Ochterlony had nearly 20,000 
 effective men, including three European regiments, his ma- 
 jesty's 24th, 66th, and 87th. The British soldiers were better 
 suited to a war among lofty and bleak mountains than were 
 the sepoys from the hot plains of Hindustan. He divided 
 his forces into four brigades, which were respectively com- 
 manded by Colonel Kelly, Lieutenant- Colonel JS'icol, Lieute- 
 nant-Colonel Miller, and Colonel Dick. Colonel Kelly was 
 detached to the right, Lieutenant-Colonel JS'icol to the left ; 
 the other two brigades, guided by Ochterlony, moved straight 
 through the forests to the foot of a pass, above which the 
 Nepaulese were strongly posted behind their troublesome 
 stockades. These works were altogether unassailable in 
 
 * Henry T. Prinsep. 
 
382 BATTLE OF [181G. 
 
 front ; but, after four days' diligent search, Captain Pickers- 
 gill, of the quartermaster-general's department, found a 
 route which turned tlie pass. In the darkness of night, 
 General Ochterlony, in person, led Miller's brigade through 
 a deep and narrow chasm, and over the brow of a formidable 
 barrier of hills. By seven o'clock on the following morning 
 the heights on the jilank of the enemy's position were occu- 
 pied without resistance. Nearly at the same time Colonel 
 Dick's brigade, which had been left at the foot of the pass, 
 moved up in front close to the outer stockade ; and in the 
 course of the morning they found the triple fortification 
 evacuated, in consequence of the success of Ochterlony's 
 operation for turning the position. Our troops were obliged 
 to bivouac on the bleak mountain-tops for four days, waiting 
 the arrival of their supplies and tents, as no laden animal had 
 been able to accompany them, or to climb the hill which they 
 had climbed. During the first two days the men suffered 
 extreme privations. But their gallant leader shared in their 
 hardships, having no baggage, and sleeping under cover of a 
 hut, hastily constructed for him by the men of the 87th, 
 of boughs cut from the green trees.* By the 20th of 
 February the supplies and tents were brought up, and 
 the roads were prepared for a further advance. The enemy, 
 vexed and disheartened at Ochterlony's unexpected dis- 
 covery of the route across the first barrier of mountains, 
 continued to retreat from stockade to stockade, until they 
 came to the town of Mukwanpoor, which stands on a hill, 
 and which had both a fort and a stockade. On the 27th, 
 Ochterlony occupied a hill in front of Mukwanpoor, and 
 within two miles of that town. The Grorkhas endeavoured 
 to recover this hill. In their first attack they drove in a 
 weak outpost, and killed the commanding officer. Lieute- 
 nant Tirrell. A small village on the hill was, however, gal- 
 lantly maintained, after the fall of Tirrell, by Lieutenant 
 Kerr and Ensign Impey (a grandson of Sir Elijah Impey), 
 who were both publicly thanked in general orders for this 
 sendee. Ochterlony threw forward the flank companies of 
 the 87th and the 2'5th regiments of native infantry. On 
 the^ other side, the Grorkhas poured forth 2,000 men from 
 their stockade in front of Mukwanpoor, and showed a deter- 
 mination to gain the village and recover all the ridge of the 
 
 * Henry T. Prinsep. Memoir of Ochterlony, in ' East-India Military 
 Calendar.' 
 
1816.] MUKWANPOOE. 383 
 
 hill. The English general then threw forward four more 
 companies of the 87th and the second battalion of the 12th 
 native infantry Again, on the other hand, the Gorkhas 
 reinforced their columns of attack. Ochterlony brought 
 his guns to play along the ridge ; and thereupon the Gror- 
 khas brought up some of their guns, and fired hotly on our 
 camp and line, where the general and his staff were con- 
 spicuous objects. After a stern contest, the enemy yielded 
 to our superiority of artillery, and to a bayonet-charge made 
 by some of the British soldiers ; and they fled beyond a deep 
 hollow which separated the ridge from Mukwanpoor. There, 
 however, and in a jungle, they maintained themselves for 
 some hours, keeping up, across the hollow, a hot fire of 
 artillery, which did little mischief, and an incessant fire of 
 musketry from the jungle, which did a good deal. But 
 towards sunset, Ochterlony brought up a fresh sepoy bat- 
 talion, and Major Xation, putting himself at the head of it, 
 dashed across the hollow, charged with the bayonet, and 
 captured the nearest of the guns. After this the Grorkhas 
 retired behind their stockades or into their fort, leaving 
 their dead and wounded behind them. Hitherto they had 
 always sho'VNTi the greatest devotion in carrying off their 
 wounded. Their loss was very severe ; they acknowledged 
 themselves that it exceeded 800 men. Our loss in killed 
 and wounded rather exceeded 200. 
 
 The day after the battle of Mukwanpoor, Colonel Nicol, 
 who had been detached with his brigade to the left, joined 
 Ochterlony, having succeeded in penetrating into the 
 country by a pass near Eamnuggur, and by the winding 
 valley of a river. Colonel Kelly, who had been detached 
 with his brigade to the right, had also succeeded in finding 
 a route which led him across the mountains to the important 
 fortress of Hureehurpoor, As usual, this fort had a strong 
 stockade in its front. But the Gorkhas committed the 
 same mistake here which they had committed at Mukwan- 
 poor, by abandoning an eminence at about 800 yards' distance 
 from their stockade. This ridge was instantly seized by a 
 detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel O'Halloran. The 
 enemy sallied in full force to recover the ridge, and O'Hal- 
 loran had to sustain an unequal fight from six in the morning 
 until near the hour of noon. But when a strong reinforce- 
 ment came to the ridge of the hill with two six-pounders and 
 two howitzers mounted on elephants, the enemy fell back to 
 
38^! PEACE WITH >^EPArL. [1816. 
 
 their stockade. They left a considerable number of killed 
 and wounded on the hill, and they made no further attempt 
 to regain possession of it. On the side of the victors, only 
 four Europeans and four natives were killed, and five 
 English officers, twenty-three English soldiers, and twenty- 
 five natives were wounded. Both the stockade and the fort of 
 Hureehurpoor were evacuated in the course of the ensuing 
 night. Colonel Kelly converted the fort into a depot, and was 
 preparing for a further advance when he received intelligence 
 that the war was over. 
 
 The defeat at Mukwanpoor had carried consternation 
 into the court of Catmandoo. The Kepaul rajah put the 
 red seal to the previous treaty which he had refused to 
 ratify, and sent an envoy to Greneral Ochterlony's camp. 
 The earl of Moira had very wisely instructed the general not 
 to conclude a treaty until the enemy should be sufiiciently 
 humbled to make it safe to rely on their sincerity. To 
 humble the pride of these warlike tribes and destroy their 
 prestige in the eyes of the peoples and rulers of India, was 
 more important than to make acquisitions of territory. 
 General Ochterlony, however, determined to do both, lie 
 told the envoy that the Company must now retain all the 
 territory in Xepaul which their troops occupied, including 
 the valley of the Eaptee, Hureehurpoor, etc. ; that the 
 rajah must write a submissive letter to the governor- 
 general ; and, finally, that he, the Gorkha negotiator, must 
 present the ratified treaty on his knees at his (General 
 Ochterlony's) durbar, in the presence of all the vakeels in 
 camp. To all these conditions the court of Catmandoo was 
 obliged to submit. The country was now becoming very 
 unhealthy ; but our army did not quit the hills and forests 
 of iSTepaul until two important forts were surrendered, in con- 
 formity with the treaty, to our ally, the rajah of Sikkim.* 
 
 All the articles of the treaty were executed with rare 
 punctuality. The rajah of Nepaul bound himself never to 
 disturb the Company's frontiers or the territories of any of 
 its allies ; never to advance any claim to the territories which 
 had formerly been disputed, or which were now ceded ; 
 never to retain in his service any British subject, or the 
 subject of any European or American state, without the 
 consent of the British government ; to allow the permanent 
 
 * Henry T. Prinsep. 
 
1816.] Sm DATID OCHTEELONT. 385 
 
 residence of an English minister at the court of Catmandoo, 
 and to send accredited ministers of his own to reside at 
 Calcutta. The governor-general, as a politic act of concilia- 
 tion, restored some of the territory which had been con- 
 quered, after a straight and even frontier for the Company's 
 dominions had been draAvn and marked at certain distances 
 with pillars of masonry, to prevent any future disputes. 
 
 One of the many curious circumstances attending this 
 war in Nepaul was the chance of an English army coming in 
 -contact with an army of the celestial empire. The Chinese, 
 whose real dominions extended to the feet of the Himalaya, 
 claimed a fictitious dominion over the whole of Nepaul; 
 and their claim was so far admitted, that the JS'epaulese 
 sent, every three years, some trifling tribute to Pekin. 
 During our first campaign of 1814-15, the Nepaulese called 
 upon the emperor of China for assistance, declaring that the 
 quarrel with the English had arisen in consequence of their 
 having demanded to be put in possession of the passes 
 through the mountains, in order that they might invade 
 Cliina. At first the Chinese gave no credit to this false- 
 hood ; but when they heard from their own officers com- 
 manding on the Himalaya frontier, that the red coats were 
 really advancing through Xepaul, they believed the story. 
 It Avas accordingly determined by the court of Pekin that 
 an army shoidd be sent into JS'epaul. But the first cam- 
 paign and the second were ended, the war was over, and the 
 rajah beaten and humbled, before the army of the celestials 
 was heard of at Catmandoo. The governor-general sent ex- 
 planations, which were deemed satisfactory by the Chinese. 
 The Gorkhas, who were now afraid of the assistance they 
 had invited, asked the English resident at Catmandoo 
 whether, in case the Chinese should invade their territories, 
 they miglit depend upon the co-operation of a British army 
 in resisting them ! The celestials, after lying some time on 
 the reverse of the Himalaya, marched back to Pekin.* 
 
 The lesson which theNepaulese received from Ochterlony 
 made a lasting impression ; they have never since given us 
 any trouble ; and, instead of fighting against us, some of 
 their best and bravest men have long been fighting for us. 
 
 * For further particulars relating to these very curious transactions we 
 refer the reader to Mr. Prinsep's very interesting and accurate work. 
 From the situation this gentleman held under the marquis of Hastings's 
 administration, he bad ample means of obtaining the best information. 
 
 2 C 
 
386 riNAIfCIAL DIFFICULTIES. [18,16. 
 
 The G-orkhas in our ])av have been faithful to the Company 
 and valorous on the field of battle. 
 
 The able officer who had so well managed the second and 
 last campaign was properly honoured and rewarded.* He 
 was a man of genius, and not above learning what was 
 useful even from a semi-barbarous enemy. If he had been 
 a man of routine, or a formalist and pedant, attached exclu- 
 sively to one art of war, either he would never have 
 threaded the passes and labyrinths of i^epaid, or he would 
 have been sacrificed with his whole army long before reaching 
 Mukwanpoor. But Ochterlony saw that the resource of 
 stockades would be equally available to an invader ; that it 
 might be made to cover and secure every advance of the 
 British, and be thus turned against the invaded ; and that 
 it placed the issue of the war in the power of continuance. 
 He therefore adopted the ISTepaulese system of stockading 
 both in his first and second campaign ; and to this he was 
 principally indebted for his success. By this means the 
 operations of our divisions which penetrated the hills were 
 converted into a war of posts, and depots and weak detach- 
 ments were put in a position of security when the main 
 divisions were far away.f He also attended sedulously to 
 his commissariat, establishing and stockading good maga- 
 zines of provisions as he advanced. If, at any time, he had 
 been compelled to retreat, his troops would have food and 
 shelter provided for them in these fortified depots. 
 
 The governor-general had found it extremely difficult to 
 procure the funds necessary for this unusually long war in 
 JS'epaul. Tlie treasury had been drained by the great 
 expenses attending Lord Minto's armaments in the Archi- 
 
 * He received the order of the Bath, and was afterwards created a 
 baronet. The East-India Company voted a pension of 4^1,000 per 
 annum to Major-General Sir David Ochterlony, Bart., and K.C.B., in 
 acknowledgment of his splendid services in the Nepaulese war. 
 
 t Little advance was made in Nepaul until we adopted the plan of 
 stockading posts, which the nature of the campaign frequently rendered it 
 necessary to place beyond the limits of prompt succour. Had this plan 
 been adopted at the beginning, several serious disasters would not have 
 happened. "It was, however," adds Mr. Prinsep, " altogether a new 
 thing to the Bengal army ; for, from the earliest days, there had never 
 been works thrown up for the defence of an outpost, . . . Sir David 
 Ochterlony has the merit of having first resorted to this plan, and of 
 having adopted it, too, as a resource of prudence which occurred to his 
 own mind, not taught to him by the experience of disaster, as was the 
 case with others."' History of Political and Military Transactions,' &c. 
 
1816.] WAE Ilf CUTCH. 387 
 
 pelago. The increasing value of gold bullion in England 
 had also made itself felt in India. Specie seemed to be dis- 
 appearing in Bengal, and credit was sadly deranged. But 
 the war in Nepaul must be prosecuted, remittances must 
 be made to England, or disgrace or ruin must ensue. The 
 crisis was far from being so bad now as then, yet the earl 
 of Moira acted much upon the same plan which Warren 
 Hastings had pursued, in the first instance, in 1780, when 
 the Erench and the Mysoreans were threatening the over- 
 throw of our empire. He cast his eyes upon the nabob 
 vizier of Oude, and determined to make his coffers contribute 
 to the support of the Nepaul war and to the fast-sinking credit 
 of the Company. Saadut AH was known to be fond of hoard- 
 ing, and was believed to be very rich. It was represented 
 to him that his territories had suffered as much as our own 
 from the aggression of the jN'epaulese, and that therefore it 
 was but just that he should pay part of the expenses of the 
 war. But just at this financial crisis the avaricious nabob 
 vizier departed this life, dying at Lucknow on the 11th of 
 July, 1814, as the governor-general was on his way from 
 Calcutta to that city. Two of his sons claimed the musnud. 
 Ghazee-ud-Deen, who paid down two crores of rupees, was 
 preferred by the noble marquis, and put in possession by the 
 Company. But for this money, rather more than 2,000,000 
 sterling, the pride and power of the I^epaulese could not 
 have been broken, and the disastrous issue of a war in the 
 mountains would have been instantly followed by insurrec- 
 tions and wars in the plains of Hindustan. 
 
 The marquis was much more fortunate than his great 
 predecessor in opportune deaths. 
 
 In the course of the year 1816, when money was again 
 wanted to put the frontiers of the Company in a good state 
 of defence against the Pindarrees, and to provide for the 
 contingency of a fresh war with the Mahrattas, the old 
 Eyzabad Begum, whom Warren Hastings had squeezed, was 
 carried to the tomb. She died worth fifty-six lacs of rupees ; 
 and, as she could not take her beloved money with her, she 
 bequeathed it to the Honourable Company, on the condition 
 of its providing annuities for her friends and dependants, 
 equivalent to the interest at the rate of six per cent, per 
 annum then, for India, a very moderate rate. 
 
 During our war in Nepaul the people of Cutch had com- 
 mitted depredations in the territories of our allies the 
 2c2 
 
388 TEIMBUKJEE. [1816. 
 
 peishwa and the Gruicowar families. A small force under 
 Colonel East took the field, and captured the fortress 
 of Anjai*, in Cutch. The ruler of that lawless country- 
 agreed to give compensation for the damages to our allies, 
 and to yield to the English the permanent possession of 
 Anjar, on condition of their assisting him to reduce some of 
 his rebellious subjects. The Eao also engaged to prevent his 
 subjects in future from crossing the gulf or runn for hostile 
 objects, and from carrying on the practice of pirac}^, in 
 which they were great adepts. All those lawless regions 
 were to be thoroughly reformed ; but the British at Anjar 
 were solemnly bound not to outrage the religious feelings of 
 those robbers by killing bullocks and eating beef. The 
 inevitable course of events, or the natural course of expan- 
 sion, was gradually yet quickly advancing the Company's 
 frontier towards the mouths of the Indus. In the year 
 1800, when Surat was assumed, it was stated and believed 
 that the Taptee river on the Gulf of Cambay would be our 
 ne 2)lus ultra in this direction ; but now, in 1816, we got 
 beyond the Gulf of Cutch, and close upon the E,unn of 
 Cutch, by possessing ourselves of Anjar, which place was not 
 much more than two geographical degrees from the Koree, 
 or most southern mouth of the Indus. 
 
 The court of Poonah had been guilty of various infrac- 
 tions of the treaty of Bassein. The peishwa had given his 
 friendship and entire confidence to a menial servant named 
 Trimbukjee, and had almost ceased to consult his own prime 
 minister Munkaseir. Trimbukjee was a man of a violent 
 character, and very hostile to the English, who had laboured 
 hard to introduce order and law into the peishwa's country. 
 He committed sundry outrages on our ally the Guicowar, 
 who despatched an ambassador or vakeel, named Gungadhur 
 the Shastri, to Poonah, to remonstrate with the peishwa. 
 The peishwa referred the Shastri to Trimbukjee ; and this 
 ruffian most barbarously and treacherously murdered him 
 in a Hindu temple. 
 
 The Shastri' s people had to searcii for " the bits of his 
 body." He was a Brahmin of the very highest caste, and of 
 great reputation for sanctity and learning.* Bad as they were, 
 the Mahrattas had a detestation of assassination ; and the 
 crime in the present case was the more horrible in their eyes, 
 
 * He was called the Shastri, on account of his familiarity with the 
 Shastras, or eacred Scinscrit books. 
 
1816.] TEIMBUKJEE. 389 
 
 from tlie character of tlie victim and the holiness of the place. 
 The Mahrattas and all the Hindus predicted that the ven- 
 geance of their gods would fall upon Trimbukjee, and that the 
 peishwa would date his ruin from this atrocious deed. As 
 soon as the horrible circumstance came to the knowledge of 
 the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, our resident at 
 Poonah, he insisted that Trimbukjee should be given up ; 
 and as the general voice of the Mahratta people backed the 
 demand, the peishwa, Bajee Eao, found himself under the 
 necessity of yielding. Trimbukjee was arrested and thrown 
 into the strong fortress of Thanna, on the island of Salsette, 
 not far from Bombay. But his imprisonment was not of 
 long duration. A common-looking Mahratta groom, with 
 a good character in his hand, came to offer his services 
 to the English commandant of the fort. He was ac- 
 cepted. The stable, where he had to attend his horse, was 
 close under the window of Trimbukjee's prison. He was 
 observed to pay more than usual attention to his steed, and 
 to have a habit, while currpng and cleaning him, of singing 
 snatches of Mahratta songs. At length, in December, 1816, 
 Trimbukjee disappeared from his dungeon, and both horse 
 and groom from the stable. 
 
 It was believed that Trimbukjee fled straight to his in- 
 fatuated master the peishwa, who concealed him, and 
 solemnly declared to the English resident that he knew 
 nothing about him. The murderer's love for the English 
 had not been increased by the capti^dty he had suftered ; 
 and, wherever he might be, it appeared very certain that 
 he urged the peishwa to throw the whole treaty of Bassein 
 to the winds, to form a new Mahratta league, and to 
 make war upon the Company. 
 
 In the mean while our Indian armies were drawn into the 
 field by a more contemptible enemy. 
 
390 THE PINDAEEEES. [1816 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIL 
 
 The Pindarrees were not a distinctive race, but a numerous 
 class of men, of different races, religions, and habits, gra- 
 dually associating and assimilated bj a common pursuit. 
 They were all horsemen and all robbers. They were some- 
 thing like the first Mahrattas in their habits of life and 
 warfare, but unhke them in not being united by nationality 
 and one religious faith. Their name first occurs in Indian 
 history about the end of the seventeenth century. Erom 
 obscure freebooters, they rose into sufficient consequence to 
 be deemed useful auxiliaries by the different Mahratta 
 powers, whose desultory mode of warfare was suited to 
 their own habits. From their preceding or accompanjdng 
 Mahratta armies, the Pindarrees became occasionally con- 
 founded with the Mahrattas, though they were always 
 considered by the latter as essentially distinct, and so im- 
 measurably inferior as not to be allowed to eat with them, 
 or even to be seated in their presence. Occasionally the 
 Mahratta rulers purchased their aid by grants of land, or by 
 a tacit admission of their right to possess tracts which they 
 had already usurped. But the more usual price paid for 
 their assistance was the privilege of plundering, even beyond 
 the ordinary license given to a Mahratta army.* 
 
 What their numbers were could at no time be correctly 
 estimated. They varied with circumstances, being thinned by 
 failure and sweUed by success. "It is also to be observed," 
 adds Sir John Malcolm, " that the Pindarrees were fed and 
 nourished by the very miseries that they created ; for, as 
 their predatory invasion extended, property became inse- 
 cure, and those that were ruined by their depredations were 
 afterwards compelled to have recourse to a Hfe of violence, 
 as the only means of subsistence left them. They joined 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, * Memoir of Central India.' 
 
1816.] THE pi:jtdaerees. 391 
 
 the stream which they could not withstand, and endeavoured 
 to redeem their own losses by the plunder of others." The 
 strategy of these overgrown bodies of banditti will show at 
 once how difficult it was either to suppress them or inter- 
 cept them. 
 
 " "When they set out on an expedition, they placed them- 
 selves under the guidance of one or more chosen leaders, 
 called Lubburiahs, who were selected on account of their 
 knowledge of the coimtry that it was meant to plunder. The 
 Pindarrees were encumbered neither with tents nor baggage; 
 each horseman carried a few cakes of bread for his own 
 subsistence, and some feeds of grain for his horse. The 
 party, wliich usually consisted of two or three thousand 
 good horse, with a proportion of mounted followers, advanced 
 at the rapid rate of forty or fifty miles a day, turning 
 neither to the right nor left till they arrived at their place 
 of destination. They then divided and made a sweep of all 
 the cattle and property they could find, committing at the 
 same time the most horrid atrocities, and destroying what 
 they could not carry away. They trusted to the secrecy 
 and suddenness of the irruption for avoiding those who 
 guarded the frontiers of the countries they invaded ; and 
 before a force could be brought against them they were on 
 their return. Their chief strength lay in their being intan- 
 gible. If pursued, they made marches of extraordinary length 
 (sometimes upwards of sixty miles), by roads almost imprac- 
 ticable for regular troops. If overtaken, they dispersed, 
 and re-assembled at an appointed rendezvous ; if followed to 
 the country from which they issued, they broke into small 
 parties."* 
 
 " Their wealth, their booty, and their families were scat- 
 tered over a wide region, in which they foimd protection 
 amid the mountains and in the fastnesses belonging to 
 themselves, or to those with whom they were either openly 
 or secretly connected ; but nowhere did they present any 
 point of attack ; and the defeat of a party, the destruction 
 of one of their cantonments, or the temporary occupation 
 of one of their strongholds, produced no effect beyond the 
 ruin of an individual freebooter, whose place was instantly 
 supplied by another, generally of more desperate fortune, 
 and therefore more eager for enterprise." f 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, * Memoir of Central India.' f Ibid. 
 
392 THE PINDAEEEE WAE. [1815-16. 
 
 ' They never fought wlien they could run away ; they con- 
 sidered it wisdom to plunder and fly, but folly to stay and 
 fight. Even when acting with the Mahrattas as auxiliaries, 
 their object was plunder, not war. They went before, indeed, 
 but it was only by surprise, or in defenceless provinces. 
 They were, from their very origin, the scavengers of the 
 Mahrattas ; and, though in the van, they had little more 
 pretension to martial conduct or valour than had the birds' 
 and beasts of prey that followed in the rear. Some of their 
 chiefs, however, united to the qualities so essential to their 
 profession activity, cunning, ready enterprise, presence of 
 mind, and promptitude of resources a wonderful strength 
 of mind (or it might be apathy) in bearing the reverses 
 of fortune and the privations of their lot. 
 
 Foremost among these chiefs was Cheetoo. This man first 
 attracted the attention of the English towards the end of 
 1806, when raising himself on the temporary ruin of Kureem, 
 another Pindarree chief, who had incurred the displeasure of 
 one of the Mahratta potentates, and had been inveigled and 
 made prisoner, he united the durras or bands of many other 
 leaders under his own standard, and prepared to commit 
 depredations on an unprecedentedly grand scale. IS'umerous 
 and profitable to himself, and altogether ruinous to the 
 inhabitants of many \nde districts of Hindustan, were the 
 expeditions undertaken by Cheetoo. 
 
 As soon as the earl of Moira assumed the government of 
 India, he turned his attention to this subject. His lordship 
 thought it better, even on the score of humanity, to risk a- 
 long and sanguinary war than to leave the people of the 
 country exposed to these terrible irruptions, which came as 
 regularly, year after year, as the tempests of the monsoon. 
 He endeavoured, as Lord Minto had done, to establish 
 a subsidiary alliance with the rajah Bhoonsla of Berar, 
 whereby our most exposed frontier, or the line from Bundel- 
 kund to Cuttack, might be covered and defended. But the- 
 rajah Eaghoojee Bhoonsla persisted in rejecting the English 
 alliance, although the Pindarrees had threatened to plunder 
 ]S"agpoor, his capital, and annually devastated some portions 
 of his dominions. Other attempts made to establish a friendly 
 connection with the states of Bhopaul and Sacur were not 
 more successful ; the truth being, that the felon and murderer, 
 Trimbukjee, had more influence than the governor-general 
 in these native courts. 
 
1815-16.] CHEETOO THE EOBBEE. 393 
 
 In October, 1815, when our main army was fully occupied 
 in forcing the stockades of the Gorkhas, Cheetoo crossed the 
 Nerbudda with nearly 8,000 of his Pindarrees. On the 
 southern side of the river they broke into two parties and 
 took opposite routes. Major Traser, with 300 sepoys and 
 100 irregular native horse, surprised one of the parties in a 
 bivouac, and made them suffer some loss before they could 
 mount, gallop off, and disperse. But this did not deter 
 them from continuing their depredations as far as the Black 
 Eiver, the Krishna or Kistna. The other party, which had 
 met with no such molestation, traversed the whole of the 
 territory of our ally the nizam of the Deckan, from north to 
 south, and also appeared on the banks of the Kistna. The 
 territories of our Madras presidency lay on the other side of 
 the river, and were saved from devastation only by the for- 
 tuitous circumstance of the river's continuing not fordable 
 so unusually late in the season as the 20th of JN'ovember. 
 " Finding the Kistna impassable, the freebooters took a 
 turn eastward, plundering the country for several miles 
 along its populous and fertile banks, and committing every 
 land of enormity. On approaching the frontier of Masuli- 
 patam, they shaped their course northward, and returned 
 along the line of the Godavouree (Grodavery) and "Wurda, 
 passing to the east of all Colonel Doveton's positions, and 
 making good their route to Nemawur (Cheetoo's head-quar- 
 ters) ^^^th an immense booty collected in the nizam' s 
 dominions, and wdth utter impunity."* 
 
 Elated by his success, Cheetoo planned and proclaimed a 
 second lubbur immediately upon the retimi of the first. 
 The Pindarrees again flocked in from every side to join in 
 it ; and by the 5th of February, 1816, 10,000 horsemen had 
 again crossed the jN'erbudda from jN'emawur. This time 
 the Company's territories did not escape. On the 10th of 
 March, leaving plundered and burning \illages in their rear, 
 the Pindarrees appeared on the western frontier of the dis- 
 trict of Masulipatam, under the Madras presidency. From 
 
 * Henry T. Prinsep, Esq., * History of the Political and Military 
 Transactions in India during the Administration of the Marquis of Hast- 
 ings.' 
 
 Every unmentionable horror was perpetrated by the savages in the 
 incursions. A committee appointed to examine the amount of mischief, 
 presented a report which cannot be read without shuddering. An abstract 
 will be found in Mr. Prinsep's valuable work. 
 
394 THE PI5a)AEREE WAE. [1816. 
 
 this point they pressed southward. On the 11th they made 
 a march of thirty-three miles, plundered seventy-two villages, 
 aud committed the most horrid cruelties upon the inoftensive 
 and helpless villagers. On the next day they destroyed 
 fifty-four villages, marched thirty-eight miles, and arrived at 
 the civil station of Guntoor. Here they plundered a consi- 
 derable part of the town, and the houses of all the civil 
 officers ; but, steady to their system of never risking life or 
 Hmb in battle, they shrunk from the collector's office, where 
 the government treasure and the persons of the British resi- 
 dents were protected by a handful of sepoys and invahds. 
 The robbers went off as they came, suddenly and noiselessly. 
 That night there was not one of them to be seen in the 
 neighboiu-hood, and before the next day closed they were 
 more than fifty miles from Guntoor. They swept through 
 the Kirpah or Cuddapah district, and, after being tw elve 
 days within the Company's frontier, they re-crossed the 
 Kistna. Many were spurring after them, but none could 
 catch them. Shortly after ^re-crossing the Kistna the ma- 
 rauders broke up into separate bodies. The greater part 
 moved along the north bank of the Kistna, passing south of 
 Hyderabad, until they approached the peishwa's dominions. 
 Then, turning short to^the north, they retraced their steps to 
 the Nerbudda. Colonel Doveton came close up with one of 
 the divisions as it was passing a ghaut, but still the robbers 
 escaped untouched. Another and a larger division was 
 equally fortunate in escaping from the colonel. 
 
 Lord Moira, who saw the Nepaul war brought to an 
 advantageous conclusion, at the very moment when both the 
 Mahrattas and the Pindarrees were confidently calculating 
 on its duration, was most eager to employ i;he unreduced 
 strength of his armies in the accomplishment of the impor- 
 tant object of securing the peace of Central India by the 
 extirpation of the robbers. A large part of the Bengal 
 army was kept in advanced cantonments, ready to take 
 the field at any moment. His lordship obtained certain 
 information that the peishwa, Scindiah, and other Mahratta 
 potentates, were in close correspondence with the Pindar- 
 rees. But at this juncture the interests of the Company 
 were greatly served by the death of two of our enemies. 
 The nabob of Bhopaul andEaghoojee Bhoonsla, the rajah of 
 Nagpoor, both died in the month of March, 1816. The 
 succession to these two musnuds was disputed, as usual, and 
 
1816.] THE EAJAH OF JTPOOE. 395 
 
 the successful claimants, feeling their seats insecure, werei 
 glad to purchase English assistance hj concluding treaties 
 favourable to our interests. Apa Saheb, who was installed 
 at Nagpoor, accepted a subsidiary force of six battalions of 
 our sepoys and a regiment of native cavalry ; for this force 
 he was to pay seven and a half lacs of rupees per annum, 
 engaging at the same time to keep on foot a contingent 
 force of his own of 5,000 men, and to allow this force to 
 co-operate with the English in putting down the Pindar- 
 rees. 
 
 And simultaneously with these negotiations, others were 
 carried on with the rajah of Jypoor, whose alliance had been 
 so unwisely (and not without dishonour) thrown up by Sir 
 George Barlow, in 1806. Since then, Jypoor had been deso- 
 lated by the constant attacks of the Mahrattas and Patans, 
 and oiu" reputation had been tarnished by the suiFerings of 
 an old and faithful ally. At the end of 1815, the Jypoor 
 rajah, in an extremity of misery and woe, called upon the 
 governor-general, imploring to be received imder the wing of 
 protection. 
 
 Contrary to the decided opinion of some of the members 
 of the supreme council, the governor-general resolved to 
 carry into immediate execution the suspended orders, and to 
 extend the protection of British arms to Jypoor. His lord- 
 ship thought that this would aid his great plan for suppress- 
 ing the Pindarrees, and that the measure, apart from any 
 general plan of operations, was good in itself, as it would 
 cripple the resources of one of the predatory powers (the 
 Patans), and save a fine territory from ruin and devastation.* 
 No doubt his lordship also conceived that it was high time 
 to remove the foul blot which had fallen upon our national 
 reputation. Accordingly, a subsidiary treaty was offered to 
 the rajah of Jypoor, whose capital was actually besieged by 
 Meer Khan and the Patans. As long as the siege lasted, 
 the rajah seemed eager to comply with every article of the 
 proposed treaty, and with every requisition made by Mr. 
 Metcalfe, the resident at Delhi, to whom the negotiation 
 was principally confided ; but when the siege was raised, 
 when the Patans were bought off by a large sum of money, 
 the rajah listened to the counsels of some of his proud 
 Eajpoot chiefs, who were opposed to the English connection, 
 
 * H. T. Prinsep. 
 
396 V TJIE PIXDAEEEE WAE. [1816. 
 
 as destructive of the independence of their country and of 
 their own feudal-like power (a power in virtue of which they 
 often made war upon one another, or engaged in hostilities 
 with their neighbours), and his vakeels at Delhi raised so- 
 many doubts and difficulties about the treaty, that Mr. Met- 
 calfe dismissed them, and broke off the negotiation. But a 
 loud murmur was raised by the suffering people of J>^oor, 
 and by some of the nobles, who preferred peace and security 
 under" British protection to a tumultuary and uncertain inde- 
 pendence, and the rajah's ministers and advisers found 
 themselves under the necessity of sending their vakeels back 
 to Delhi to soHcit a renewal of negotiations. The vakeels, 
 however, advanced several propositions which could not be 
 acceded to : they asked for large pensions for themselves, 
 and for English assistance to enable the rajah to make con- 
 quests over some of his neighbours. 
 
 Mr. Metcalfe dismissed the vakeels with some indigna- 
 tion ; and the troops which had been collected to march to 
 Nagpoor for the support of their rajah were sent to the 
 Nerbudda in order to be employed in the campaign against 
 the Pindarrees. 
 
 The plan of this campaign was now completed, the governor- 
 general having received the sanction of the home authori- 
 ties to his scheme for breaking up the confederacy and 
 power of the banditti. To overawe the Mahrattas, and to- 
 cover the frontiers of our allies, nearly 40,000 foot, and 
 12,000 horse, besides artillery and the contingents of the 
 native powers, were collected in positions near the territories 
 of Scindiah and Holkar. 
 
 By the end of October, 1816, Lieutenant-Colonel "Walker- 
 took up a defensive line on the southern bank of the J^er- 
 budda, with the main body of the subsidiary force which 
 the Company had sent into Nagpoor. This defensive line, 
 being nearly one hundred and fifty miles in length, was 
 loose and weak ; but the first appearance of a British army 
 in the valley of the Nerbudda spread consternation amongst 
 the robbers, and induced Cheetoo to prepare to quit the 
 northern bank of that river and cross the mountains into 
 Malwa. Perceiving, however, that the red coats did not 
 cross the Nerbudda, the Pindarrees recovered confidence ; 
 and on the 4th of November they resolved to push^small 
 parties between Colonel "Walker's posts, and round his 
 flanks ; and a party crossed the river, and then dividing into 
 
1816.] RAPID MAECHES. 397 
 
 two, took different directions. Colonel Walker, in a;:'i.cix.pt- 
 ing to intercept one of the divisions, unexpectedly fell upon 
 the other as it was bivouacking in a jungle : he inflicted 
 some loss ; but the nimble robbers were soon in the saddle, 
 and before long they had re-crossed the river. On the 13th 
 of November, all the durras were in motion. Cheetoo had 
 discovered that Walker's cavalry was all on his left flank, 
 and he therefore threw forward more than five thousand of 
 his well-mounted thieves to turn Walker's right flank. This 
 band, whicli appears to have been followed by others, 
 crossed the river in sight of the infantry post, on the 
 extreme right of our line, and then dashed on with a rapidity 
 which left our infantry no chance of stopping or harassing 
 their march. When collected on the southern side of the 
 Nerbudda, the Pindarrees separated into two great bodies. 
 One swept due east, through forests and over mountains, 
 and fell unexpectedly upon the Company's district of Gan- 
 jam, the northernmost frontier of the five Circars, with the 
 evident intention of proceeding to Cuttack and Juggernaut, 
 to plunder the rich stronghold of Hindu superstition, to 
 carry off' the idols and the votive offerings and rich dona- 
 tions of the pilgrims and devotees. But this lubbur was 
 met by a small body of the Compan5^'s troops, almost as soon 
 as it entered G-anjam, and was driven back with considerable 
 loss. The other lubbur, which had gone off* to the south- 
 ward, rushed into the nizam's territory before Colonel 
 Doveton could come up with it. It then marched leisurely 
 along, plundering and destroying, until it came near to the 
 town of Beeder, the capital of a province of the Deckan, 
 and about seventy-three miles north-west from Hyderabad. 
 Here it came to a halt, and its chiefs to a disagreement as 
 to the further course which ought to be pursued. While 
 the leaders were in this state of indecision, Major Mac- 
 dowall, who had been detached from Hyderabad, fell upon 
 the lubbur by night with the van party of his light troops, 
 ,and cut it up completely, although it was six thousand strong, 
 and the first attack made by a mere handful of light cavalry. 
 The robbers abandoned most of their horses, and the greater 
 part of their booty, dispersed themselves over the country, 
 and thought of nothing but their personal safety, and of the 
 means of returning to the northern side of the Nerbudda. 
 But one leader, named Sheikli Dulloo, had abandoned this 
 lubbur altogether a few days before Macdowall's exploit, 
 
308 6:'.r.Livi. ulLLOO. [1816-17. 
 
 and had gone off with from three to five hundred Pindarrees 
 to act for himself. He dashed across the peishwa's terri- 
 tory, descended into the Konkan, and thence shaped his 
 course due north, plundering the western shores of India, 
 from the 17th to the 21st degree of north latitude, and 
 returniiig'by the valley of the Taptee, and the route of Boor- 
 hanpoor, the capital of the Candeish province of the Deckan. 
 This was the only lubbur that met with any success this 
 season. The only loss it sustained from British troops was 
 on its return to the Nerbudda, in the following March, 
 Here Sheikh Dulloo and his people were within a few miles 
 of home, or of Cheetoo's cantonment ; but they found the 
 ford by which they had hoped to cross the river guarded 
 by a redoubt, occupied by a small party of our sepoys. 
 Several of the robbers were shot in attempting to dash 
 across ; but the sheikh himself, with the main body and best- 
 mounted followers, retiring from the ford, boldly swam the 
 river lower down, though not without a further loss of men 
 and horses. Those who had worse horses or less courage 
 dispersed, and fled into the jungle on the English side of 
 the Nerbudda, where the greater part of them were cut off 
 by the wild inhabitants of the country. By the various 
 accidents of flood and fire, more than one half of those who 
 had followed Sheikh Dulloo perished ; but the rest reached 
 Cheetoo's durra with a rich booty in their saddles.* 
 
 Two or three smaller lubburs had contrived to cross the 
 Nerbudda ; but they met with nothing but hard blows and 
 disappointment. One of them was cut to pieces by the 
 4th Madras native cavalry, led on by Major Lushington. 
 Another was almost annihilated on its return homeward. 
 Hosts of them were cut off by the people whom they had 
 plundered in their advance. They had been continually 
 fleeing before a handful of men, and had been beaten every 
 time they had been met with.f StiU, however, their 
 depredations during this campaign, or season of 1816-17, 
 had embraced a more ample expanse of territory than had 
 
 * H. T. Prinsep. 
 
 f However great their own number, and however small that of their 
 pursuers, they were always beaten when our sepoys or native cavalry 
 could get up with them. Many English officers were invalided in conse- 
 quence of the terrible fatigues of the pursuit ; but hardly any of our people 
 were killed. In Major Lushington's brilliant affair one English officer 
 was, however, slain by a Pindarree spear. 
 
1816-17.] APA SAHEB. 
 
 ever before been attempted, extending from shore to shore 
 of the peninsula of India, and including all the intermediate 
 provinces they had omitted the preceding year. 
 
 By this time it was yctj completely demonstrated that 
 stationary posts of defence could not prevent the Pindarrees 
 from crossing the Nerbudda and getting into our territories ; 
 and that it would not be possible to deal properly with those 
 plunderers and murderers, unless our troops advanced into 
 the country north of the Nerbudda, to the " procreant 
 cradle" of the infamous race. The marquis of Hastings 
 (the patent conferring this new title was dated the 7th of 
 December, 1816) resolved to defer no longer the full 
 execution of his plan, but to throw his armies across the 
 Kerbudda. But troubles, excited or encouraged by the 
 Mahrattas, broke out in the Company's district of the Doab, 
 in Rohilcund, and in other quarters, and before mo\ing 
 onward it was necessary to put an end to them. In the 
 pro\'ince of Agra, Dyaram Thakoor and Bulwunt Sing, 
 having obtained possession of some strong forts and castles, 
 had begun to levy contributions on the Company's subjects, 
 and to interrupt the trade of the upper provinces ; robbers 
 and cut-throats were repairing to their banners from aU the 
 neighbouring districts, and the laws were openly set at 
 defiance nearly everywhere between Agra and Delhi. The 
 marquis detached a considerable force, under Greneral Mar- 
 shall, to drive Dyaram Thakoor out of Hatras, his strong- 
 hold, and one of the strongest forts in India, garnished at 
 this moment with 500 pieces of ordnance of all sorts. 
 Being Avell provided with heavy artillery, General Marshall 
 fully succeeded in his object. On the evening of the 2nd 
 of March, one of his shells struck a huge powder-maga- 
 zine, which blew up within the place, destroying half the 
 garrison and nearly all the works'; Dyaram, with a few horse, 
 rushed out of the place and made his escape in the dark- 
 ness of night, the rest of his people surrendering at dis- 
 cretion. Bulwunt Smg, the ally of Dyaram, agreed, on the 
 first summons, to dismantle the fortress he held, to restore 
 the plunder he had made, and to live honestly and peaceably 
 for the future. 
 
 One whiff of grape-shot sufficed to put an end to the 
 troubles in Eohilcund. 
 
 Apa Saheb, whom we had installed at Nagpoor, was 
 neither a grateful nor a creditable ally. He disgraced the 
 
400 QTJABEELS "WITH THE PEISHWA. [^817. 
 
 musnud with blood and crime, and then sent vakeels to the 
 peishwa, to Scindiah, to Holkar, and to all the powerful 
 Mahratta chiefs, to solicit their alliance and assistance in 
 expelling the English, The Honourable Mountstuart Elphin- 
 stone, our able, accomphshed, and energetic resident at 
 Poonah, soon ascertained that, notwithstanding the peishwa' s 
 solemn assurances to the contrary, that prince was still 
 guided by the invisible Trimbukjee ; that troops were collect- 
 ing in the liills to the south-east of Poonah ; that troops 
 were levying in other directions ; that the peishwa' s officers 
 were repairing his forts, and sending agents and money 
 into Malwa, to recruit for his service. Mr. Elphinstone 
 demanded that all these things should cease, that the felon 
 and murderer Trimbukjee should be given up, and that the 
 adherents and the members of Trimbukjee's family should 
 be put imder restraint, instead of being continued in favour 
 and office. The crafty Mahratta prince put part of Trim- 
 bukjee's family under arrest, and declared to our resident 
 that the troops in the hills were only a set of desperadoes, 
 driven into insurrection and armed by Trimbukjee, whom 
 he would put to death if he could catch him. 
 
 But Mr. Elphinstone was not duped by this juggling. 
 He called down the subsidiary force to Poonah, and told the 
 peishwa, who was preparing to go and join Trimbukjee, 
 that he must not leave his capital. As soon as the Com- 
 pany's troops assembled in some force, a portion of them 
 were detached to the Mahadeo hills, where they discovered 
 and dispersed the pretended insurgent army, and the rest 
 were drawn round Poonah, within which city the peishwa 
 had 6,000 or 7,000 foot, a large bod}^ of cavalry, and a 
 fortified palace. Mr. Elphinstone' s first intention was to 
 dem^and hostages for the surrender of Trimbukjee, and for 
 the punctual performance of the treaty of Bassein, and, in 
 case of a refusal, to storm the palace and seize the person of 
 the peishwa ; but he shrunk from the carnage and destruc- 
 tion which might attend a war of streets, and a battle in the 
 centre of a populous city, all the peaceful inhabitants of 
 which continued to regard the English not as enemies, but 
 as their best friends. Our resident therefore waited events, 
 not without a hope that the peishwa would throw oft' the; 
 unaccountable spell which that low ruffian Trimbukjee had 
 cast upon him, and would listen to the advice of better 
 counseUors and to the wishes of the majority of his subjects 
 
1816-17.] ADMIRABLE CONDrCT OP ME. ELPHINSTONE. 401 
 
 for a continuance of peace with the Company. But while 
 Mr. Elphinstone waited, the adherents of Trimbukjee took 
 possession of several of the peishwa's forts, stopped the post 
 in Cuttack and other places, and thus cut oif our resident 
 from all communication with the governor-general and the 
 council at Calcutta. At the most critical moment of this 
 trjdng crisis Mr. Elphinstone was left without instructions, 
 to act as his own judgment might prompt and on his own 
 responsibility. But his sagacity and good judgment never 
 failed him, and ^vith the training he had had, ne was not the 
 man to be bewildered or intimidated by any amount of 
 responsibility. We can only briefly sketch the particulars 
 of his conduct; but they were such as obtained for him 
 universal admiration. If the peishwa should escape to Bye- 
 ghur, which is situated among the ghauts of the Konkan, it 
 would be impracticable to follow him till after the monsoon 
 torrents ; and, once in that strong position, he might make it 
 his centre of operations, and unite behind its walls all the 
 Mahratta chiefs that were bent upon a war with the English. 
 Mr. Elphinstone, therefore, determined to wait no longer, 
 and drawing his troops more closely round Poonah, he 
 demanded that the peishwa should, within twenty-four 
 hours, solemnly engage to deliver up Trimbukjee, the source 
 of all the mischief, within a month, and put the English in 
 possession of his forts of Ryeghur, Singhur, and Poorandur, 
 as pledges. 
 
 The peishwa hesitated, but the aspect of our troops was 
 alarming, and the temper of the people of his capital scarcely 
 less so, and, within the four-and-twenty hours, he accepted 
 the conditions offered to him, and the forts were immediately 
 placed in our possession. But true to no line of policy, 
 steady to nothing except in his infatuation for Trimbukjee, 
 the Mahratta potentate repented of the bargain he had 
 made, and endeavoured to break it. Finding, however, that 
 the attempt was for the present too hazardous, he offered a 
 reward for the apprehension of Trimbukjee, dead or alive, and 
 confiscated his property and that of twelve of his partisans. 
 Yet, at the same moment, he took measures to provide for 
 the safety and concealment of that foul robber, and secretly 
 remitted him some money. 
 
 A few days after this, on the 13th of June, the peishwa 
 signed a treaty offered to him by Mr. Elphinstone, as the 
 only mode of removing doubts and jealousies. J3y this 
 2 D 
 
402 Is'EW TREATr WITH THE PEISHWA. [1817. 
 
 treaty the peishwa, among other things, engaged to renounce 
 all negotiations with powers hostile to the Company ; to 
 renounce all right of supremacy over our ally the Guicowar ; 
 to give up all rights and pretensions in (xuzarat, Bundel- 
 kund, and every part of Hindustan Proper ; to surrender to 
 the Company in perpetuity the fort of Ahmednuggur and 
 certain other territories ; and to dissolve the great Mahratta 
 confederacy by abandoning all connection with the other 
 Mahratta powers, and consequently his station as their 
 peishwa or head. He also agreed to an important alteration, 
 in the treaty of Bassien. By that treaty he had bound 
 himself to furnish to the Company in time of war a contin- 
 gent of 5,000 horse and 3,000 foot, with ordnance propor- 
 tionate ; but this was now exchanged for an engagement to 
 furnish to the Company the means of paying and maintain- 
 ing an equal force. Altogether the revenue ceded by the 
 peishwa was estimated at thirty-four lacs of rupees. The 
 treaty was ratified by the governor-general within a month, 
 or on the 5th of July, 1817. The peishwa's perfidy, and 
 his preparations for joining the worst of our enemies at the 
 moment when we were about entering on a connected plan 
 of operations for extirpating the Pindarrees, merited a more 
 severe chastisement. 
 
 But in the Konkan, whither he would have retired had he 
 been able, some of his chiefs resisted the English. This 
 resistance, however, was soon put down by Colonel Doveton 
 and Colonel Scott. Doveton routed and expelled the 
 partisans of Trimbukjee in Khandesh ; and Scott, making 
 ladders of his tent-poles, gallantly escaladed and stormed the 
 strong fort of Dorana. After the loss of this their chief 
 stronghold, Trimbukjee' s adherents ceased to make head, 
 and the murderer himself fled to the jungles in the valley 
 of the Kerbudda, where he could communicate with Cheetoo 
 and his Pindarrees. It should appear that Trimbukjee 
 found means of communicating with the peishwa also ; for 
 at the very moment that the English army was ready to 
 cross the Nerbudda, in order to fall upon the robbers, the 
 Mahratta potentate threw the treaty of June to the winds, 
 and fell upon the English at Poonah. 
 
 As soon as the imposing force which Mr. Elphinstone 
 had assembled round that capital, had retired to its canton- 
 ments, the peishwa's kettle-drum was beat in every direction 
 for recruits and volunteers ; and by the beginning of 
 

 
 1817.] EENEWAL OF WAE. 403 
 
 October masses of cavalry, prodigious in their numbers, 
 were collected at various stations. To the English resident, 
 the peishwa represented that he was raising troops for no 
 other object than that of complying with the request of the 
 governor-general to co-operate against the Pindarrees. But 
 Mr. Elphmstone's experience did not allow him to trust 
 to any Mahratta protestations or oaths ; and he soon 
 discovered that the peishwa' s agents were attempting to 
 corrupt the Company's sepoys belonging to that portion of 
 the subsidiary force which had been left at Poonah. 
 
 Upon this discovery the sepoys were removed from the 
 town to the village of Kirkee in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood. There was only one brigade of sepoys in all, but the 
 position was admirably strong, being protected by a river in 
 the rear and on the left, and supported on the right by the 
 village. Moreover, there were other battahons cantoned a 
 few miles oif, to the west. The peishwa, however, took it 
 into his dull head that the English confessed their fears by 
 evacuating the city ; and this too in spite of the evident fact 
 that Mr. Elphinstone remained behind at the residency. He 
 pushed forward his confused hordes to Poonah, and drew up 
 a plan for surrounding the English camp at Kirkee and pre- 
 yenting the arrival of reinforcements. Some of these Mah- 
 rattas were constantly riding round the camp, and abusing 
 our men and officers. An English officer was attacked, 
 plundered, and wounded, and narrowly escaped being killed. 
 It was not until these unequivocal demonstrations had been 
 made that Mr. Elphinstone called up from Seroor a light bat- 
 talion and a corps of 1,000 auxiliary horse. These forces 
 left Seroor on the 5th of November, and marched half-way to 
 Poonah. As soon as the peishwa heard of its being in 
 motion, he put his own unwieldy army in motion also, and 
 threw a strong battalion between the residency on the skirts 
 of the town and the camp at Kirkee, for the purpose of 
 cutting off the communication between the two. Mr. Elphin- 
 stone, who demanded the reason of this hostile proceeding, 
 was told that the peishwa had only anticipated the hostile 
 movements of the English, being determined to be no longer 
 the \4ctim of his irresolution. And, as if to prove that he 
 had screwed up his valour to the fighting-])oint, the peishwa 
 mounted his horse immediately after, and joined the main 
 body of his army on a hill a little to the south-west of 
 Poonah. The host forthwith advanced on the residency. 
 2d2 
 
404 BATTLE NEAR POONAH. [1817. 
 
 Mr. Elphinstone and his suite had barely time to mount 
 their liorses and cross the river towards the English camp, 
 ere the Mahrattas took possession of the houses, from which 
 there had not been time to remove an}i;hing. All were 
 plundered in the twinkling of an eye, and were after- 
 wards burned. Much valuable property was destroyed, but 
 the most irreparable loss was that of Mr. Elphinstone' s 
 manuscripts and library. 
 
 ^Meanwhile Mr, Elphinstone and his party made good their 
 retreat along the left bank of the river, skirmishing with 
 some Mahratta horse that followed them, and passing under 
 the fire of the battalion which had been thrust between the 
 residency and the camp at Kirkee. G-eneraUy the civil ser- 
 vants of the Company were ambi-dextrous, or capable of 
 wielding with the same hand the sword as well as the pen. 
 As soon as Mr. Elphinstone was safe in the camp, and had 
 been greeted as he deserved, it was resolved not to stand 
 there on the defensive, nor to wait the arrival of the troops 
 that were marching from Seroor, but to recross the river 
 and attack the Mahrattas immediately. The brigade, com- 
 manded by Colonel Burr, was now about 2,800 strong, and 
 the Bombay European regiment was in it ; the Mahrattas 
 mustered at the least 25,000 men, and they had many guns ; 
 but the peishwa was a rank coward, and the mass of his 
 force a mere armed rabble. The combat did not commence 
 until late in the afternoon, and before nightfall it was ended 
 by the flight of the Mahrattas, who either threw themselves 
 into Poonah or into a fortified camp near the town. They 
 left about 500 on the field. Our loss was eighteen killed and 
 fifty-seven woimded. During the battle Mr. Elphinstone 
 remained on the field, in order to give Colonel Burr the 
 advantage of his very perfect local knowledge. On the fol- 
 lowing morning, the 6th of NoA'ember, the light battalion 
 and irregular horse from Seroor joined Colonel Burr. The 
 Mahrattas drew up in order of battle, but did nothing 
 except mutilate some women and dependents of the Com- 
 pany's brigade whom they had surprised and seized in the 
 old cantonments.* As their numbers seemed to increase, 
 
 * After the poor women had been brutally mutilated, they were let 
 loose to find their way to the brigade. In other instances which occurred 
 during the 5th and 6th of November, the Mahrattas too plainly showed 
 with what a ferocious spirit they took the field. Two of our officers, 
 Captain Vaughan and his brother, who were travelling with a small escort, 
 
1817.] PURSTJIT OF THE PEISHWA. 405 
 
 and as the city and the old cantonments which the English 
 had occupied afforded rather formidable means of defence, 
 Colonel Burr and Mr. Elphinstone determined to wait 
 the arrival of Brigadier- G-eneral Lionel Smith, who was 
 advancing from the banks of the Grodavery. Smith, who 
 had but very little cavalry with him, and no regular cavalry 
 at all, was molested on his march by hordes of Mahratta 
 horse, who succeeded in plundering some of his baggage ; 
 but his division reached the English camp in front of 
 Poonah on the 13th of November. Owing to some unex- 
 pected difficulties, the British did not advance against the city 
 and the cantonments (which were further fortified in the inter- 
 val) until the 16th. A large Mahratta force, which attempted 
 to dispute their advance, was discomfited, after a smart 
 combat, which cost us sixty men and an officer. This decided 
 the afiair ; in the course of the ensuing night the peishwa 
 fled, and on the following morning, when our troops marched 
 up to the intrenched camp, they found that the tents were left 
 standing, but that there was not a single Mahratta there.* 
 General Smith, posted his artillery and threatened the city 
 of Poonah with a bombardment ; but the only ganison there 
 consisted of a few hundred Arabs, and these, by the per- 
 suasion or by the threats of the inhabitants, were induced to 
 retire. The citizens opened the gates, and our troops took 
 quiet possession of the city. In all this the far greater 
 portion of the peishwa's subjects saw nothing but the direct 
 vengeance of Heaven for the horrible and sacrilegious crime 
 committed in murdering Grungadhur Shastri within the 
 precincts of the holiest of their temples. On the 19th, 
 G-eneral Smith, having been joined by a regiment of the 
 Madras cavalry under Lieutenant-Colonel Colebrooke, started 
 in pursuit of the peishwa. In the course of the day Captain 
 Turner, of the light division, succeeded in capturing eighteen 
 guns with their tumbrils and ammunition, and a great 
 quantity of baggage. But the peishwa and the forces with 
 him moved too rapidly to be caught : he threw himself into 
 
 were induced to surrender by promise of quarter, and were both hanged. 
 Ensign Ennis, of the Bombay engineers, who was taking a survey some 
 fifty miles from Poonah, was shot ; and Lieutenants Morisson and Hunter, 
 of the Madras cavalry, were attacked as they were marching towards 
 Poonah, from the nizam's dominions, utterly unconscious of the rupture. 
 * The peishwa had, however, succeeded in carrying off all his guns 
 except one, which was of an enormous size, and too heavy to be removed 
 with any speed. 
 
406 WAB TVITH APA SAHEB. [1817. 
 
 the wild and elevated country in which the river Krishna 
 takes its rise ; and, continuing an erratic course, he eluded 
 pursuit until the following year. 
 
 Apa Saheb, at Nagpoor, like the peishwa at Poonah, 
 reckoned with certainty on his ability to overwhelm the 
 small English force stationed at his capital. Throwing off 
 all disguise, he declared for the peishwa, not knowing that 
 he was already beaten. Mr. Jenkins, the resident, called in 
 a brigade from its cantonments, and posted it round the 
 residency, which was situated a little to the west of the city 
 of Nagpoor, and separated from it only by a small ridge. 
 The brigade was scarcely posted ere infantry, cavalry, and 
 artillery, natives and wild Arabs, began to gather round the 
 residency. On the following day, the 26th of IN^ovember, 
 some of the rajah's infantry and artillery commenced a fire 
 upon the ridge, which was now occupied by our brigade. 
 This continued from sunset tiU two hours after midnight. 
 Our troops suffered severely : Captain Sadler, the first ia 
 command, was killed ; and Captain Charlesworth, the next 
 in command, was wounded. But several assaults made to 
 carry the hill were repulsed with great loss to the enemy. 
 When the firing was over, our troops laboured to strengthen 
 their position ; they had but few intrenching tools where- 
 with to make artificial defences ; but they placed along the 
 exposed brow of the hill sacks of flour and wheat, and any 
 thing else capable of affording some cover. At daybreak 
 the enemy recommenced their fire with greater fury ; masses 
 of their cavalry showed themselves all round our position, 
 and the Arab infantry, in the ra;jah's service, displayed great 
 resolution and confidence. An accident happening to one 
 of our guns, these Arabs rushed up the hiU, seized it, and 
 pointed it with murderous effect against our next post, 
 having first put to the sword all the wounded that had fallen 
 round the gun. Their first shot from that gun killed Dr. 
 I^even, the surgeon, and Lieutenant Clarke ; the second, a 
 round of grape, killed the resident's first assistant, Mr. 
 George Sotheby, and totally disabled four men besides. 
 The camp-followers and the women and children of our 
 sepoys set up a wild shriek, and our position was entamee by 
 the fierce Arabs : the day seemed lost and a horrible butchery 
 inevitable, when Captain Pitzgerald made a brisk and most 
 gallant charge with the cavalry of our brigade, which con- 
 sisted of only three troops of the 6th Bengal regiment. 
 
1817.] BATTLE OF NAGPOOE. 407 
 
 Heading the little column himself, and dashing across a 
 nullah and over the bridge, Fitzgerald charged one mass of 
 the enemy, drove them from their guns, turned them upon 
 themselves, and then retired towards the residency, dragging 
 the captured guns with him, and firing as he retired. Our 
 people on the ridge setup a joyous shout, and a detachment 
 of them advanced against the fierce Arabs, who kept their 
 ground, though those who ought to have supported them 
 were running away. These Arabs, however, could not 
 stand bayonet-charge ; they were driven from the post, the 
 guns they had captured were recovered, and two other guns, 
 which the enemy had brought up, were taken. In heading 
 this desperate charge. Captain Lloyd and Lieutenant G-rant 
 particularly distinguished themselves. Grant was wounded 
 three times, and his third wound proved mortal. The Arabs 
 lay thick round the guns among the British and sepoys they 
 had butchered. As soon as this charge was crowned with 
 success, Apa Saheb's troops gave way on every side, and 
 about the hour of noon they fled from the field in panic- 
 disorder, leaving all their artillery to the conquerors. Thus 
 ended a conflict more desperate than any that had taken 
 place in India since the early days of CKve. Apa Saheb 
 sent vakeels to the resident to express his grief, and to dis- 
 avow having himself authorised the attack. He also 
 employed the women of his family as intercessors for par- 
 don. Anon, Company's troops poured into the country from 
 every quarter. As early as the 29th, Lieutenant- Colonel 
 Gahan arrived at the residency with two battalions and 
 three troops of horse, two galloper-guns, supplies of ammu- 
 nition, &c. But it was of the utmost consequence that Apa 
 Saheb should be entirely crushed with the utmost rapidity, 
 in order that the grand campaign should proceed against the 
 Pindarrees and their supporters, and that other vacillating 
 allies should be deterred from following his example by learn- 
 ing the terrible example of English vengeance by hearing, 
 in one breath, that the rajah of Nagpoor had risen in arms, 
 that the rajah of Nagpoor had been beaten, and his power 
 annihilated. 
 
 Accordingly the marquis of Hastings, who was himself 
 on the Nerbudda, sent still more troops to Nagpoor, under 
 Major Pitman, Brigadier-general Doveton, and Brigadier- 
 general Hardyman. These troops being up, our resident, 
 on the morning of the 15th of December, informed the 
 
408 STOEMI>'a OF NAGPOOB. [1817. 
 
 raj all that if he did not immediately submit to terms, and 
 disband all his Arabs, no conditions would be allowed him. 
 Apa Saheb endeavoured to temporize. But in the evening 
 General Doveton beat to arms, approached the town walls, 
 and there bivouacked for the niglit. At six o'clock the 
 next morning the rajah sent to say that liis Arabs would 
 not allow him to go over to the English, and that he must 
 beg for a respite of two or three days. All the respite 
 General Doveton would give was for two hours: Apa 
 Saheb must come in by 9 o'clock, or abide the consequences. 
 As 9 o'clock came, and as the rajah came not, our army 
 advanced in order of battle to a position close upon the 
 enemy's camp ; and upon this, Apa Saheb, giving way to his 
 fears, mounted his horse, galloped away from the camp to 
 the residency, and delivered himself up as a hostage. He 
 there gave a written order that the artillery in the arsenal 
 and in the camp should be surrendered. General Doveton, 
 suspecting mischief, if not from the treachery of the rajah^ 
 from the desperation of the Arabs, instead of sending a 
 party to take possession of the guns, advanced his whole 
 line by open column of companies. The arsenal, containing 
 thirty-six guns, was taken without resistance; but as Doveton 
 proceeded, a heavy fire of artillery was opened upon his 
 front and right flank. Through the general's prudence and 
 foresight, he was not unprepared for this attack : his cavaliy 
 and horse artillery were with him ; and, while his infantry 
 charged iip in front, these made a detour, and got on the 
 enemy's flank. In less than an hour all the batteries were 
 carried, the Arabs were put to flight, and seventy-five more 
 guns, mortars, and howitzers, forty-five elephants, the entire 
 camp, and all Apa Saheb' s camp equipage were in our 
 hands. But the fire of those fierce Arabs had cost us in 
 killed and wounded thirty-nine British and 102 native 
 soldiers. Part of the Arab infantry rallied in the city, 
 occupied the fortress, within which were the rajah's palaces 
 and other strong buildings, and there they maintained them- 
 selves with such desperation, that it was not until the 30th 
 of December that they coidd be driven out. Doveton's siege 
 artillery had not yet had time to come up, and in an attempt 
 to storm the fort through an insufficient breach, he lost 
 ninety in killed and 179 in wounded. With the departure of 
 these daring Arabs, resistance ceased ; the rajah, his city of 
 
1816-17.] THE PINDAEEEE WAfi. 409 
 
 ^Nagpoor, and all his country were at our feet. The fate of 
 Apa Saheb remained in suspense for a few months. 
 
 In the meanwhile the Pindarree forces had been shattered 
 and scattered, in spite of the extensive combinations made to 
 support them as the great vanguard of the Mahrattas. The 
 marquis of Hastings took the field in person, and directed 
 the main operations of this campaign. His preparations 
 were all on a gigantic scale. The army of the Bengal pre- 
 sidency, commanded by the governor-general in person, and 
 called the " Grand Army," counted 40,000 fighting men. 
 The Madras troops, which took the field under the designa- 
 tion of the "Army of the Deckan," numbered 70,400 fight- 
 ing men. A part of the Bombay army was put in motion 
 from the side of Guzarat, to co-operate in the general 
 objects of the campaign. Counting the irregular cavalry 
 supplied by the allies or dependents of the Company, the 
 whole force brought into the field must have exceeded 
 130,000 men ; and of these forces above 13,000 were British 
 soldiers. No such army had ever yet marched under our 
 colours in India. It was not possible to estimate the vary- 
 ing force of all our enemies ; but it may be roughly stated 
 that the Mahratta confederacy had 130,000 horse, 80,000 
 foot, and 580 guns, while the difterent fragments that re- 
 mained of their Pindarree allies would form a total of about 
 15,0<X). But it was not the number of these midisciplined 
 barbarians that was to be taken into consideration : it was 
 the \erj extensive the indefinable field of the war, the 
 number and strength of the fortresses in Central India, the 
 facilities which the Mahrattas possessed for making flying 
 marches, and for embarrassing the movements of our columns 
 by lighting up the flames of war at nearly the same moment 
 at many and distant points, that demanded the employment 
 of a large force and of great forethought. The material and 
 the military means we possessed in India at this period 
 were stupendous ; but our Indian army had still much to 
 learn, and it was still defective in several very essential 
 departments. It had hardly any sappers and miners, and 
 the engineering department had only a few scaling-ladders, 
 and a miserable supply of intrenching tools and the other 
 tools and small stores indispensable to the proper execution 
 of siege- work. The number both of the artillery and 
 engineer officers was small and disproportionate ; nor were 
 the heavy battering-trains adequate to the work in hand. 
 
410 PINDAEREE WAR. [1817. 
 
 Through these deficiencies the sieges of this war were pro- 
 secuted occasionally at an unusually heavy cost of life and 
 limb, and were, some few times, absolute failures. The 
 army, moreover, had no equipment of pontoons, or of other 
 means for the military passage of rivers. Hence the 
 troops, in pursuing the flitting enemy, were often delayed 
 by the numerous small streams which intersect part of 
 the Deckan, and the Mahrattas were allowed to escape when 
 their ruin seemed inevitable.* 
 
 The governor-general knew not who would prove friends 
 or enemies as he advanced up the country. His lordship 
 crossed the Jumna on the 26th of October, 1817. As it 
 was necessary that a part of the forces should traverse the 
 territories of Scindiah, Captain Close, the resident at the 
 durbar of Scindiah, who now held his court in the strong 
 fortress of Gwalior, was instructed to press for the conclu- 
 sion of a treaty which had been for some time on the tapis. 
 Scindiah, who had promised to support the peishwa, and 
 who was corresponding not only Avith the Pindarree chiefs 
 and with the rajah of Nagpoor, but also with the Grorkhas 
 of Nepaul, in order to excite those formidable enemies to a 
 new war, and bring them down on the right flank and on 
 the rear of our advancing army, hesitated, and sought all 
 kinds of subterfuges, and did not sign the treaty proposed 
 to him by the governor-general until the 5th of JSFovember, 
 when two of our corps d^armee, one under the immediate 
 command of his lordship, and the other imder that of 
 G-eneral Donkin, were within one march of his frontier. 
 Then Scindiah engaged to aiford every facility to tlie 
 British troops in the pursuit of the Pindarrees through his 
 dominions, and to co-operate actively towards the extinction 
 of those brutal freebooters. Meer Khan and other chiefs 
 of Mahrattas and leaders of Patau bands followed the 
 
 * Colonel Valentine Blacker, quartermaster-general of the army of 
 Fort St. George, * Memoir of the Operations of the British Army in 
 India during the Mahratta War of 1817, 1818, and 1819.' 
 
 Edward Lake, lieutenant of the Honourable East-India Company's 
 Madras Engineers, ' Journals of the Sieges of the Madras Army in the 
 Years 1817, 1818, and 1819 , with Observations on the System according 
 to which such Operations have usually been conducted in India, and a 
 Statement of the Improvements that appear necessary.' 
 
 This last work was undertaken at the suggestion of Sir John Malcolm. 
 
 Both works eminently deserve the attention of all young officers serv- 
 ing in India or, indeed, in any other country. 
 
1817.] BATTLE OF MAHIDPOO.R. 411 
 
 example ofScindiali, and precisely from the same motives, or 
 the fears of the stupendous armaments that were sweeping 
 through the country. K the marquis of Hastings had 
 attempted to negotiate before marching his army, another 
 year would have been lost. The states of the Mahratta 
 house of Holkar stood, with reference to the Pindarrees, 
 in a somewhat similar position to those of Scindiah ; but it 
 was supposed that there was less to apprehend from their 
 hostility. Our old foe, the hardy adversary of Lord Lake 
 and Greneral Wellesley, Jeswimt Eao Holkar, died mad in 
 1811, and his country had been in a state of revolution and 
 anarchy ever since, more murders having been committed 
 than would fill a Newgate Calendar. 
 
 During the rains of this year (1817), the Pindarrees made 
 great efforts to recruit their durras, and to concert some 
 general plan of operations ; but disagreements broke out 
 among their chiefs. "When the rains were over, they made 
 some very unsuccessful attempts to break into our territo- 
 ries. They were everywhere headed back, and they were 
 soon pressed and pursued, and driven from their haunts by 
 the several corps of Major-general Marshall and Colonel Sir 
 John Malcolm. Malcolin, being informed of Cheetoo's flight 
 to the westward, followed him as the most able and dangerous 
 of the robbers. At Agur he learned that Cheetoo had 
 pitched his camp close to that of the Holkar Mahrattas, who 
 were fully determined to support him, having just received 
 from the peishwa a large sum of money. Upon this intelli- 
 gence, Sir John Malcolm fell back to the neighbourhood of 
 Oojein, a town of great celebrity in Malwa, where another 
 corps d'armee was collected, imder the command of Sir 
 Thomas Hislop. 
 
 While these forces lay at Oojein, another revolution and 
 murder took place in the Holkar camp. The young heir to 
 the musnud was enticed away from the tent in which he 
 was playing, and his mother, who was acting as regent, was 
 seized at night and beheaded, as a traitress sold to the 
 English. Having done these deeds, the Patau chiefs became 
 clamorous for battle ; and the whole Holkar army, advan- 
 (;ing rapidly, plundered part of the English baggage. The 
 next day (21st of December, 1817) they met their reward 
 in the bloody battle of Mahidpoor. There, strongly posted 
 on the bank of the Sipra river (into whose waters they had 
 thrown the headless body of the regent), they were beaten, 
 
412 FLIGHT OF CHETOO. [1817. 
 
 bayoneted, cut to pieces, deprived of all their artillery, amount- 
 ing to seventy pieces, and of everything that gave them the 
 character of an army. The remnant of their force fled to 
 the large walled town of Eampoora, in the heart of the 
 province of Malwa. Sir John Malcolm formed the plan of 
 the battle, and headed the assault on the left flank of the 
 enemy. The British casualties were unusually severe, 
 amounting to 174 killed and 604 wounded. Among the 
 wounded were thirty-five officers, of whom fifteen were 
 severely injured. In the pursuit, which was continued by 
 Sir John Malcolm and Captain Grrant, along both banks of 
 the river Sipra, immense booty was obtained, including 
 elephants, some hundreds of camels, &c. 
 
 Sir John Malcolm advanced rapidly towards the capital 
 of the Holkars, being joined on the way by part of the 
 Bombay army from Gruzarat, under the orders of Major- 
 general Sir William Keir. Those Mahrattas now agreed 
 to and hastily concluded a treaty of peace, placing their 
 territories luider British protection, and j surrendering in 
 perpetuity to the Company various districts, forts, and ghauts. 
 The treaty was scarcely concluded ere some of the Patau 
 chiefs attempted to break it ; but these desperadoes were 
 defeated, and most of their adherents slaughtered in Eam- 
 poora by some detachments of infantry and cavalry. A few 
 more marches and two or three stormings of forts, reduced 
 the whole of the country of the Holkar Mahrattas to a state 
 of tranquillity and obedience. These rapid successes kept 
 Scindiah steady to the treaty which he had recently con- 
 cluded, and deprived the wandering peishwa of almost his 
 last hope. They also enabled our troops to follow the Pin- 
 darrees, who were now flying in all directions, like sea-fowla 
 in a storm. Some of Cheetoo's diirra had followed the Patau 
 chiefs to iMahidpoor ; but after our victory there, Cheetoo 
 fled to shift for himself, seeing that no aid was to be expected 
 from the Mahrattas. He was closely followed by the Gruza- 
 rat army of Sir AVilliam Keir, who surprised liim and 
 cut up part of his durra in the neighbourhood of Satoolla. 
 Harassed by the activity of Sir William's pursuit, and find- 
 ing that other corps were closing fast round them, the 
 marauders endeavoured to retrace their steps to their old 
 haunts in the valley of the Nerbudda, and in parts of Malwa. 
 Other chiefs failed, and were cut up in the attempt ; but 
 Cheetoo succeeded in baffling every eflbrt made to intercept 
 
1818-19.] DEATH OF CHETOO. 413 
 
 him, or overtake liim, and affected his object by penetrating 
 through a most difficult country. He suddenly reappeared 
 in Malwa, in the neighbourhood of the ancient city of 
 Dhar, situated among rocks, forests, and the sources of 
 rivers ; but his extraordinary march had cost him all his bag- 
 gage and most of his horses. He was now lost sight of for 
 some time ; during which the best of his fellow-chiefs, with 
 their durras, were extirpated in other parts. At last, his 
 lair was discovered, and on the night of the 25th of January, 
 1818, a strong party of the British came upon him, and 
 utterly broke up his band. Cheetoo, however, escaped, and 
 for a short time wandered about Malwa, with some two 
 hundred followers. 
 
 At this conjuncture, it struck Cheetoo that possibly the 
 nabob of Bhopaul might make terms for him and the rem- 
 nant of his durra w*ith the English ; and rapidly acting on 
 the idea, he suddenly entered the camp of that prince. But 
 when he learned that the nabob could offer or promise 
 nothing beyond a slender personal maintenance in some 
 remote corner of India, he decamped as suddenly as he 
 had come. Though he had got safely off, he was presently 
 pursued by the nabob's people and by parties sent out by 
 Sir John Malcolm. This distressed him so much, that 
 Kajun, one of his most faithful and valuable adherents, left 
 him, and made his submission. Yet, after all this, Cheetoo 
 found his way into the Beckan, and made common cause 
 with the Arabs and chiefs of the peishwa's routed army. 
 His end, however, approached ; and it was tragical and sin- 
 gular. Having joined Apa Saheb, he passed the rainy season 
 of 1818 among the Mahadeo hills ; and upon that rajah's 
 expulsion by the English in February, 1819, he followed 
 him to Aseerghur. Being refused admittance, he sought 
 shelter in a neighbouring jungle, and on horseback and 
 alone attempted to penetrate a cover known to be infested 
 by tigers. He was missed for some days, and no one knew 
 "what had become of him. His well-known horse was at 
 last discovered grazing near the margin of the forest, sad- 
 dled and bridled, and exactly in the state in which it was 
 when Cheetoo had last been seen upon it. A bag of two 
 hundred and fifty rupees was found in the saddle, together 
 with several seal-rings and some letters of Apa Saheb, 
 promising futiu-e reward to the great robber. A search was 
 made in the cover for the body ; and at no great distance 
 
414 THE LAST OF THE PINDAEEEES. [1819. 
 
 were found clothes clotted with blood, fragments of bones, 
 and, lastly, the Pindarree's head entire, with the features 
 in a state to be recognized.* 
 
 "With Cheetoo ended the last of the Pindarrees, and the 
 spirit which had animated their vast lawless associations. 
 It is now a quarter of a century since that gallant oj0&cer, 
 accompHshed diplomatist, and able writer, the late Sir John 
 Malcolm, said of them " There now remains not a spot 
 in India that a Pindarree can call his home. They have 
 been hunted like wild beasts ; numbers have been kiUed ; 
 all ruined. Those who espoused their cause have fallen. 
 They were early in the contest shunned like a contagion, 
 and even the timid villagers, whom they so recently op- 
 pressed, were among the foremost to attack them. Their 
 principal leaders had either died, submitted, or been made 
 captives; while their followers, with the exception of a 
 few whom the liberality and consideration of the British 
 government have aided to become industrious, are lost in 
 that population from whose dross they originally issued. A 
 minute investigation only can discover these once formi- 
 dable disturbers, concealed as they now are among the 
 lowest classes, where they are making some amends for 
 past atrocities by the benefit which is derived from their 
 labour in restoring trade and cultivation. These freebooters 
 had none of the prejudices of caste, for they belonged to all 
 tribes. They never had either the pride of soldiers, of 
 family, or of country, so that they were bound by none of 
 those ties which among many of the communities in India 
 assume an almost indestructible character. Other plun- 
 derers may arise from distempered times, but as a body the 
 Pindarrees are so effectually destroyed, 'that their name is 
 already ahnost forgotten, though not five years are passed 
 since it spread terror and dismay over all India." f 
 
 * Henry T. Prinsep, Esq., of the Bengal civil service, ' History of the 
 Political and Military Transactions in India during the Administration of 
 the Marquis of Hastings, 1813-1823.' 
 
 t ' Memoir of Central India.' 
 
1817-18.] MAHEATTA WAEFAEE. ^15 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 While the forces under the marquis of Hastings, and 
 the divisions under Hislop, Malcohn, Keir, Adams, and other 
 officers, were chasing the Pindarrees from moor and moun- 
 tain, valley and jungle, or reducing the forts in Malwa, 
 Brigadier-general Smith, vrho had been reinforced at Poonah, 
 prepared for an active pursuit of Bajee Eao, the fugitive 
 peishwa, who had flitted hither and thither, like an ignis 
 fatum. Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone, having organized a 
 police and a provisional administration for the city of Poonah, 
 accompanied General Smith's division, which began its 
 march at the end of November. Grokia, one of the peishwa' s 
 e^il advisers but bravest officers, attempted to defend a 
 ghaut leading to the high land where the Kistna had its 
 source, and where the peishwa had found a refuge and a 
 rallying point ; but the Mahratta was beaten, and the pass 
 was cleared by the British with great ease. No fighting, 
 but rapid and most wearying marches ensued, the peish- 
 wa' s army flying in a sort of zigzag, and the peishwa himself 
 always keeping in advance of his main body. 
 
 At last the Mahratta succeeded in getting round Smith's 
 division ; and then, passing between Poonah and Seroor, he 
 moved northward as far as Wuttoor, on the road to Nassik. 
 Here he was joined by his long-lost favourite Trimbukjee, who 
 brought him a considerable reinforcement of horse and foot. 
 
 After he had discovered the direction the peishwa 
 had taken, and had recruited his own worn-out cattle, 
 General Smith, on the 22nd of September, started again in 
 pursuit. This headlong race to the northward brought 
 Smith close upon the rear of the Mahrattas ; but, with the 
 lubricity of eels, they slipped through his fingers, and 
 making a flank movement behind some hills, they turned 
 suddenly to the south, and retraced their steps towards 
 Poonah. Colonel Burr, who commanded in that city, appro- 
 
416 BATTLE OF COEEEGAUM. [1818. 
 
 hending an attack, solicited the reinforcement of a batta- 
 lion from Seroor. Captain Francis French Staunton,* of 
 the Bombay establishment, was forthwith detached from 
 Seroor with about 600 sepoys, 300 auxiliary horse, and two 
 six-pounders. The distance was only two short marches. 
 Staunton began his march from Seroor at eight o'clock in 
 the evening of the 31st of December, and at ten the next 
 morning he reached the heights of Corregaum, about half- 
 way to Poonah, when looking down upon the plain which 
 lay between him and that city, he saw the whole of the 
 peishwa's army, estimated at 20,000 horse and several 
 thousand foot. His march to Poonah was intercepted, and 
 he himself was in great danger of being cut off. The brave 
 officer did what the circumstances of the case required : he 
 made a dash at the village of Corregaum (which stood on 
 the heights, and which was composed of a number of stone 
 bouses with strong stone walls round the gardens), hoping 
 to gain possession of it before it could be obtained by the 
 enemy. But the Mahrattas, or rather the Arabs, who com- 
 posed the main body of their infantry, were as near to the 
 village as was Captain Staunton ; and, as he entered on one 
 side and took possession of some of the houses, the Arabs 
 entered at the opposite side and took possession of otlier 
 houses- A terrible struggle ensued, at first between the 
 Company's troops and the Arabs for the possession of the 
 whole of the village, and then between our handful of men 
 and nearly the w^hole of the Mahratta army. Unfortunately 
 Captain Swanston, who commanded our 300 auxiliary horse, 
 was wounded early in the day, and his weak squadrons could 
 not show themselves in face of the masses of Mahratta 
 cavalry. The enemy, who had been running too fast to carry 
 artillery with him, brought up only two guns ; but if there 
 was an equality in this particular arm, their infantry ex- 
 ceeded ours by ten to one. Nevertheless our admirable 
 sepoys maintained their post, and kept up an incessant fight 
 from the hour of noon till nine in the evening, during which 
 time they had no refreshment, and not even a drop of water 
 to drink. Attack after attack was made under the eye of 
 the peishwa, who stood, no doubt at a safe distance, on a 
 neighbouring hill. They had all failed, when Lieutenant 
 Chisholm, the officer of artillery, with most of his men, 
 
 * Subsequently Colonel F. F. Staunton, C.B. 
 
1817.] GLOEIOrS YICTOET. 417 
 
 htaving been killed at a post near a pagoda, and all tlie Euro- 
 pean officers having been disabled except three, the Arabs 
 charged and obtained possession of one of our two guns, 
 which was stationed at the pagoda. Our w^ounded were 
 lying thick round that building, -and among them were 
 A.ssistant-Surgeon Wingate, Captain Swanston, and Lieu- 
 tenant Connellon. The wild Arabs immediately began to 
 massacre these helpless wounded men and to mutilate the 
 bodies of the slain. Poor AVingate was literally hacked to 
 pieces, as was the body of Lieutenant Chisholm, the officer 
 3f artillery. But the Arabs did not long enjoy their 
 bloody triumph; the three undisabled officers, Captain 
 Staunton, Lieutenant Jones, and Assistant-Surgeon Wylie,* 
 though almost exhausted, and with their men fainting from 
 R-ant of water, headed one more charge, the last of the many 
 that they had made during the day, recaptured the lost gun, 
 md slaughtered the Arabs in a heap. The charge was 
 utterly desperate, for ever}^ man felt that there was nothing 
 between him and victory except torture and death. On this 
 Dccasion Lieutenant Pattmson, who had been wounded and 
 carried into a house, appeared again at the head of his men, 
 md continued to exert the little strength he had left until 
 tie received another wound, which proved mortal. Captain 
 Swanston and Lieutenant Connellon were rescued ; and every 
 man of the Arabs who had penetrated to the pagoda was 
 bayoneted without mercy. By a little after nine, the enemy 
 ;vere completely driven from the village and all the ground 
 lear it, and our fainting sepoys were then enabled to obtain 
 I supply of water, the only refreshment they got during the 
 ivhole day and following night. Wliere the desperate Arabs 
 lad failed, there was but slight chance that the cowardly 
 Mahrattas would renew the attempt. Captain Staunton 
 md his people passed the night without any molestation. 
 (Vt daybreak on the following morning the Mahratta army 
 vas seen hovering about the village, but uone of them would 
 
 * The medical officers fought just as hard and as bravely as the other 
 )fficers. With so small a force, and so very few English officers, it was 
 lecessary for every man to throw himself into the heat of the fight. 
 
 " The medical officers also led on the sepoys to charges with the 
 )ayonet, the nature of the contest not admitting of their attending to their 
 )rofessional duties ; and in such a struggle the presence of a single 
 European was of the utmost consequence, and seemed to inspire the 
 lative soldiers with the usual confidence of success." ' Division Orders 
 y Brigadier-General Smith, C.B., East-India Military Calendar.' 
 2e 
 
418 PLIGHT or THE PEISIIWA. [1818. 
 
 venture near ; and tliis dav also passed Avithout any moles- 
 tation. Captain Staunton had consumed so much powder 
 during the nine hours' fighting of the preceding day, that 
 he had only a few rounds of ammunition left ; and provisions 
 in the camp there were none, and none were to be procured 
 in the village* Despairing therefore of being able to reach 
 Poonah, he determined to move back to Seroor. He began his 
 retreat in the dark on the night of the 2nd of January ; he 
 sacrificed much of his baggage in order to provide the means 
 of conveying his numerous wounded, but he brought ofl:' 
 not only his guns, but likewise all his wounded, and with 
 them reached Seroor by nine o'clock the next morning, the 
 3rd of January. The men had had no refreshment but 
 water from the 31st of December. Three officers were 
 killed and two wounded ; sixty-two men were killed and 113 
 wounded, exclusive of the auxiliary horse. The loss of men 
 was most severe in the artillery, twelve being killed and 
 eight wounded, out of a detail for two six-pounders only.* 
 
 Like the defence of the presidency at JN^agpoor, this was an 
 affair of which Clive himself might have been proud. Cap- 
 tain Staunton's superiors were men quite capable of appre- 
 ciating his heroism, and of expressing their admiration in 
 an eloquent and hearty manner. The governor-general, 
 who forthwith nominated Staunton an honorary aide-de- 
 camp, and soon afterwards conferred on him the command 
 of the important fortress of Ahmednughur, repeated the 
 observation which G-eneral Smith had made, in his official 
 report to the Hon. Mountstuai't Elphinstone, that the action 
 of Corregaum was " one of the most brilliant affairs ever 
 achieved by any army, in which the European and native 
 soldiers displayed the most noble devotion and most 
 romantic bravery, under the pressure of thirst and hunger 
 almost beyond human endurance." 
 
 In the course of the 3rd of January, the day on which 
 Captain Staunton got back to Seroor, Brigadier- G-eneral 
 Smith, with his strong division, reached the village of Cor- 
 regaum, which had been so nobly held. The peishwa and 
 his Mahrattas now fled back to the table-land near the 
 sources of the Kistna. G-eneral Smith followed them 
 closely, and Brigadier- G-eneral Pritzler, with another division, 
 
 * H. T. Prinsep, * Division Orders by Brigadier-General Smith, C.B.,' 
 dated ' Camp, near Seroor, 7th January, 1818,' in ' East-India Military 
 Calendar.' 
 
1818.] 3IE. M. ELPHiySTOITE'S PLA^v'. 419 
 
 was moving from auotlier point to intercept tliera. The 
 Mahrattas continued to turn and twist like eels, and though 
 Pritzler trod upon their tail more than once, and cut off 
 part of it, they could not be so overtaken as to be brought 
 to a general action. Our troops were exhausted by this 
 harassing pursuit, which seemed to produce no visible 
 advantage. Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone had the merit of 
 recommending a better plan of operations. This was to 
 storm the many strong places in the country, to deprive the 
 peishwa of the means of subsistence, to reduce Sattara, which 
 was still the nominal capital of the Mahratta empire, and to 
 remstate the Sattara family in an independent sovereignty. 
 
 The fortress of Sattara surrendered to Brigadier- Greneral 
 Smith, on the 10th of February, the day on which he first 
 appeared before it. Other places were in process of reduc- 
 tion when the peishwa made certain rash movements which 
 enabled G-eneral Smith to fall upon him at Ashtee, on the 
 20th of Pebruary, with the 2nd and 7th regiments of 
 Madras light cavalry, and two squadrons of his majesty's 
 22nd dragoons. Eajee Eao, the dastardly peishwa, deserted 
 his palanquin and his army, mounting a horse and galloping 
 away as soon as the battle began ; but Grokia, his general, 
 seeing that he must either fight or lose the baggage and 
 iB very thing else, made a bold stand, out-flanking Smith's 
 small force, and at one moment threatening it in the rear. 
 But the British dragoons charged his gole,* and killed him 
 in the charge. From this moment all was confusion and 
 panic, each mass of cavalry breaking as our dragoons 
 approached it. Some faint resistance was attempted in the 
 <jamp ; biit our dragoons dashed in, put the Mahrattas to 
 flight, and made good booty. Twelve elephants and fifty- 
 seven camels formed part of this prize. Greneral Smith was 
 slightly wounded on the head, and Lieutenant Warrand, of 
 the 22nd dragoons, was wounded by Grokla, who fought 
 fiercely in the melee, and wounded several of our men before 
 he fell ; but no one was killed on our side, and only seven- 
 .teen or eighteen of the soldiers were hurt. 
 
 The remnant of the peishwa' s army fled towards the 
 north, being daily thinned by desertion. Brigadier- Greneral 
 Pritzler, General Monro, and Colonels Prother and Deacon, 
 reduced all the forts that remained ; the Malu-atta flag was 
 
 * A mass of Mahratta cavalry. 
 2e2 
 
420 BATTLE OF SOOXEE. [1818. 
 
 fast disappearing, and so were tlie hopes of the Mahratta 
 chiefs. Our divisions and detachments in the field, in ahnost 
 all parts of India, were too numerous and too well posted 
 to allow of any junction being effected between the peishwa 
 and the forces of au}^ of our other enemies. 
 
 After the battle of Ashtee, Brigadier- Greneral Smith re- 
 paired to Sattara, in order to assist Mr. Elphiustone in 
 setting up the rajah. In this way the peishwa gained a few 
 days' respite, during which he continued to press to the 
 north-west, with the design of throwing himself into the 
 territories of the nizam of the Deckan, Avhich he hoped to 
 find ill-furnished with troops. 
 
 But turning back from Sattara, General Smith renewed his 
 pursuit of the peishwa on the 10th of March ; and General 
 Doveton, with his division, moved in another direction, in 
 the expectation of intercepting the Mahrattas. jNTeverthe- 
 less the peishwa traversed the nizam' s dominions from west 
 to east, and appeared on the banks of the "Werda on the 
 1st of April. But as his van was crossing that river, it was 
 met and driven back by a small detachment under Colonel 
 Scott, The perplexed prince then tried to cross the river at 
 another point, but here he was met by Colonel Adams, and 
 was informed by his scouts that General Doveton was getting 
 close upon him. "Without waiting the arrival of Doveton, 
 Adams followed the Mahrattas, came up with them near 
 Soonee, in Berar, and with only one regiment of native 
 cavalry and some horse-artillery, gave them a signal over- 
 throw. The enemy fled through the jungles, leaving behind 
 the peishwa' s much-sunken treasure, three elephants, and 
 200 camels. More than 1,000 of the Mahrattas were 
 killed by our horse-artillery, or by our cavalry in their flight. 
 They can scarcely have stood anywhere, but Colonel Adams's 
 total loss was only two wounded. General Doveton was 
 near enough to Soonee to hear the firing of Adams's guns ; 
 but it was found necessary to halt our troops, in order to 
 wait for supplies ; and then mistakes were committed as to 
 the direction in which the pursuit ought to be continued. 
 'Nor was it easy to avoid these errors, seeing that the 
 peishwa' s army split itself up into various detachments, and 
 each took a route of its own. Two-thirds of his people 
 quitted his standard altogether, and fled in small parties for 
 their homes. Bajee Eao's sole object now was to get back to 
 the north-east ; but here he found his progress stopped by 
 
1818.] HANGI2fG A KILLADAE. 421 
 
 G-eneral Sir Thomas Hislop, wlio was returning from Malwa 
 to the Deckan. 
 
 On his way Sir Thomas had resorted to a measure of 
 unusual severity. The fort of Talnere, or Thalnir, situated 
 on the north, bank, and commanding a ford across the river 
 Taptee, was one of the places ceded to the English by Holkar, 
 under the late treaty. Sir Thomas had in his possession 
 Holkar' s own orders for the quiet surrender of the place ; 
 yet a fire was opened upon his troops from the fort. The 
 Mahratta killadar, or commandant, was warned that if he 
 resisted the order of his master, he would be dealt vrith as a 
 rebel : without heeding the message, the killadar continued 
 to fire. When Sir Thomas had thrown open the gates and 
 our storming parties had entered the place, the killadar came 
 out by a wicket and surrendered. But after this surrender 
 some wild Arabs, who formed part of the garrison, fell upon 
 a weak party of English, who expected no further resistance, 
 butchered Major Grordon and Captain Macgregor, wounded 
 Lieutenant- Colonel Murray and two lieutenants, and killed 
 or wounded all the ten or twelve men that were with them. 
 The rest of our storming party coming up, every man in the 
 fort was slaughtered. Between Arabs, Patans, and Mah- 
 rattas 300 were sacrificed to the vengeance of our infuriated 
 soldiery. On the next morning Sir Thomas Hislop had tlie 
 killadar hanged on one of the bastions, on the twofold charge 
 of rebellion and treachery. The conduct of Sir Thomas 
 Hislop, in ordering the execution of the killadar, was severely 
 censured in several quarters ; but the example was useful, 
 and upon knowing that the commandant of Talnere had 
 been executed, the killadars of the much stronger forts of 
 Gaulnah, Chandore, and other places which Holkar had 
 ceded, submitted upon summons, or as soon as they were 
 shown Holkar's orders to admit the English.* 
 
 Bajee Eao had been running hither and thither for more 
 than six months, but his race was now well nigh finished. 
 Xorth, south, east, and west, his road was cut off", and forces 
 were moving round him from the intermediate points of the 
 compass. Einding himself so sorely pressed, he attempted 
 again to pass into Malwa ; but Sir John Malcolm, who was 
 
 * Colonel Valentine Blacker, ' Memoir of the Operations of the British 
 Army in India/ &c. Lieut. Edward Lake, of Hon. East-India Com- 
 pany's Madras Engineers, * Journals of the Sieges of the Madras Army, 
 &c. in the years 1817, 1818, and 1819, &c. &c.' London, 1823. 
 
422 THE PEISIIWA [1S18. 
 
 himself at Mow, a toAYii or large eantoument in the Malwa 
 province, had so stationed some forces imder Lieutenant- 
 Colonels Eussel and Corsellis as to render this movement 
 impracticable. On the evening of the 25th of May Sir 
 John Malcolm learned that a vakeel from the peishwa had 
 arrived at a place on the Nerbudda river, about forty miles 
 fi'om Mow. Malcolm immediately moved towards that 
 place, and took his troops with him. On the 27th of May 
 he met the vakeel or ambassador, who assured him that the 
 peishwa was determined to come to him, and to trust to his 
 friendship and generosity.* Sir John, being informed of the 
 plan of disposing of the peishwa, which had been framed by 
 the marquis of Hastings and Mr. Elphinstone, stated the 
 conditions, and sent the vakeel back to his master, who was 
 occupying a good position on a hill. The peishwa remained 
 irresolute for several days, during which the division of 
 General Doveton and other troops got close into his neigh- 
 bourhood. At last, on the evening of the 1st of June, he 
 came down to a village in the plain and met Sir John Mal- 
 colm. The Mahratta did not come alone, he had an escort 
 2,500 strong, and he brought his family with him. Mal- 
 colm, who had come to the appointed place with only a thin 
 attendance, repeated the conditions, and demanded the 
 immediate surrender of Trimbukjee. Bajee Eao declared 
 that it was not in his power to give up Trimbukjee ; that 
 Trimbukjee had an army and camp of his own ; that he was 
 stronger than he was, " Then," said Malcolm, " I will 
 attack him forthwith." " Success attend you !" replied the 
 peishwa. The Mahratta prince further declared that he 
 had been involved in a war without meaning it ; that he was 
 treated as an enemy by the English, who had supported 
 his family for two generations ; that he was now in a lament- 
 able situation, but believed that he still had a real friend 
 in Sir John Malcolm. He was told that he ought either 
 to throw himself at once on the magnanimity of the British 
 government, or prepare for further resistance. " How can 
 I resist now?" said the Mahratta; "I am sun-ounded." 
 Malcolm replied that this was quite true, but that still he 
 might escape if he preferred becoming a free-booter and 
 wanderer to accepting the liberal provisions which the 
 English were ready to give him. Bajee Eao protested 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm had previously received a letter from the peishwa, 
 full of compliments and outrageous flattery. 
 
1818.] SUEEE^^DEES. 423 
 
 tliat Malcolm was liis friend, liis only friend, and tliat 
 lie would never leave him, but trust entirely to liis good 
 offices. ISevertheless the peishwa, on breaking up the 
 conference, asked for a little delay, and in retiring to 
 the ghaut from which he had descended, he took care to 
 guai'd his rear and flanks with his resolute Arab infantry, 
 and to show the muzzles of his guns over the rocks ; and 
 upon reaching his camp he sent trusty messengers to 
 the camp of Trimbukjee to tell that favourite to beware of 
 Malcolm. It was, however, utterly impossible for him to 
 procrastinate very long, for he was completely hemmed in, 
 and his supplies of provisions were failing. He informed 
 Sir John Malcolm that he would go to his camp, and con- 
 clude the treaty as proposed to him on the morning of the 
 3rd of June. When that morning came, he tried one faint 
 shuffle more. It was an inauspicious day, he had some 
 religious ceremonies to perform ; would not his dear friend 
 Malcolm wait till to-morrow ? Malcolm gave him to under- 
 stand that |he would not wait another hour ; and this, with 
 the not very distant firing of some English guns on one of 
 his flanks or in his rear, had the eflect of removing all 
 further hesitation. At about eleven o'clock on the morning 
 of the 3rd he came down to Sir John Malcolm's camp, and 
 delivered himself up, with his family. Malcolm, like nearly 
 all his distinguished Indian contemporaries, was a man of a 
 large and generous heart : none knew better than he the 
 demerits and the helplessness of the fallen enemy now 
 before him, yet he agreed that the peishwa's allowance 
 should not be less tlian eight lacs of rupees per annum, and 
 that a most liberal provision should be made for his courtiers, 
 Brahmins, temples, &c. The supreme government at Cal- 
 cutta thought that Sir John had granted too much ; but as 
 it was done, they confirmed the grants. Bajee liao re- 
 nounced for ever the dignity of peishwa, or supreme chief 
 of the Mahrattas, together with all his claims of sovereignty. 
 The ex-peishwa quietly resigned himself to a life of luxury 
 and ease, spending his 80,000 a year, not in raising troops 
 or exciting combinations against the Company, but in mere 
 sensual indulgences. The village of Betoor or Brimatwar, 
 on the Ganges, near Cawnpoor, was finally fixed upon for 
 his residence. His progress through Raipootana and the 
 Duab to the place of his exile excited hardly any sensation 
 among the people. AVhen settled at Betoor, he bathed 
 
424 CAPTUEE or TEIMBrXJEE. [1818. 
 
 daily in the holy \Yater of the Ganges, indulged in the 
 highest living of a Brahmin, maintained three expensive sets 
 of dancing-girls, and surrounded himself with low buifoons 
 and sycophants. The rallying-point of the Mahratta con- 
 federacy was thus broken up, and if it was not quite so 
 easy to change the character of the Mahratta people, and to 
 introduce peaceful, industrious habits among them if the 
 unchanged character of that people prognosticated future 
 troubles in India, still their power of doing mischief was 
 from this time vastly reduced. 
 
 To the restored family of the rajah of Sattara, whose 
 hereditary claim to the sovereignty of the country, and to 
 the dignity of peishwa, was held to be much better than that 
 of Bajee Eao, only a very limited territory was allotted, upon 
 his yielding all claim or pretension to the peishwa ; a 
 dignity now wisely and for ever abrogated. The manage- 
 ment of the territories, and the superintendence of the rajah 
 of Sattara' s affairs, were assigned to Captain Grant, until 
 the country should become tranquillized. Many of the hill- 
 forts, which had been what the worst of our baronial castles 
 were in the early part of the twelfth century dens of 
 thieves, cut-throats, and violators were dismantled; and 
 others, cleared of their occupants, were allowed to go to 
 ruin. In 1821, when the young rajah became of age, he was 
 invested with the administration of his dominions, vsiiich were 
 then tranquil and prosperous. 
 
 Upon the conclusion of the treaty with Sir John Malcolm, 
 all that remained of the ex-peishwa's army quietly broke up 
 and dispersed. 'Not even Trimbukjee could keep a force 
 together. This chief, knowing that the EngHsh would con- 
 demn him to imprisonment for life, fled with a few followers 
 to the neighbourhood of JNTassuck, a large town and place 
 of pilgrimage on the Grodavery, principally inhabited by 
 Brahmins. Here, among crowds of Hindu pilgrims and 
 fakirs, he remained concealed for some time, in spite 
 of the active search making for him. At last, Captain 
 Swanston, one of the heroes of Corregaum, being detached 
 for the purpose by Mr. Elphinstone, succeeded in catching 
 him. At first he was sent imder a good guard to Tannah, 
 the prison from which he had escaped through the ingenious 
 aid of the Mahratta groom and songster. After a short time 
 he was carried to Calcutta, and put into the cage which had 
 been previously occupied by Yizier Ali, but he was very 
 
181S.] CHASE OF APA SAHEB. 425 
 
 soon conveyed to the rock of Cliunar, near Benares, wliere 
 he spent the remainder of his flagitious life. He had done 
 great miscliief and caused us an enormous expense ; he was a 
 murderer, an extortioner, and a grossly perjured man; yet his 
 allowance was liberal and his imprisonment light and easy,* 
 
 It was soon discovered that Apa Saheb had woven a web 
 of intrigue over all Berar and Malwa, and a good part of 
 Hindustan, in spite of the favourable terms which had been 
 granted to him by our resident at JN^agpoor. As the peishwa 
 and Trimbukjee had not been caught when these discoveries 
 were made, our resident seized the rajah and his two 
 ministers, and brought them to jSTagpoor presidency, which 
 had been so treacherously attacked and so bravely defended. 
 The two ministers spontaneously confessed that a multipli- 
 city of intrigues had been going on against the English, and 
 that Apa Saheb had barbarously murdered his blind and 
 helpless cousin and predecessor the Eajah Pursajee. "When 
 the peishwa had failed in his efforts to get to Xagpoor, where, 
 if not arrested, the treacherous rajah would have given him 
 the hand, Apa Saheb was packed off from the residency for 
 the fortress of Allahabad. Our escort was viligant as well 
 as strong, yet the ex-rajah contrived to escape, on the 12th 
 of May, 1818, as the sepoys of the escort were halting at 
 Ey chore. 
 
 This gave rise to another hard and long hunt. Though 
 closely followed by half a dozen parties, Apa Saheb got fairly 
 off, and reached the Mahadeo hills, behind Poonah, where 
 Trimbukjee had so long lurked. Here he was harboured 
 and concealed by the wild Gronds, a singular race, with broad, 
 flat noses, thick lips, and very frequently curly hair, like the 
 African negroes. Most of the tribes inhabiting the hills 
 were absolute savages ; but a large community, more advanced 
 in civilization, had submitted to the government of a rajah 
 or chief, named Chyn Shah. This chief joined heart and 
 hand with Apa Saheb, and a new plan of operations was 
 concerted between them. At the close of the rainy season 
 of this eventful year, 1818, Apa Saheb collected round his 
 standard some of the unemployed Mahratta troopers and 
 wild Arabs, who had served in the peishwa' s army until it 
 was broken up ; and with these bands, and the wild Gonds 
 
 * Bishop Heber paid Trimbukjee a visit in September, 1824, and has 
 left an interesting account of the man, his pagoda, and pleasant little 
 garden on the top of Chunar. See the bishop's * Indian Journal.' 
 
426 CHT2T SHAH AND THE GO^'DS. [1S19. 
 
 of the liills, he began to commit depredatious in all dii'ec- 
 tions, occasionally extending his incursions as far as the 
 British territories on the Kerbudda. No country could be 
 better adapted for the carrying on of a desultory warfare 
 than the one he had chosen for his asylum, for the whole of 
 it was a succession of mountains, ravines, rivers, and jungles. 
 Some of the Arabs were pursued by Captain Sparkes with 
 only 107 sepoys. Finding that they were far more numerous 
 than they had been led to expect, that the Arabs and those 
 with them formed a host of cavalry and infantry, Captain 
 Sparkes took up the first position that presented itself. He 
 maintained the post for some hours, until he had lost hal . 
 his men and consumed nearly all his powder. He then dis- 
 played a white flag. The signal was disregarded ; it is vain 
 to hope for truce or quarter from such enemies as those ; in 
 such situations the brave man must make up his mind to die 
 with his sword in his hand. Sparkes was shot dead in lead- 
 ing a charge, or in attempting to cut a way through the 
 enemy, and every man of his detachment was literally cut to 
 pieces by the Arabs, with the exception of nine, who had 
 been left in the rear, in charge of the baggage. In the 
 strong country east of jSTagpoor, a powerful chief openly 
 declared for the ex-rajah, and other jungle chiefs followed 
 this example ; but they were all reduced to obedience and 
 punished by a detachment under Major Wilson. In the 
 Bytool valley the Arabs le^n^ed contributions in the name of 
 Apa Saheb, and butchered another party of our sepoys. 
 The name of the ex-rajah of Nagpoor was waxing almost as 
 terrible as that of Trimbukjee. An enormous reward (a lac 
 of rupees in hand, and ten thousand rupees a year in land) 
 was offered for his apprehension ; and as no effects pro- 
 ceeded from the tempting offer, Lieutenant-Colonel Adams 
 was detached against him in some force. At the close of 
 the year, while Adams was establishing stations of cavalry 
 and infantry round the country of Chyn Shah, that chief, 
 with 2,000 or 3,000 of his Gonds, made a bold attempt to 
 recover for Apa Saheb some of the forts in Nagpoor ; but 
 these attempts were frustrated, and both Chyn Shah and 
 the fugitive rajah were obliged to seek refuge in the moun- 
 tains. In the month of February, 1819, Colonel Adams 
 entered the mountains from the Nerbudda valley, with three 
 separate columns ; and other divisions came up to co-operate 
 with him. Upon this Apa Saheb fled to Aseerghur, the 
 
1819.] SIEGE OF ASEEEGHUE. 427 
 
 killadar of wliich, Jeswiint Eao Lar, was liis friend, or 
 rather the irreconcilable enemy of the English. In the 
 course of a very few days Aseerghur was invested by British 
 and native troops ; fresh divisions came up to join in the 
 siege, and such an accumulation of ordnance took place as 
 had not been witnessed in these Indian wars, except at the 
 aiege of Hatrass. 
 
 Aseerghur stands on a scarped hill, and is exceedingly 
 strong by art as well as by nature : it then mounted a tre- 
 mendous artillery, including some guns of enormous size. 
 The general height of the position above the plain was 750 
 feet. The killadar knew that ice had Scindiah's order for his 
 surrender, but lie had at the same time Scindiah's order to 
 hold out to the utmost. He made two or three desperate 
 sallies from the fortress, in one of which Lieutenant- Colonel 
 Eraser was killed. The explosion of the magazine of one of 
 our breaching batteries a magazine containing 130 barrels 
 of powder, destroyed an entire company of our sepoys, and 
 created some confusion. But our fire was soon renewed 
 and increased. On the 5th of April one of the angles of 
 the upper fort was brought down, and with it came thun- 
 dering and crushing over the face of the rock one of the 
 enormous pieces of Indian ordnance. Our storming parties 
 were ready to act under the eyes of General Doveton and 
 Sir John Malcolm, when, on the 7th of April, Jeswunt Eao 
 Lar, who had consumed nearly all his gunpowder, and lost 
 his chief artillery officer, and who possibly feared the fate of 
 the hanged killadar of Talmere, begged a parley, and 
 agreed to surrender at discretion. A garrison of 1,200 men, 
 chiefly Arab mercenaries, piled their arms before Sir John 
 Malcolm's division. Few of the besieged had fallen, for the 
 rock and the upper fort towered so high above our batteries 
 that only shells could reach them with any effect. The total 
 loss of the besiegers, Europeans and natives, was, in killed 
 and wounded, 299 men, and, besides the brave Eraser who 
 was killed, ten of our officers were wounded. The foul 
 Mahratta rag was pulled down, and our union flag hoisted 
 in its stead. The fortress, with a small surrounding tract 
 of jungle, has been retained by the Company ever since.* 
 
 * Colonel Valentine Blacker, ' Memoir of the Operations of the Bri- 
 tish Army in India during the Mahratta War of 1817, 1818, and 1819, 
 &c. &c.' Lieutenant Lake, Madras engineers, ' Journals of the Sieges of 
 the Madras Army, &c. &c.' H. T. Prinsep. 
 
428 E>'D OF THE PINDAREEE [1819. 
 
 It had always been considered a place of the greatest im- 
 portance, as it commands one of the great passes of the 
 Deckan into Hindustan. The possession of Aseerghur 
 enabled the Company's troops to restrain the excesses of 
 the Bheel tribes, who inhabited the neighbouring range of 
 hills. The place was also advantageously situated as a 
 depot. It had been taken from the Mahrattas during the 
 brilliant campaigns of AVeUesley and Lake, but had been 
 very unwisely restored to Scindiah. 
 
 On taking possession of the fortress, Sir John Malcolm 
 confidently expected to find Apa Saheb in some part of it ; 
 but that ex-rajah had eftected his escape either during the 
 siege, or before the place was invested. Months passed 
 before it could be known what he was doing, or whither he 
 had gone. In the interim the Gonds were severely chas- 
 tised : several of their chiefs were killed, and Chyn Shah 
 himself was seized, deposed, and carried off prisoner to the 
 Company's fortress at Chanda, where he died in 1820. 
 Part of his territories were assumed by the Company, as the 
 best means of protecting their country on the JN^erbudda. 
 Some few forts and positions were permanently occupied, 
 and the Company's sepoys levied the pilgrim tax at the 
 Mahadeo temple, and in the passes which lead to it. This 
 tax or toll had formerly been divided among many Grond 
 chiefs, who raised it or lowered it. according to circum- 
 stances, or according to their own strength or relative weak- 
 ness of the pilgrims ; but a regular rate was now fixed, and 
 the money collected was divided among the chiefs by the 
 English collectors. Even in this poor, hungry, savage dis- 
 trict, a rapid improvement followed the Company's occupa- 
 tion : the Gronds left off thieving, and took to honest labour. 
 After many false reports had been spread about his where- 
 about, accurate intelligence was received of Apa Saheb's 
 having fled to Lahore, to seek refuge with Eunjeet Sing. 
 He had arrived in that country disguised as a fakir, or holy 
 mendicant and stroller. The Sheikh chieftain would not 
 receive him publicly at his durbar, lest such conduct should 
 give offence to the English ; but he ordered that a place of 
 concealment, with the bare means of subsistence, should be 
 furnished to the once powerful, but now dispossessed rajah of 
 !N^agpoor. In the meanwhile the governor-general had 
 declared Apa Saheb dethroned, and had proclaimed, as his 
 successor, the son of a daughter of the rajah Eagojee, who 
 
1819.] AXD MAHEATTA WAR. 429 
 
 died ill 1816, and appointed tlie widow of Eajali Pursajee, 
 whom Apa Saheb had murdered, to be regent for the minor. 
 Every department of government was, however, placed 
 under the direct control of British officers ; and the whole 
 country of Nagpoor, with its resources, was virtually an- 
 nexed to the Company's dominions. 
 
 The capture of Aseerghur was the last operation of the 
 Pindarree and Mahratta war ; a war which had witnessed 
 an unprecedented number of sieges, an unprecedented 
 number and complexity of movements, and some of the 
 most remarkable forced marches that were ever made 
 in any country. The reserved division alone performed 
 three sieges those of Singhur, Belgaum, aud Sholapoor. 
 Lieutenant- Colonel MacdowaU's detachment, and Lieute- 
 nant-Colonel Adams's division, reduced the peishwa's 
 numerous and strong fortresses in Candeish : the most famed 
 of these places were Eadjeir, Trimbuli, MaUegaum, and 
 Chanda. But thiety hill-fortresses, each of which might 
 have defied the whole Anglo-Indian army, fell in the course 
 of a few weeks. And all this was done with a very defec- 
 tive engineering department, and without a proper supply 
 of men trained to siege duty. So deficient was the number 
 even of our artillery officers, that there never were enough 
 of them employed in the same siege to afi'ord a relief. At 
 the siege of Aseerghur, in particular, the officers of the 
 Madras artillery actually lived in the batteries. This inces- 
 sant service was so severe, that several of the officers died 
 of sheer fatigue, or were worn out and invalided.* 
 
 In the first year of this Pindarree-Mahratta war, the 
 army was assailed by a new and terrible enemy. This was 
 the Indian cholera morbus, the virulence of which appears 
 to have been increased by the crowded state of our camps. 
 The disease first broke out at Jessore, the capital of a dis- 
 trict in the southern quarter of Bengal, a populous and 
 unhealthy city in the centre of the Delta of the Granges, 
 and near the pestiferous Sunderbunds. It began its 
 ravages as the rainy season of 1817 set in, and cut off the 
 majority of those whom it attacked. From Jessore it 
 spread in all directions, showing, as it was thought, a pre- 
 
 * Edward Lake, lieutenant of Madras engineers, * Journals of the 
 Sieges of the jNIadras Army.' I refer the reader to this valuable work 
 for a competent idea what was done with defective means. This ia another 
 book which ought to be in the hands of every young officer in India. 
 
430 THE CHOLERA. [1817. 
 
 ference for the valleys of rivers.* Ascending the valley of 
 the Granges, it reached the camp of Brigadier- Greneral 
 Hardyman about the beginning of October ; but the troops, 
 being* then encamped in a dry, healthy country, and being 
 but few in number, suffered comparatively little. Con- 
 tinuing its course westward, it fell with extraordinary 
 violence upon the army commanded by Lord Hastings in 
 person, just after his lordship had concluded the treaty with 
 Scindiah. This army, when first seized, was encamped in 
 a low and unhealthy part of Bundelkund, on the banks of 
 the river Sinde, a confluent of the Jumna, which has its 
 source in the mountains of Malwa. The year was one of 
 scarcity, and grain had been collected for the troops, through 
 the camp-followers, with extreme difficulty, and of course 
 of inferior quality. The water of the country, except where 
 it could be obtained from running streams, was indifferent. 
 The time of the year too was that at which the heat of the 
 day is most strongly contrasted with the cold of the night. 
 To all these extraordinary circumstances was superadded 
 the very crowded state of the camp of so large an army. 
 Per about ten days that the disease raged with its greatest 
 fury, the whole camp was an hospital. The mortality 
 amounted to about a tenth of the whole number collected 
 there.t Europeans and natives, soldiers and camp-followers, 
 were alike affected; but the latter being generally worse 
 ^clothed and fed than the fighting men, suffered in a greater 
 
 * James Copland, M.D., ' On Pestilential Cholera,' S:c. 
 
 According to other accounts, the first appearance of the disease was not 
 at Jessore, but at Nuddea and Kishnaghur. In June it was discovered at 
 Mymensing, and in several villages along the course of the Brahmaputra ; 
 in July it appeared at Patna, and at Sunegong, a town on the banks of 
 one of the branches of the Brahmaputra ; and on the 19th of August it 
 raged with destructive violence at Jessore. 
 
 On the 15th of September the disease, which had broken out at Cal- 
 cutta, Pinapoor, Chittagong, &c. , reached from the mouths of the Ganges 
 nearly as high as the confluence of the Jumna. Early in November it 
 reached the Sinde, where it raged with greater violence than in any other 
 part of India. 
 
 Frederick Corbyn, Esq., M.R.C.S.L., surgeon on the Bengal esta- 
 blishment, &c., 'Treatise on the Epidemic Cholera,' 1 vol. 8vo. Calcutta, 
 1832. James Jameson, assistant-surgeon, &c., * Report on the Epi- 
 demic Cholera Morbus, Calcutta, 1820.' 
 
 t H. T. Prinsep. This gentleman adds, " The narrator himself lost 
 seven domestic servants and a moonshee in about four days, besides twelve 
 others who were sick and unserviceable for a month, out of an establish- 
 ment of fifty-three ; and others of the staff were equal sufferers." 
 
1817.] 'TnE CIIOLEEA. 431 
 
 proportion. Of tlie Europeans fewer were seized, but those 
 who took the disease more frequently died, and usually 
 within a few hours. The camp was abandoned, and the 
 army continued for some days to move to the eastward, in 
 the hope of finding relief in a better climate ; but each day's 
 march many dead and dying were abandoned, and many 
 more fell down on the road, so many that it was not 
 possible to furnish the means for carrying them on, although 
 the utmost possible provision had been made by the pre- 
 vious distribution of bullock-carts and elephants for the 
 a^ccommodation of the sick. JS'othing was heard along the 
 line of march but groans and shrieks and lamentations ; 
 even the healthy were broken in spirit and incapable of 
 exertion ; and, for the time, the efficiency of this fine army 
 seemed to be entirely destroyed. Towards the end of jSTo- 
 vember, when the army reached a healthy station at Erech, 
 on the right bank of the Betwa river, the epidemic had 
 visibly expended its violence. 
 
432 BEAUTIFUL TEAXQUILLITT. [1820. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 ArTEE the siege of Aseerglaur, the armies of the tliree 
 presidencies returned to their several stations and canton- 
 ments in Bengal, Madras, and Bombay ; and the regions 
 which had been crossed and recrossed, and traversed in all 
 directions by immense hosts of combatants, by British and 
 native troops, Peishvs^a Mahrattas, Holkar Mahrattas, jSTag- 
 poor Mahrattas, Pindarrees, Patans, Arabs, Gronds, and ^ 
 others, became quiet as a bay of the ocean after a storm ; 
 quieter and happier than they had been for many ages. 
 In the territories assumed by the Company, or taken under 
 its immediate protection, able men -^ere left by the marquis 
 of Hastings to improve this tranquillity, to establish perma- 
 nently the reign of peace and law, and to better the condi- 
 tion of aU the native inhabitants. For more than thirty 
 preceding years, the province of Malwa, and the whole of 
 Central India, had been oppressed, pillaged, and laid waste 
 by the Pindarrees, by the Mahrattas of all tribes, by the 
 Eajpoot princes, and by the Puars : these different powers 
 acted sometimes in combination, but more frequently in 
 opposition to one another : they were all equally cruel and 
 rapacious in the moment of success and conquest, and about 
 equally incapable of giving that stability to their conquests 
 which would have afforded relief to the poor oppressed people, 
 whose greatest calamity was the frequent change of masters. 
 Tq Sir John Malcolm, who had assisted so potentially in 
 subduing the sanguinary anarchists, and expelling the Pin- 
 darrees, was assigned the equally difficult duty of restoring 
 order and repairing the frightful mischiefs which had been 
 committed in so long a series of years. He was appointed 
 by the marquis of Hastings to the military and political com- 
 mand of Malwa, which had perhaps suffered more than any 
 other part of India. Hundreds upon hundreds of its villages 
 were deserted and roofless; the ferocious tigers of the 
 
181S.] sm JOH^N MALCOLir. 433 
 
 jungles literally usurped the country, and fouglit with the 
 returning inhabitants for their fields. In the state of Hol- 
 kar alone, of 3,701 villages, only 2,038 were inhabited ; 
 1,663 were " without lamp " were wholly deserted. Under 
 the wise rule established by Malcolm, more than two-thirds 
 of these deserted Tillages were restored and repeopled before 
 the end of 1820 ; and in less than five years from the time 
 our army fii'st occupied the country. Sir John could boast, 
 with an honourable pride, and with perfect correctness, that 
 Malwa and the rest of Central India were tranquil and con- 
 tented, and rapidly advancing in population and prosperity. 
 " It may be asserted that history affords few examples 
 where a change in the political condition of a country has 
 been attended with such an aggregate of increased happi- 
 ness to its inhabitants, as that which was effected within 
 four years in Central India ; and it is pleasing to think 
 that, with the exception of suppressing a few Bheel rob- 
 bers,* peace was restored, and has hitherto been maintained, 
 without one musket being fired." . . . .f Accustomed to 
 the extremities of miUtary violence, the inhabitants of the 
 country, on the English first entering, betrayed feehngs of 
 doubt and alarm. These were by some mistaken for dislike 
 to our supremacy ; but they arose only out of fear of insult 
 or outrage, and they were speedily removed by the strict 
 discipline preserved by our troops, whether stationary or 
 marching. In a very short time, wherever troops or indivi- 
 duals moved, they were received with cordiality, as the friends 
 and protectors of the people. To organize the country, 
 honourable and intelligent British officers were sent into 
 every part of it. " The result has been fortunate be- 
 yond anticipation. These agents, within their respec- 
 tive circles, have not only, by their direct intercourse with 
 
 * The Bheels, inhabiting the hilly countries, had all been robbers and 
 cattle-lifters time out of mind. We believe they had never been known 
 as anything else, since the Rajpoots first conquered their country and 
 drove them to the hills, as the Sassenach drove the Gael. " The first 
 measure I took for the reform of the Bheels," says Sir John Malcolm, 
 * was to raise a small corps commanded by their own chiefs ; and before 
 they had been in the service one month, I placed them as a guard over 
 treasure, which had a surprising effect, both in raising them in their own 
 minds, and in those of the other parts of the community. I found an 
 equally good impression was produced by my taking, for a period, as my 
 constant attendants, some of the most desperate of the plundering chiefs 
 west of the Chumbul." * Memoir of Central India.' 
 
 t Id., id. 
 
 2p 
 
434 BRITISH EULE AXD [1818. 
 
 all classes, established great influence, but spread a know- 
 ledge of our character and intentions, which has increased 
 respect and confidence ; and they have in almost all cases 
 succeeded, by the arbitration of differences, and the settle- 
 ment of local disputes, in preserving the peace of the country 
 without troops. The most exact observance of certain prin- 
 ciples is required from these officers, and their line is very 
 carefully and distinctly prescribed. The object has been to 
 escape every interference with the internal administration of 
 the country, beyond what the preservation of the public 
 peace demanded." * In other parts of India the change was 
 equally beneficial the blessmgs derived from the conquest 
 of the Mahrattas and the extirpation of the Pindarrees were 
 equally apparent. As Bishop Heber was travelling through 
 the country in 1824, he overheard a conversation among 
 some villagers, who were comparing the present peaceable 
 times with those in which " Ameer Khan and Bappoo Scin- 
 diah came up with their horsemen and spoiled all the land, 
 and smote all the people, and biu-ned the cities through 
 Mewar and Marwar, till thou comest unto the salt wilder- 
 ness." He also heard them say that corn had been gradually 
 getting cheaper, and, notwithstanding a late unfavourable 
 season, was still not so dear as it used to be in the years of 
 trouble. The kind and warm-hearted prelate adds : " When 
 such have been the efiects of British supremacy, who will 
 refuse to pray for the continuance of our empire ? " f 
 
 " The war which had just terminated," says Malcolm, 
 " was not an attack upon a state, or upon a body of men, 
 but upon a system. It was order contending against anar- 
 chy. . . . The victory gained was slight, comparatively 
 speaking, over armies, to what it was over mind. The uni- 
 versal distress, which a series of revolutions must ever 
 generate, had gone its circle and reached all ranks and 
 classes. The most barbarous of those who subsisted on 
 plunder had found that a condition of continued uncer- 
 tainty and alarm could not be one of enjoyment 
 
 The desolated state of the country was favourable to the 
 change, for it presented an ample field for the revival of 
 industry in peaceful occupations ; but the paramount influ- 
 ence which the results of the war gave to the British 
 
 * * Memoir of Central India.' 
 
 t ' Indian Journal.' See also Sir John INIalcolm's carefully drawn up 
 Instructions to his Officers in Malwa.' 
 
1818.] MAHRATTA MISEULE. 435 
 
 goYernment over several of tlie native states, was tlie prin- 
 cipal cause of that peace and prosperity which ensued. Our 
 officers were enabled to give shape and direction to the 
 efforts of these states, which became an example to others ; 
 and a tone of improvement was given to every province of 
 Central India."* 
 
 The inhabitants of the wild provinces subject to Scindiali 
 started into prosperity as soon as his numerous, restless, 
 and marauding army was broken up. All the districts 
 which had been wrested from this chief by the Pindarrees 
 were restored to him : the fortress of Aseerghur was nearly 
 all he lost by the war. In the dominions of Holkar, where 
 the anarchy and devastation had been greater, the change 
 to good was the more striking. Our victory at Mahidpoor 
 had scattered the overgrown army of this state ; those bat- 
 talions were never re-embodied, and 200 men to guard the 
 palace were all the infantry left in the service of this Mah- 
 ratta dynasty. A small park of artiUery was retained, and 
 8,000 obedient cavalry sufficed for the police of the country. 
 In less than four years the revenues of the state were nearly 
 quadrupled ; and the expenses of collection were brought 
 down from , forty to fifteen per cent. The increase of popu- 
 lation was surprising. Within the short space of three 
 years, Indore, in the province of Malwa, was changed from 
 a desolate town into a populous and flourishing capital. 
 New villages rose everywhere, and forests, long deemed 
 impenetrable, were fast cleared, on account of tlie profits 
 derivable from the timber required to rebuild villages, 
 towns, and cities. The G-rassias, the Sondwarrees, as well as 
 the Gronds and Bheels, and other hereditary robbers, were 
 rapidly suppressed. When the British armies first entered 
 Central India, and even in 1818, the country along the 
 banks of the Nerbudda, and in the Vindhya mountains, 
 which stretch from the province of Behar to Guzarat, 
 was not safe for even troops to pass ; and till the end of the 
 same year, when a British cantonment was established at 
 Mhow, the banditti continued their depredations. From the 
 territories of Bhopaul to those of Gruzarat, along the right 
 bank of the Nerbudda, and from Hindia to the country of 
 Burwannee, on the left bank of that river, law and order, 
 and a spirit of industry and improvement, were introduced 
 and established. 
 
 * * Memoir of Central India.' 
 
 2 r2 
 
436 MR. ELPHINSTOXE. [1819. 
 
 At Pooiiali, and generally in tlie dominions of the ex- 
 peisliwa, Bajee llao, changes and reforms equally salutary 
 were introduced, principally through the management of the 
 Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, who had the genius 
 of a true legislator, and all the generous sympathies of a 
 philanthropist. By the conquest of the Poonah territory, 
 the British dominion and possessions were extended along 
 the western coast from the northern boundary of the small 
 province of Groa to the mouths of the Taptee; and inland 
 to the long-established western frontier of the nizam from 
 the junction of the "Wurda and Toombudra to the junction 
 of the Poorna and Taptee. Such places in Khandesh be- 
 longing to the Holkar Mahrattas as fell within these bounds 
 were ceded to the British by the treaty of Mundissoor, which 
 Sir John Malcolm had concluded after the splendid victory 
 at Mahidpoor. Some other territories south of the Saut- 
 poora range of hills were also yielded. By exchanges with 
 the Gruicowar, and by arrangements with some minor 
 princes, a continuous, uninterrupted dominion was obtained 
 from Bombay to Calcutta, and from Madras to Bombay. The 
 former Mahratta war having been attended with the similar 
 advantage of continuous dominion between Madras and 
 Calcutta, the communication between the three presidencies 
 might now be considered as complete.* Mr. Elphinstone 
 continued as commissioner at Poonah until 1819, when he 
 became governor of Bombay.t This elevation, however, did 
 not deprive Poonah and the ceded districts in that direction 
 of his valuable services, for those new possessions were 
 wisely annexed to the Bombay presidency, to the territories 
 of which they are adjacent. On quitting Poonah, Mr. El- 
 phinstone addressed to the supreme government at Calcutta 
 a comprehensive report on the affairs of that country, reciting 
 what had been done, and what there remained to do ; con- 
 trasting the present condition of the native inhabitants 
 under the rule of the Company with their condition under 
 
 * Colonel Valentine Blacker. 
 
 t The office of governor of Bombay having become vacant by the re- 
 signation of Sir Evan Nepean, Mr. Canning, as president of the Board of 
 Control, intimated to the Court of Directors his readiness to confirm the 
 selection of one of those eminent servants of the Company who had so 
 highly distinguished themselves. The Directors appreciated this mark of 
 confidence, and made choice of the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, who 
 was nominated governor of Bombay, in October, 1818. Auber, 'Ris 
 and Progress of the British Power in India.' 
 
 / 
 
ii^j III 1 1 'lAi, w,.,^ 
 
1819.] ME. ELPHINSTONE. 437 
 
 the peishwa, and in a most enliglitenecl and most generous 
 spirit urging tlie supreme government to persevere in the 
 good work which had been begun.* This report is one of 
 the many admirable state papers which ought to be dili- 
 gently perused by every European servant of the Company, 
 whether military or civil. No servant of that Company, 
 no governor or governor-general, that had yet visited the 
 shores of India, was so well qualified as Mr. Elphinstone to 
 govern the natives, or so full of tridy liberal and lofty prin- 
 ciples of government. He went to India a stripling, and he 
 never once quitted the country (except to go into Afghan- 
 istan) for the long space of thirty years, during the whole of 
 which time he had been constantly and successfully em- 
 ployed, either in public business or in adding to his store of 
 knowledge. Nor was there, we believe, in all that time a 
 single individual that approached him, native or European, 
 but was impressed with a sense of his ability, genius, 
 humanity, generosity, and most manly honesty and urba- 
 nity.t May his shining example be kept constantly in view 
 
 * See * Report on the Territories conquered from the Peishwa, by the 
 Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone.' 
 
 t In speaking of this distinguished and most amiable man, the warmth 
 of my admiration and of my personal gratitude for benefits conferred upon 
 myself and my eldest son (now an officer on the Bengal establishment) 
 might possibly lead me too far. I again prefer repeating what was said 
 of him by one very capable of estimating his merits and remarkable 
 acquirements Bishop Heber. 
 
 " I have enjoyed, in the unremitting kindness, the splendid hospitality, 
 and agreeable conversation of Mr. Elphinstone, the greatest pleasure of 
 the kind which I have ever enjoyed either in India or in Europe. 
 
 " Mr. Elphinstone is, in every respect, an extraordinary man, possess- 
 ing great activity of body and mind, remarkable talent for and application 
 to public business, a love of literature, and a degree of almost universal 
 information, such as I have met with in no other person similarly situated, 
 and manners and conversation of the most amiable and interesting cha- 
 racter. While he has seen more of India and the adjoining countries than 
 any man now living, and has been engaged in active political, and some- 
 times military, duties since the age of eighteen, he has found time not 
 only to cultivate the languages of Hindustan and Persia, but to preserve 
 and extend his acquaintance with the Greek and Latin classics, with the 
 French and Italian, with all the elder and more distinguished English 
 writers, and with the current and popular literature of the day, both in 
 poetry, history, politics, and political economy. With these remarkable 
 accomplishments, and notwithstanding a temperance amounting to rigid 
 abstinence, he is fond of society ; and it is a common subject of surprise 
 with his friends at what hours of the day or night he finds time for the 
 acquisition of knowledge. His. policy, so far as India is concerned, ap- 
 peared to me particularly wise and liberal ; and he is evidently attached 
 
438 HONOURS CONTEREED [1818-19. 
 
 by every intellectual Englisliman in India ! Then the dissi- 
 pation of cantonments and quarters will be corrected, and 
 officers will cease to complain of the tedium of remote or 
 solitary stations. 
 
 The marquis of Hastings no more made money in India 
 than the Marquis Wellesley had done. The splendid ap- 
 pointments of the offices of governor-general and com- 
 mander-in-chief he had spent in supporting their dignity, 
 in contributing to the public service, or to the welfare 
 of the natives, and in rewarding merit, wherever he found 
 merit in straitened circumstances. As some acknowledg- 
 ment for the glorious issue of the Pindarree and Mahratta 
 war, the East-India Company voted his lordship 60,000 
 for the purchase of an estate. Before that war came to an 
 end, he was gratified by a measure adopted by the home 
 governnment, which flattered the feehngs of the officers in 
 our Indian army. Hitherto, officers holding the Company's 
 commission had been excluded from most of the honours 
 of the military profession. But the Prince Eegent, in 
 giving extension to the Order of the Bath, was pleased to 
 direct that fifteen of the most distinguished officers of the 
 said service might be raised to the dignity of knights 
 commanders of the Bath, and that certain other officers of 
 the Company should be eligible to be knights companions. 
 The marquis of Hastings had the pleasure of investing, with 
 his own hands, the veteran general David Ochterlony 
 with the insignia of Knight G-rand Cross of the Bath. The 
 
 to, and thinks well of, the country and its inhabitants. His public mea- 
 sures, in their general tendency, evince a steady wish to improve their 
 present condition. No government in India pays so much attention to 
 schools and public institutions for education. In none are the taxes 
 lighter ; and in the administration of justice to the natives in their own 
 languages, in the establishment of punchaets, in the degrees in which he 
 employs the natives in official situations, and the countenance and fami- 
 liarity which he extends to all the natives of rank who approach him, he 
 seems to have reduced to practice almost all the reforms which had struck 
 me as most required in the systems of government pursued in those pro- 
 vinces of our eastern empire which I had previously visited. His popu- 
 larity (though to such a feeling there may be individual exceptions) appears 
 little less remarkable than his talents and acquirements ; and I was struck 
 by the remark I once heard, that ' all other public men had their enemies 
 and their friends, their admirers and their aspersers, but that of Mr. El- 
 phinstone everybody spoke highly.' Of his munificence for his libe- 
 rality amounts to this I had heard much and knew some instances my- 
 self." Indian Journal, 
 
1818-19.] o>' i^'DiAN orncEES. 439 
 
 ceremony took place in camp, at Terwali, on the 20th of 
 March, 1818. "Sir David Ochterlonj," said the governor- 
 general, " you have obhterated a distinction painful for the 
 officers of the Honourable Company, and you have opened 
 the doors for your brothers in arms to a reward, which 
 their recent display of exalted spirit and invincible intre- 
 pidity prove could not be more deservedly extended to the 
 ofiicers of any army on earth."* 
 
 His lordship did not despatch so many embassies as Lord 
 Minto had done, yet he sent a mission to Siam and Cochin- 
 China, under Mr. John Crawfurd, formerly an assistant- 
 surgeon on the Bengal establishment. And, like the pre- 
 ceding missions, if this one did no other good, it produced 
 us some curious and good volumes of travels, and an addi- 
 tion to our knowledge of Asia.f 
 
 During this administration, other measures were carried 
 into execution which were not so much to the taste of the 
 governor-general. By our treaties of peace, concluded after 
 the downfal of Bonaparte, our insular empire in India was 
 nearly subverted. The magnificent island of Java was given 
 back to the Dutch, and that power was put in possession of 
 the keys both of the Straits of Malacca and the Straits of 
 Sunda. But to remedy these eiils, Sir Stamford Eaffles im- 
 provised the remarkable settlement and colony of Singapoor, 
 on an island in the Straits of Malacca, in the direct route 
 to Chma, within a week's sail of that country, close to Siam, 
 and in the very seat of the Malayan empire. Under its 
 able founder, in little more than three years, Singapoor grew 
 from nothing into a large and populous town, containing 
 10,000 inhabitants, of nearly all nations, and nearly all 
 actively engaged in commercial pursuits. And since that 
 time the population has been quadrupled, and Singapoor 
 
 * * Calcutta Government Gazette,' Ochterlony had merited the distinc- 
 tion by his brilliant conduct in the Nepaul war, and by his very long and 
 uninterrupted service in the country. He had at this time been consider- 
 ably more than forty years in India, and had served under Colonel Pearce, 
 Sir Eyre Coote, and the adventurous Popham. 
 
 t ' The Mission to Siam and Hue, the Capital of Cochin China, in the 
 years 1821-2, from the Journal of the late George Finlayson, Esq., Sur- 
 geon and Naturalist to the Mission ; with a Memoir of the Author, by 
 Sir Tliomas Stamford Raffles, Bart., F.R.S.' London, 1825. And Mr. 
 Crawfurd's own account of the embassy, or, * Journal of an Embassy from 
 the Governor- General of India to the Courts of Siam and Cochiu-China, 
 exhibiting a View of the actual State of those Kingdoms,' London, 1828. 
 
4-iO CO>'QUEST OF CEYLOK. [1800-19. 
 
 has bocomo the London of southern Asia and the Indian 
 Archipelago. All the nations tliat inhabit the siu-rounding 
 countries resort to it with the produce of their agricultural 
 and manufacturing industry, and take in exchange such 
 goods as are not grown or produced in their own countries. 
 A brighter nucleus of civilization was never formed in so 
 brief a space of time. 
 
 If during the administration of the marquis of Hastings, 
 rich islands were given up in the east of the Indian Ocean, 
 in the west the conquest of one great island the reduction 
 of the whole of Ceylon was completed; and although the 
 anomaly of which the Marquis Wellesley had complained con- 
 tinued to exist, and although the king's governor of Ceylon 
 was independent of the Company's governor-general of 
 India, still the marquis of Hastings had contributed to the 
 achievement by advice and by other assistance. Before the 
 close of the preceding century, we had dispossessed theDutch 
 of all their maritime settlements in Cordon. There was a 
 part of the lowlands occupied by a perfectly savage race, 
 called Yedas or Baddas, who lived by hunting, and there 
 were other portions in which our occupancy was scarcely 
 discernible ; but, roughly, it may be estimated that the 
 English territories, in the year 1800, covered about 12,000 
 square miles, in a broad belt, and that the dominions of the 
 king of Kandy, included within this belt, covered a like 
 number of square miles. Consequently, the island was 
 pretty equally divided between the British government and 
 the king of Kandy. A kingdom within a kingdom, a terri- 
 tory occupied by semi-barbarians, entirely surroimded by 
 Europeans, and cut off from all external communication, 
 could not possibly stand. The absorption of the Kandyan 
 country into our dominion became an inevitable necessity, 
 from the day we dispossessed the Dutch and occupied the 
 coasts and the great belt between them and the hills. 
 
 The word " Kandy" means a hill or mountain, and the 
 term '^ Kandyan country," in a physical sense, means high- 
 lands or a mountainous region. All the interior of the 
 island is mountainous and very woody ; and it was in the 
 inaccessible nature of their country, and in their ingenious 
 mode of defending it by wickets and stockades, that the 
 Kandyans had been enabled to maintain their independence 
 during the nearly three hundred years that different Euro- 
 pean nations had had a footing on the coasts. These 
 
1800-19.] CErLO^r. 441 
 
 natural diificulties in tlie way of invasion were as great as 
 ever ; and now, the people more fierce and courageous tlian 
 the majority of the natives of continental India, had learned 
 to make efiicient firelocks, and tolerably good gunpowder. 
 
 On the borders, quarrels, usually accompanied with blood- 
 shed, were constantly occurring between our people and the 
 Kandyans. The death of the king of Kandy gave rise to a 
 disputed succession. Some of the adigars, or chiefs, courted 
 the assistance of the Enghsh. But early in the year 1802, 
 a new king being firmly estabhshed on the throne, the 
 Kandyans made great preparations for war; every man 
 capable of bearing arms was ordered to hold himself in 
 readiness to take the field, and a party of coast merchants, 
 subjects of the British government, who had been up the 
 country to purchase areca nuts, were assaulted and 
 plundered. The Hon. Frederick North, then governor of 
 Ceylon, sent 3,000 men to occupy the mountain capital, 
 and to place a more friendly king upon the throne. Ma;jor- 
 General Macdowal and Colonel Barbut, who commanded the 
 troops, penetrated the jungles, entered the town of Kandy, 
 which was totally deserted by its inhabitants, and crowned 
 the pretender in the palace with all the forms and cere- 
 monies in use among the Kandyans, save and except the 
 recognition of the adigars. But it was soon found that the 
 king we had made had no party whatever in the country, 
 and that the Kandyans were most cunning enemies. Every 
 night some of our people were brought down by the fire of 
 concealed and covered marksmen, or were butchered by 
 feUows that crept through the jungles and pounced upon 
 them like tigers. Some of our detachments were led by 
 pretended friends into ambuscades, and then decimated. 
 It was felt by the officers in command, and by Grovemor 
 North, that we had embarked in a difficult enterprise, with 
 very insufficient means. This was certain; but unsteady 
 and disgraceful were the means adopted to extricate ns 
 from the difficulty ! It was agreed that we should take 
 back to the coast the man whom we had just crowned in 
 Kandy, and that another adigar, who had partisans, should 
 be invested with the supreme authority ; that the new king 
 should cede some territories to the Enghsh, and that a 
 cessation of hostilities should immediately take place. On 
 the faith of this treaty, made with a convicted and self- 
 ^Yowed traitor, General Macdowal quitted Kandy for the 
 
442 MAJOR DAYIE. [1800-19. 
 
 coast, leaving beliind him a garrison of 700 Malays and 
 300 Europeans. A number of sick and wounded were also 
 left in this barbarous little capital. Starvation stared them 
 all in the face, for no proper measures had been adopted to 
 secure magazines and depots of provisions. To complete 
 the misfortunes of our soldiers at Kandy, the command 
 devolved upon a Major Davie, an officer not only without 
 military skill, but without common animal courage. 
 
 In less than three months the new king starved our 
 troops out of Kandy. Most of our Malays deserted to the 
 enemy ; our sick and wounded, amounting to 120, or more, 
 were tortured and butchered as they lay in the hospital 
 incapable of resistance ; instead of fighting his way through, 
 Davie capitulated in the jungles, and every officer and 
 soldier with him, except a corporal, who made a miraculous 
 escape, were tortured, butchered, or beaten to death wdth 
 heavy clubs. Davie's own worthless life was preserved, and 
 he spent the remainder of it at Kandy, adopting the dress 
 and habits of the natives. 
 
 Captain Madge, of the 19th regiment, who occupied a 
 small fort, and who chose a different line of retreat, fought 
 his way to Trincomalee with only a handful of men ; and 
 Ensign G-rant, a very young officer, gallantly maintained a 
 post, garrisoned by a few invalids, until he was relieved by 
 a body of our troops from Colombo. Wherever care had 
 been taken of the commissariat, and wherever common 
 sense and common English courage were displayed, the 
 Kandyans were foiled: whenever our officers were insane 
 enough to trust to a treaty or a truce with them, torture and 
 murder followed, and hardly a man escaped with life. 
 
 Elated by their successes, the Kandyans now became the 
 invaders. In the months of August and September they 
 poured dovra from their mountains, captured some of our 
 forts, advanced to within fifteen miles of Colombo, the seat of 
 government, carrying terror and devastation wherever they 
 went. Fortunately reinforcements arrived both from the 
 Cape of Good Hope and from the Bay of Bengal ; and the 
 Kandyans retreated to their mountains and almost imper- 
 vious forests. But there seemed to be an evil spell upon 
 the king-appointed governor of Ceylon and all the officers 
 serving under him. Such measures were adopted as gave to 
 conquests a disgrace as indelible as that of our recent 
 defeats. It was absolutely necessary to clear our frontier, 
 
1800-19.] SLiyDTAN WAE. 443 
 
 to follow the fugitives into their own territories, and to 
 strike some blow which should restore our character and 
 revive the awe due to our arms ; hut it was resolved to make 
 the war a war of retribution and revenge a war of devasta- 
 tion and this, though mentioned mth cold indifference, if 
 not with approbation, by a divine of the Church of England, a 
 courtly historian, who seems to think that no government 
 could do ^Tong which patronized him, was unnecessary, 
 unwarrantable, atrocious. It was not by such means as 
 these that the Clives, and the Hastingses, and the "Wel- 
 lesleys had built up our empire on the continent of India. 
 The system was, however, carried out to a great extent. 
 Detachments of British troops were sent into the Kandyan 
 country for the avowed purpose of laying it waste wherever 
 they penetrated. In the comparatively rich province of 
 Saffragan one detachment of British soldiers was employed 
 (we quote the words of a reverend historian) " in burning 
 and destroying all the houses, stores, and gardens."* We 
 have the same authority for the fact that many other parts 
 of the country were exposed to similar horrors. This chap- 
 lain and complaisant guest of the Honourable Mr. North 
 really appears to be so insensible of the fundamental doctrine 
 of his faith as to believe that the English were bound to 
 retahate upon the savage Kandyans for the unspeakable 
 cruelties of which they had been guilty ! 
 
 In the year 1804 war was again carried into the interior, 
 and a small corps, under Captain Johnston, a brave and 
 able officer, found no great difficulty in getting to the town 
 of Kandy. But the government had gone to war without 
 any fixed plan, and not being supported by more troops, or 
 in any way aided, Johnston was obliged to fight his way 
 back again. The brave captain reached Trincomalee in 
 safety, but his retreat had cost him two British officers, 
 fourteen British soldiers, seven Malays, fifty-four Bengal 
 sepoys, and a still greater number of coolies, who had 
 perished in the wilderness. t 
 
 A desultory warfare between the Kandyans and Eng- 
 lish continued for many months, and was conducted on 
 both sides with great barbarity. Numerous villages were 
 
 * Cordiner. 
 
 t * Narrative of the Operations of a Detachment, in an Expedition to 
 Kandy, in the Island of Ceylon, in the year 1804. By Capt. Johnston. 
 London, 1810.' 
 
444 SIB THOMAS MAITLAND. [1800-19. 
 
 burned, and large tracts of country reduced to desola- 
 tion. Our soldiery, Avlietlier British or native, were in- 
 furiated by the treacber}'- and cruelty which had been 
 perpetrated at Kandy in 1803 ; and the government and 
 the commanding officers, instead of exerting themselves, as 
 they were bound to do, in restraining this fury, encou- 
 raged it, and expressly ordered the continuance of acts of 
 vengeance. 
 
 In Eebruary, 1805, a general invasion of our territories 
 by the Kandyans took place. Out of their own woods these 
 people were but contemptible combatants. They were 
 completely routed, and they retired from all the maritime 
 provinces with great loss. 
 
 In the month of July, 1805, a man more fitted for 
 the post, the Honourable Sir Thomas Maitland, assumed 
 the government of Ceylon. Before Maitland arrived, jea- 
 lousies and intrigues among the adigars, or chiefs, and 
 insurrections among the people, had broken out in the 
 kingdom of Kandy; and these continued, "with little in- 
 termission, for the space of seven years. 
 
 During the long civil war in the interior. Sir Thomas 
 Maitland diligently applied himself to improve the condition 
 of our maritime possessions, and to undo the mischief which 
 had been permitted to be done by his easy predecessor. Sir 
 James Mackintosh, who visited Ceylon in 1810, says, 
 " It is impossible for me to do justice to Greneral Maitland' s 
 most excellent administration, which, I am convinced, never 
 had an equal in India. By the cheerful decision of his 
 character, and by his perfect knowledge of men, he has 
 become universally popular amidst severe retrenchments. 
 In an island where there was in one year a deficit of 
 700,000, he has reduced the expenses to the level of the 
 revenue ; and with his small army of 5,000 men, he has twice, 
 in the same year, given efiectual aid to the great government 
 of Madras, which has an army of 70,000 men."* Instead 
 of making premature attempts to conquer the whole of the 
 island, Maitland left the Kandyans to their dissensions, and 
 endeavoured to raise the value of the territories we possessed, 
 and to constitute a system of govermnent and laws suitable 
 to the character and habits of the native populations. In 
 these great objects he, and still more the Cingalese, were 
 
 * Diary in * Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. Sir James Mack- 
 intosh, edited by his Son, Robert James Mackintosh, Esq.' &c. 
 
1800-19.] EHEXLAPOLA. 445 
 
 indebted to the learning, the industry, the genius, and 
 even the eccentricity of Mr, John D'Oyly, who was the 
 only good Cingalese scholar in the Ceylon civil service, 
 and who, with infinite labour, compiled a code of laws in 
 the Cingalese language. The qualifications necessary to 
 this arduous task had been acquired, by our otherwise accom- 
 plished scholar, partly in a life of seclusion, toil, and absti- 
 nence, and partly in a life spent among the natives of the 
 country. And, in order to obtain a perfect familiarity with 
 their language, laws, manners, and customs, D'Oyly had 
 put on their dress, and had for years lived among them as 
 one of themselves.* 
 
 In 1812, General Sir Eobert Brownrigg succeeded Sir 
 Thomas Maitland as governor. About the same period a 
 horrible war in the interior was ended. It had broken out 
 between the king of Kandy and his minister or lieutenant, 
 the chief adigar. The minister, who had very nearly suc- 
 ceeded in getting the king assassinated, was betrayed, 
 brought a prisoner to Kandy, and sentenced to die : he and 
 his nephew were beheaded, and six inferior chiefs were 
 hanged and impaled. Yet very shortly after, Eheylapola, 
 another nephew of the unlucky chief adigar, was established 
 in that office the highest office in the state. For some 
 time tranquillity was restored in the interior ; but at the 
 beginning of 1814 the king suspected Eheylapola of designs 
 against his life and throne, and, as he was in a distant 
 province, he sent an army against him. Being defeated in 
 battle, Eheylapola fled to a British post, whence he was 
 conveyed to Colombo. All the members of his family, 
 whom he had left in the town of Kandy, had been thown into 
 prison, and now, from a mere spirit of vengeance, the king 
 sentenced his wife and children, and his brother and his 
 brother's wife, to death the brother land male children to 
 be beheaded, and the females, according to Kandyan usage, 
 to be drowned. In addition to these executions, 117 of 
 Eheylapola' a partisans were impaled, or flogged, almost to 
 death, and then despatched by the side of the quiet beautiful 
 lake upon which the town of Kandy is situated.f 
 
 The widowed and childless Eheylapola was provided with 
 a house in the neighbourhood of the fort of Colombo, and 
 
 * See letter from Sir James to Lady INIackintosh. 
 t Dr. Davy, ' An Account of the Interior of Ceylon,' &c. London, 
 1821. 
 
446 CETLON. [1800-19. 
 
 was maintained at the expense of government. He was 
 maddened by the thirst for vengeance he could promise 
 partisans and co-operation he would agree to any terms 
 that the English might propose, if they would only aid him 
 in destroying the destroyers of his family. Tor some con- 
 siderable time, however, G-eneral Brownrigg would not enter 
 into his views, nor even admit him to an audience. While 
 his excellency was expecting some hostile visitation from the 
 troops of his Kandyan majesty for his having given shelter 
 to a rebel chief, intelligence was received that ten native 
 cloth-merchants, subjects of the British government, had 
 been seized in the Kandyan country, had been sent up to 
 the capital, and had there been frightfully mutilated, by 
 having their noses and ears and their right arms cut oft*. 
 This, the severest of the Kandyan secondary punishments, 
 had been inflicted by order of the king. Seven of the poor 
 cloth-merchants died on the spot ; the remaining tliree 
 reached Colombo in the state above described. 
 
 The dismal results of every former attempt to subjugate 
 thejKandyan kingdom had rendered the invasion of the hilly 
 country an unpopular service both with the army and with 
 that class of the native labouring population who were 
 usually pressed to accompany the troops as coolies. 
 During the month of N'ovember, 1814, a detachment of 
 troops was, however, organized at Colombo for service in 
 the field, and placed under the immediate command of 
 Major Hook. On the 11th of January, 1815, Major Hook 
 crossed the boundary river, and began his march up the 
 country. The Kandyans attempted to dispute the passage 
 of the broad river Kalaneganga ; but four or five discharges 
 of a six-pounder dislodged them from their strong position, 
 and they fled in confusion as our troops dashed across the 
 river. A proclamation in the Cingalese language was now 
 issued, setting forth the causes of hostilities, and declaring 
 the object of the war to be " for securing the permanent 
 tranquillity of our settlements, and in vindication of the 
 honour of the British name : for the deliverance of the 
 Kandyan people from their oppressors ; in fine, for the 
 subversion of that Malabar dominion, which during three 
 generations has tyrannized over the country." 
 
 Many of the adigars, really disgusted with the suspicious and 
 sanguinary temper of their king, either assisted Major Hook 
 or remained neutral. But what was of more importance was 
 
1800-19.] CEYLON. 447 
 
 tliis seven other divisions were getting in motion from dif- 
 ferent parts of the coast, in order to co-operate with Hook and 
 to concentrate round Kandy. There was scarcely any fighting. 
 From the amount of the force employed, and from the superior 
 manner in which our operations were now conducted, it was 
 clear that his Kandyan majesty had not a chance. Our 
 divisions were gradually closing round him with impene- 
 trable hedges of bayonets. On the 2nd of February our 
 second Colombo di\dsion got well up the country and 
 encamped on some heights, where it was joined by G-eneral 
 Brownrigg, and where it stayed for a few days to allow time 
 for the other divisions to approach. 
 
 Intelligence being received that the king had left Kandy, 
 our troops moved forward: on the 14th of February the 
 second division, with General Brownrigg, took possession of 
 the capital, which was found nearly deserted by the in- 
 habitants. It was by this time ascertained that the fugitive 
 king was still in the vicinity of the capital. No time was 
 lost in adopting measures to secure his person, and in four 
 or five days he was discovered in a lonely house, and made 
 prisoner, with his aged mother, his four wives, his, children, 
 and a few adherents. He -expected that he and all his 
 party would be put to death, and would be treated as he had 
 treated the family and adherents of Eheylapola ; and when 
 assured by Mr. D'Oyly that not a hair of his head would be 
 touched, and that his family and servants would be treated 
 withthegreatesttendemess,hebecamea contented happyman. 
 
 The royal prisoners and their attendants were forthwith 
 sent down to Colombo, in charge of Major Hook, and under 
 a strong escort, which was not needed, as not a hand was 
 raised for their rescue. They arrived at our little capital on 
 the 6th of March, and were there lodged in a spacious and 
 handsomely-furnished house. They all seemed to be de- 
 lighted with their new residence. "As I am no longer 
 permitted to be a king," said the fallen tjTant, "I am 
 thankful for all this kindness," Before he arrived at 
 Colombo, his dethronement, or the unequivocal right of 
 conquest, was acknowledged by all his great chiefs. On 
 the 2nd of March the British flag was hoisted over the 
 palace at Kandy, and a royal salute was fired to announce 
 that his majesty George III. was undisputed sovereign of 
 the whole island of Ceylon. 
 
 The deposed king remained at Colombo until the 24th of 
 
448 EOBEET KNOX. [1800-19. 
 
 Jauuaiy, 1816. He declared that until he was made a 
 prisoner by the English, he had never retired to rest 
 without the dread of assassination. Fear produces cruelty, 
 and cruelty excites fear. He never could trust any of 
 his courtiers, and it is doubtful if any one of his 
 chiefs deserved his confidence. He was passionate as 
 well as supicious. " Your English governors," said he to 
 Major Hook, " have an advantage over us in Kandy : they 
 have counsellors about them, who never allow them to do 
 anything in a passion, and that is the reason you have so 
 few executions ; but, unfortunately for us, the oifender is 
 dead before our resentment has subsided." Some of his 
 most sanguinary measures were ordered when he was drunk, 
 he having become very liable to paroxysms of intemperance.* 
 
 On the 24th of January, 1816, he and all his relatives, 
 dependants, and adherents, about one hundred individuals in 
 all, were transported as state prisoners to the peninsula of 
 India. At first they resided in Madras, but they were finally 
 transferred to the fort of Vellore, where the family of Tippoo 
 Sultaun had once resided. IS'early two years after their 
 departure a most formidable insurrection broke out in various 
 parts of the island. After a few encounters in the woods, it 
 was completely suppressed by the governor, Lieutenant- 
 Greneral Sir Robert Brownrigg, but not until excesses 
 and cruelties had been committed disgraceful to our national 
 character.t 
 
 * From the great quantity of Hoffman's cherry-brandy bottles found 
 in the palace of Kandy, it was inferred that he was very fond of that liquor. 
 
 t For these transactions, see ' Ceylon : a general Description of the 
 Island and its Inhabitants ; with an Historical Sketch of the Conquest 
 of the Colony by the English.' By Henry Marshall, F.R.S.E. deputy- 
 inspector general of army hospitals. Dr. Marshall was resident in Ceylon 
 from 1808 till 1821. 
 
 For the improvements which have taken place in the magnificent island 
 since our entire subjugation of it, see Lieutenant De Butt's * Rambles in 
 Ceylon.' 
 
 The best account of the interior of the country and of the native inha- 
 bitants, and one of the most interesting books that can be read, is * An 
 Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon, in the East Indies,' by 
 Robert Knox. The old editions are very scarce, but there is a cheap 
 modern edition,' published by Constable. Knox, a mariner, was taken 
 prisoner on the coast, and carried up the country in 1660. He escaped in 
 a marvellous manner, after nineteen years of captivity among the Cinga- 
 lese. He published his book the year after he arrived in England. It is 
 an astonishing book, considering the poor captain's education and circum- 
 stances. The information is accurate as well as full. The style is charm- 
 ing : the adventures are quite as amusing as those of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
1823.] GOYEEXMENT OF EAEL AMHEEST. 449 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 Upot?- the resignation of the marquis of Hastings, Mr. 
 Canning, who had presided some time over the Board of 
 Control, was nominated by the Court of Directors to be 
 governor-general of India. The resolution was unanimous, 
 and was passed in the month of March, 1822. The melan- 
 choly death of the marquis of Londonderry, on the 12th of 
 August following, led to some important changes in the 
 ministry, and rendered it indispensable that the governor- 
 general elect should remain in England. On the 18th of Sep- 
 tember, Mr. Canning was nominated secretary of state for 
 foreign affairs ; and he consequently resigned into the hands 
 of the Court of Directors the high appointment which they 
 had conferred upon him in so flattering a maimer. Two can- 
 didates now presented themselves : the one, Earl Amherst, 
 who had been employed some few years before in an embassy 
 from England to China ; the other. Lord AVilliam Bentinck, 
 who had been governor of Madras. Earl Amherst was pre- 
 ferred, and that nobleman, proceeding to Calcutta, assumed 
 the office of governor-general on the 1st of August, 1823. 
 The marquis of Hastings had quitted Bengal in January, 
 1822, and between his departure and the arrival of Lord 
 Amherst, Mr. Adams, senior member of the supreme council, 
 had presided over the government of India. 
 
 The new governor-general had been but a very few months 
 in his office ere he found himself under the necessity of 
 entering into a new war with an entirely new enemy. 
 
 The Burmese, elated by some recent conquests which 
 they had made, and being brought in more immediate con- 
 tact with the British frontiers, began, towards the end of 
 the year 1823, to make sundry attacks upon us. Without 
 notice given, and without any attempt at negotiation, they 
 claimed possession of Shapuree, a small muddy island in 
 the province of Bengal, but close to the coast of Arracan, 
 2 & 
 
450 BuiniESE WAR. [1823. 
 
 wliicli tlie Burmese tlien possessed. Making a sudden night 
 attack, they drove away a small guard of British troops 
 stationed on the island, killed several of them, and took forci- 
 ble possession of the island. This, coming close upon other 
 outrages, was not to be tolerated. Our government, how- 
 ever, resolved to consider the forcible occupation of Shapuree 
 as the act of the local authorities of Arracan, and addressed 
 a gentle declaration to the Burmese central government, 
 recapitulating the past occurrences, and calling upon the 
 court of Ava to disavow their officers in Arracan. The 
 court of Ava, as might have been anticipated, considered 
 this gentle declaration as a pusillanimous attempt to depre- 
 cate the resentment of the Burmese. They triumphantly 
 appealed to the paper as a proof that the British govern- 
 ment of India dreaded to enter upon a contest with them ; 
 and they intimated that unless their right to the island of 
 Shapuree was distinctly admitted, the victorious lord of the 
 "White Elephant and the Grolden Foot would invade the Com- 
 pany's dominions. In the meanwhile two companies of the 
 20th regiment landed on the disputed island, drove off the 
 Burmese and stockaded themselves. And on the other side 
 the commanding officer and some of the crew of the Com- 
 pany's cruiser Sophia were seized on the mainland and 
 carried up the country. 
 
 Both sides now actively prepared for war, the Anglo- 
 Indian troops on the frontier being, however, ordered to 
 maintain a strict neutrality for the present. 
 
 More and more confirmed in their idea that we were 
 afraid of them, from 4,000 to 5,000 Burmese and Asamese 
 advanced from Asam into the province of Cachar, and began 
 to stockade themselves at a post within five miles of the 
 town of Sylhet, and only 226 miles from Calcutta. Major 
 Newton, the officer commanding on the Sylhet frontier, con- 
 centrated his detachment and marched against the invaders. 
 It was at daybreak on the 17th of January, 1824, that he 
 came in sight of their stockade and of a village adjoining, of 
 which they had taken possession. The Burmese in the vil- 
 lage presently gave way, but those in the stockades made a 
 resolute resistance, and were not driven out until they had 
 lost about 100 men, and had killed six of our sepoys. They 
 then fled to the hills. Shortly after this action, "Mr, Scott, 
 our commissioner, arrived at Sylhet, and from that point he 
 advanced to Bhadrapoor, in order to maintain a more ready 
 
1823.] EUEMESE WAE. 451 
 
 comimmication -with tlie Burmese authorities. On tlie 31st 
 of January, Mr. Scott received a message from the Burmese 
 general, who justified his advance into Cachar, and declared 
 that he had orders to follow and apprehend certain persons 
 wherever they might take refuge. In reply, this Burmese 
 general, who held the chief command in Asam, was told 
 that he must not disturb the frontiers of the Company, nor 
 interfere in the affairs of its allies, and that the Burmese 
 invaders must evacuate Cachar, or the forces of the British 
 government would be compelled to advance both into Cachar 
 and Asam. To this communication no answer was received. 
 
 It was clearly the object of the Burmese to procrastinate 
 the negotiations until they had strengthened themselves in 
 the advanced positions they had occupied. The rajah of 
 Jynteea, who had been imperiously summoned to the Bur- 
 mese camp, and commanded to prostrate himself before the 
 -shadow of the Grolden Toot, threw himself upon the British 
 government for protection ; and various native chiefs, whose 
 territories lay between the frontiers of the Burmese empire 
 and the frontiers of the British dominions, called loudly for 
 English aid. Thus, the south-east frontier of Bengal, had in 
 fact been kept in constant dread and danger of invasion for 
 more than a year, while the adjoining and friendly territo- 
 ries had been exposed to the destructive inroads and the 
 overbearing insolence of the Burmese and Asamese for many 
 years.* 
 
 Major ISTewton did not follow the Burmese he had routed, 
 but, after driving them from their stockade, he returned to 
 Sylhet, and withdrew the whole of his force from Cachar. 
 Almost as soon as the major was within his own frontier, 
 the Burmese advanced again into the country from which 
 he had driven them, and stockaded some stronger posi- 
 tions. They were joined by another considerable force, 
 while another detachment, 2,000 strong, collected in their 
 rear, as a reserve or column of support. Still advancing, 
 
 * Horace Hayman Wilson, Esq. (the distinguished Orientalist, pro- 
 fessor of Sanscrit, Oxford, &c.), ' Documents illustrative of the Burmese 
 
 '"War, with an Introductory Sketch of the Events of the War, and an 
 Appendix. Calcutta, 1827.' Major Snodgrass, military secretary to the 
 commander of the expedition to Ava, and assistant political agent in Ava, 
 
 - * Narrative of the Burmese War, detailing the Operations of Major- 
 General Sir Archibald Campbell's Army, from its landing at Rangoon, in. 
 May, 1824, to the Conclusion of a Treaty of Peace at Yandaboo, in 
 
 ^February, 1826. London,. 1827.' .- 
 2 g2 
 
452 THE MAIIA 33A^'DOOLA. [1824. 
 
 and stockading as tliey advanced, tlie main body of tlie 
 Burmese pushed their stockades on the north bank of the 
 river Surma, to within 1,000 yards of the British post at 
 Bhadrapoor. Captain Johnstone, who commanded at that 
 post, had but a very small force with him, yet he succeeded 
 in dislodging the invaders from their unfinished works at 
 the point of the bayonet, and in driving them beyond the 
 Surma. This was on the 13th of February. On the fol- 
 lowmg day Lieutenant- Colonel Bowen joined and took the 
 command over Captain Johnstone, and instantly marched 
 in pursuit of the retreating enemy. They were found stock- 
 ading themselves in a strong position on the opposite bank 
 of the Jelingha. As soon as our troops were over, and had 
 fixed their bayonets, the Burmese cleared out of their 
 stockade and fled to the hills. But there was another divi- 
 sion of the army of the lord of the "White Elephant, which 
 had stockaded a much stronger position at Doodpatlee, 
 where their front was covered by the Surma river, and their 
 rear rested on steep hills. The exposed face of this in- 
 trenchment was defended by a deep ditch, about fourteen 
 feet wide ; a strong fence of bamboo spikes ran along the 
 outer edge of the ditch, and the approach on the land side 
 was through jungle and high grass. Lieutenant- Colonel 
 Bowen, however, marched agaiust this formidable stockade 
 and attacked it. The Burmese remained passive till our 
 troops advanced to the bamboo spikes, when they poured 
 upon them a destructive and well-maintained fire, which 
 completely checked their advance, although they kept their 
 ground. AVhen Lieutenant Armstrong had been killed and 
 four other officers wounded, and about 150 of our sepoys 
 killed or wounded, Bowen called off the attacking party, 
 and retired to Jatrapoor, at a short distance. On the 27th 
 of February, Colonel Innes joined the force at Jatrapoor, 
 with four guns and a battalion of fresh troops, and assumed 
 the command. But in the meanwhile the Burmese had 
 retreated from their formidable position and retired into 
 their own country, evacuating the whole of Cachar. 
 
 But before this time the great Burmese chief, the Maha 
 Bandoola, then high in favour at the court of Ava, and the 
 projector of a scheme for the conquest of Bengal, had col- 
 lected a great army near the southern extremity of our 
 frontier, and had marched into Arracan, provided with 
 golden fetters, in which the governor-general of India was to 
 
1824.] PLAIfOF OTTE CAMPAIGiS-. 453 
 
 be led captive to Ava.* The lord of the Grolden Poot laid 
 claim to all the territories east of Moorshedabad, as having 
 formerly belonged to the kingdom of Arracan, which he and 
 his ancestors had conquered.f Exaggerated reports of the 
 strength and ferocity of the Burmese troops carried alarm 
 even to Calcutta ; the peasants on our frontier fled in dis- 
 may from their villages, and every idle rumour was so indus- 
 triously magnified by timid or designing people, that the 
 native merchants of Calcutta were with difficulty persuaded 
 to refrain from removing their families and property from 
 under the very guns of Port AVilliam. 
 
 As the two states might now be considered as actually at 
 war. Lord Amherst declared war in form, and promulgated 
 the grounds of our quarrel in a declaration addressed to the 
 court of Ava and the different powers of India. Orders had 
 been previously given for the equipment of a force of from 
 5,000 to 6,000 men at the presidencies of Calcutta and 
 Madras. It had been wisely determined to act upon the 
 oifensive, and not to commence operations either on the 
 barren mountains of Arracan, or in the pestilential jungles 
 of Chittagong ; but on the great river which leads through 
 the heart of the Burmese empire (and is the highway of the 
 trade of the country), where no attack was expected. The 
 plan of the campaign, in short, was to ascend the Ira- 
 waddi and to begin by capturing the city of Eangoon, the 
 principal port and trading place of the Bimnese empire. 
 The two divisions, from Calcutta and Madras, were directed 
 to assemble at Port Cornwallis, in the Grreat Andaman 
 Island an island occupied, as in the days of Marco Polo, 
 by downright savages, if not cannibals from which the 
 combined forces, under the command of Major- Greneral Sir 
 Archibald Campbell, were to proceed to the Irawaddi. 
 Between the 12th and 17th of April, the Bengal division, 
 consisting of the king's 13th and 38th regiments, and two 
 companies of artillery, were embarked at Calcutta. They 
 were detained for some days at the Great Andaman, wait- 
 ing the arrival of the division from Madras. But by the 
 4th of May the greater part of the troops from Madras, con- 
 sisting of his majesty's 41st regiment, a Company's Euro- 
 pean regiment, and seven battalions of native infantry, with 
 Artillery, gun-lascars, &c., reached the place of rendezvous ; 
 
 * Major Snodgrass. f Deposition of Henry Gouger, Esq, 
 
454 CAPTURE or ea^'goon. [182-1. 
 
 and on the following morning the united forces left the Anda- 
 mans, under the protection of his majesty's ships Liffy and 
 Lame, the former commanded by Commodore Grant, and 
 the latter by Captain Marryat. The transports were also 
 accompanied or followed by several of the Company's armed 
 cruisers, and by the Diana steam-boat. In nearly all parts 
 of the operations which were now about to begin, the land 
 troops were greatly indebted to the co-operation of the navy, 
 and to the services of the steam-vessel, the first which had 
 ever floated in those waters. 
 
 Our ships anchored within the bar of the Eangoon river 
 on the 10th. 
 
 On the very next morning the fleet proceeded up the 
 river. A few harmless shots from the guardhouses on the 
 banks were the only impediments offered to its progress. 
 At twelve o'clock, the Liffiy anchored close to the principal 
 battery in Eangoon, the transports anchoring in succession 
 in her rear. Having furled sails and beat to quarters, a 
 pause of some minutes ensued, during which not a shot was 
 fired. On our side humanity forbade that we should fire 
 into an almost defenceless town, crowded with an inoffensive 
 people ; and the Burmese, on their part, were unwilling to 
 begin the unequal contest. They stood for some time, 
 inactive at their guns ; but at length, being urged by the 
 threats of their chiefs, they opened their feeble battery on 
 our shipping. The frigate's fire soon silenced the battery 
 and every gun on shore : the enemy fled from their works, 
 and our troops, being landed, took quiet possession of a 
 deserted town. Proclamations had been previously issued 
 promising British protection to the inhabitants, and prompt 
 and liberal payment for whatever the troops might want 
 of them : but the Burmese governor had given orders for 
 driving the whole of the inhabitants into the neighbouring 
 jungles, where the men were to be organized into corps, and 
 the women and children to be strictly guarded as pledges 
 for the good conduct of their fathers, husbands, and brothers. 
 And, with the population, nearly everything which the town 
 contained had been removed into the inmost recesses of the 
 jungle, or carried far up the river Irawaddi. As the peoj^le 
 of Eangoon were very aquatic, and as the river was known to 
 Bwarm with boats, our commanders had calculated upon 
 finding more than a sufficient number of boats to carry the 
 troops up the river to Ava, the capital ; but not a boat was 
 
1824.] STOCKADIIS^G POSITION'S. 455 
 
 to be found everytliing had been removed tbat was at all 
 likely to be of use to an invading army oxen, horses, were 
 no more to be found than boats there was nothing left in 
 the neighboin-hood of Eangoon except a little paddy. In 
 the too confident hope of finding all that they wanted in 
 Eangoon, our troops had come unprovided with proper 
 equipments for advancing either by land or by water ; their 
 supplies of provisions were scanty, from the same miscalcu- 
 lations ; and they now found themselves cut off from all 
 supplies except such as, in course of time, came by sea from 
 Calcutta. To increase their embarrassment, the rainy mon- 
 soon was just setting in. Nothing remained but to take up 
 a long residence in the miserable and filthy hovels of Ean- 
 goon, situated in the midst of swamps and paddy-fields. 
 Everything in and about the place was in ruins, except the 
 lofty Golden Dagon pagoda. There was no passing the 
 swamps and inundated paddy-fields, or the thick jungle 
 beyond them, which was intersected only by a few narrow 
 footpaths, like the jungles and forests of Ceylon; and 
 behind this screen the unseen enemy plied their work, raising 
 their levies and gradually collecting them so as to form a 
 cordon round our cantonments. " Hid from our view," says 
 the historian of this war, " on every side, in the darkness 
 of a deep and, to regular bodies, an impenetrable forest, 
 far beyond whicli the inhabitants and all the cattle of the 
 Eangoon district had been driven, the Burmese chiefs car- 
 ried on their operations and matured their future schemes 
 with vigilance, secrecy, and activity. Neither rumour nor 
 mtelligence of what was passing within their posts ever 
 reached us. Beyond the invisible line which circumscribed 
 our position all was mystery or vague conjecture." * A series, 
 a perfect continuity of stockades was erected, and was pushed 
 nearer and nearer to Eangoon. " Like the Nepaulese, the 
 Birmans rarely met an enemy in the open field : their con- 
 quests Iiad all been made through the system of stockades. 
 Instructed and trained from their youth in the formation 
 and defence of these works, they had attained to great skill 
 and judgment in the use of them. By gradual approaches, 
 and by carefully stockading all their positions as they 
 advanced, their wars had for many years been an uninter- 
 rupted series of conquests ; and at the time of our landing 
 
 * Major Snodgrass. 
 
456 BURMESE WAR-BOATS. [1824. 
 
 at Rangoon tliey liad subdued and incorporated into tlieir em- 
 pire nearly all the petty states by whicli it was surrounded." 
 
 The long and gilded war-boats of the Burmese, and the 
 skill and spirit of the Irawaddi boatmen, were not altogether 
 unknown at Calcutta when our expedition was planned. 
 Every town on the river, according to its size, was obliged to 
 furnish a gilt or a common war-boat, and to man and keep it in 
 constant readiness. These boats carried from forty to fifty 
 men each, and the lord of the White Elephant and the Golden 
 Eoot could muster from 200 to 300 war-boats. In actual war 
 these boatmen were about the most respectable part of his 
 majesty's force.* At the royal mandate the Irawaddi above 
 Eangoon was speedily covered with warriors from the towns 
 upon its banks. 
 
 As their troops rapidly increased in numbers, the enemy 
 that were making the cordon round Eangoon became more 
 daring ; and gradually approaching nearer and nearer, 
 they commenced stockading themselves in the jungle within 
 hearing of our advanced posts. On the morning of the 
 28th of May, when they had stockaded an advanced 
 corps within little more than musket-shot distance from our 
 picquets, Sir Archibald thought that it was time to punisli 
 their temerity. "With four companies of Europeans, two 
 field-pieces, and 400 sepoys he moved against the foremost 
 stockade. The works being incomplete, the Burmese quitted 
 it, and retired through the wood after firing a few shots. 
 Sir Archibald and his column continued to advance through 
 the wood by a winding and very narrow pathway, at every 
 turn of which there was some breastwork or stockade. These 
 works, however, were all hastily abandoned, the Burmese 
 not having had time sufficient to finish them. After an 
 advance of five miles, our troops, emerging from the jungles, 
 suddenly entered a wide open field, intersected by a morass 
 and rivulet, across which there was a long narrow bridge. 
 Here the retreating enemy faced about, and attempted a for- 
 mation, for the purpose of defending the passage of the 
 bridge ; but they soon gave way before the fire of our two 
 field-pieces, and then continued their retreat towards other 
 woods and jungles. At this juncture a terrible storm began ; 
 the rain fell in torrents, and our two field-pieces could be 
 dragged no farther. Sir Archibald Campbell, however, de- 
 termined to proceed, hoping by a very rapid advance to be 
 * Captain Cox's ' Journal,' as quoted by Major Snodgrass. 
 
1824.] STOEMIIN'G STOCKADES. 45^ 
 
 able to liberate tlieEangoon women and children, being 
 well assured that their release would be followed by the 
 speedy desertion of their male relations, for whom they were 
 held in pledge. Therefore, leaving the 400 sepoys to guard 
 the guns, Sir Archibald pushed on rapidly with the four 
 companies of British troops. After traversing another jungle 
 he reached the edge of the extensive plain of Joazoang. 
 In the midst of this plain, and at a short distance from 
 each other, stood two villages, closely flanked by jungle on 
 either hand. On approaching the villages, they observed 
 that they were defended in front by two stockades, filled 
 with men, who seemed confident in the strength of their 
 position, and who shouted and cried "Lagee! lagee!" 
 (Come! come!) At the same time large bodies of the 
 enemy were mo"vdng from the rear of the villages and form- 
 ing by the side of the jungle. Leaving one company to 
 keep this force in check. Sir Archibald, with the three other 
 companies, made a dash at the stockades. The enemy 
 within them commenced a heavy fire, to which, from the wet 
 state of their muskets, our troops could at first make but 
 little return. But the works were not above eight feet high, 
 and our men, forcing their way over them, brought their 
 bayonets to bear upon a crowded, dense, and confused living 
 mass. The conflict was now short, but very sanguinary. 
 The works had only very narrow ways of egress, and the 
 foremost fugitives, getting wedged in them, blocked them 
 up and prevented the flight of the rest. "When they could 
 run away, they ran ; but the Burmese never gave and never 
 expected quarter. Lowering their heads to a butting posi- 
 tion, they blindly charged upon our soldiers' bayonets. They 
 were killed in heaps, for our people had dried their muskets, 
 and could now pour in volleys as well as use the bayonet. 
 Few or none were spared, as from the barbarous and 
 treacherous mode of warfare practised by the Burmese, 
 death alone afforded safety.* During the attack upon 
 
 * " The experiment," adds Major Snodgrass, ** was tried, but tried in 
 vain. Humanity might prompt a British soldier to pass a fallen or van- 
 quished foe ; but when he found his forbearance repaid on all occasions 
 by a shot, the instant that his back was turned, self-preservation soon 
 taught him the necessity of other measures ; and it consequently happened 
 that our first encounters with the troops of Ava were sanguinary and re- 
 volting, especially to soldiers whom feeling and the customs of war alike 
 taught to treat with kindness and forbearance those whom they had 
 subdued." 
 
458 EUEMESE DIPLOMATISTS. [1821. 
 
 tlie two stockades, the enemy in the plain, whose force was 
 roughly estimated at from 4,000 to 5,000 men, made no 
 movement in their defence ; but as soon as they saw that 
 our troops were in possession of the works, they set up a 
 horrid yell and began to move towards the stockades. The 
 single company which Sir Archibald had left on the plain 
 sufficed to keep them in check; and as our other three 
 companies rapidly moved out of the works and formed, the 
 Burmese host wavered and fell back. The British then col- 
 lected their killed and wounded and carried them from the 
 field ; and, as the day was drawing to its close, they marched 
 back to quarters, slowly and without any molestation. The 
 enemy left 300 dead in the stockades and adjacent fields, 
 and many more were wounded. On our side Lieutenant 
 Alexander Howard was killed, and Lieutenants Mitchell 
 and O'Halloran were very severely wounded; two rank and 
 file were killed, and about twenty were wounded. In going 
 and returning, the enemy's advanced stockades were all 
 destroyed.* 
 
 The sharp lesson they had received shook the confidence 
 of the Burmese commanders in their troops and stockades. 
 Hitherto, every effort to open communications with them 
 had failed, but they now sent two deputies to the British 
 general. These native chiefs conducted themselves with much 
 ease and boldness, and with still more cunning and address. 
 The senior, a stout old man, in a long scarlet robe, and with 
 a red handkerchief tied round his head, then opened the 
 subject of their mission with the question, " Why are you 
 come here with your ships and soldiers ?" The provo- 
 cation they had given by invading our neighbours and 
 dependants, by attacking our own territories, etc., were 
 fully explained as being the causes of the war, and the 
 nature and extent of the redress we demanded was plainly 
 stated. In spite of all their address, their real object was 
 discovered, and they indeed betrayed it themselves, when 
 they refused to remove the barrier placed in the way of 
 communication and reconciliation, and asked for a few days* 
 delay. Sir Archibald Campbell gave them to |understand, 
 that no delay would be granted that their post on the 
 river would be attacked forthwith. The two chiefs stepped 
 into their war-boats with an air of defiance ; and the boat- 
 
 * Major Snodgrass. Sir Archibald Gampbell's ' Despatch, in H. H, 
 Wilson's Documents illustrative of the Burmese War,' &c. 
 
1824.] BATTLE OP KEMMENDINE. 459 
 
 men went off ^Yitll great speed, rising on their sliort oars, 
 and singing in chorus, "Oh, what a happy king have we!" * 
 
 The very next morning, the post on the river was 
 attacked by our troops. It was at the village of Kemmen- 
 dine, a war-boat station, only three miles above Eangoon. 
 The enemy laboured incessantly, day and night, to strengthen, 
 this position : the ground behind the village, elevated and 
 commanding, was surrounded by a thick forest in the rear ; 
 the heights had already been strongly stockaded and abba- 
 tised in front ; and the approach on the land faces was 
 rendered difficult by a thick jungle, while the swampy 
 nature of the ground towards the Irawaddi strengthened the 
 work on that side. But these defences were not tenable 
 against two divisions of vessels which proceeded up the 
 river to attack the stockade in that direction, and nearly 
 3,000 men, who marched to the attack by land, with four 
 18-pounders and four mortars. In a few minutes after the 
 attack commenced, a great part of the extensive work was 
 carried, and the enemy there stationed were driven into 
 the jungle, leaving behind them 150 dead. At the rear gate 
 of this stockade were found the gilt umbrella, sword, and 
 spear of a Burmese commander of high rank ; the umbrella, 
 which chiefly denotes the rank, being shattered by a shower 
 of our grape. The body of the chief himself was found a 
 few yards farther in the jungle, and was recognized to be 
 that of the stout and cunning old deputy who had visited 
 our quarters the preceding day. This night a night of 
 storm and pitiless rain was spent by our troops, under 
 arms, under the dripping trees of the jungle or in the 
 inundated rice-fields ; but on the following morning, when 
 they marched to storm the rest of the works, they found 
 that they were entirely deserted, and that the Burmese had 
 gone off in a panic to another stockaded post, a good many 
 miles in the rear of Kemmendine. 
 
 For a time there seemed to be a general pause and terror 
 on the side of the Burmese, who had now evacuated every 
 stockade in the neighbourhood of Eangoon. Their recent 
 losses made them keep at a safer distance from our lines, 
 and our troops ceased to be annoyed by their nightly visits 
 to their posts ; but beyond these temporary advantages no 
 favourable change took place, either in the present condi- 
 
 * Major Snodgrass. The boatmen wore broad Chinese hats. Their 
 features were harsh, bold, and strongly marked. 
 
460 SICKNESS AT EATTGOOX. [1824. 
 
 tion or iu the future prospects of our army. Xot an 
 inhabitant returned to his home ; and so far from any desire 
 of peace being manifested by the court of Ava, it was made 
 evident that the war would be carried to the last extremity. 
 
 Other operations had taken place in the mean time in 
 other directions. Two small forces, detached by Sir Archi- 
 bald Campbell, had captured the islands of Cheduba and 
 Negrais, the first lying off the coast of Arracan, and the 
 second near one of the mouths of the Irawaddi river. The 
 Maha Bandoola, the royal favourite who had planned the 
 conquest of Bengal, and collected the large army in Arracan, 
 had commenced offensive operations, and had crossed our 
 frontier, mth a number of gilt umbrellas, some days before 
 Sir Archibald Campbell's armament reached Eangoon. 
 "With a force of from 6,000 to 8,000 men he surrounded a 
 small British post, which made an honourable, but ineffec- 
 tual resistance. Some of the officers and sepoys effected 
 their escape, but others fell into the hands of the Burmese, 
 who barbarously put all the English officers and most of the 
 sepoys to death, only reserving a few of the latter to send 
 as prisoners and trophies to the Golden Foot. The arrival 
 of these captives at Ava tended to confirm the arrogant 
 confidence of that court. But the progress of Bandoola' s 
 forces was very soon checked ; they were beaten out of all 
 their advanced stockades by a few hundred sepoys, and by 
 the end of July, they were driven back into Arracan. In 
 this short and desultory, but difficult w^ar for it was carried 
 on with mere handfuls of sepoys, and in the midst of the 
 rainy season Colonel Shapland and Colonel Innes greatly 
 distinguished themselves. 
 
 "We return to Eangoon. Sir Archibald Campbell's forces 
 were already much diminished by sickness and death, 
 brought on by hard service during an inclement season, by 
 defective provisions, and by the ordinary casualties of war.* 
 But the opportune arrival of the 89th British regiment from 
 
 * Between the months of June, 1824, and the end of March, 1825, out 
 of an average strength of 2,716 British troops, 1,311 perished, or very 
 nearly one-half of the whole force of king's troops. Matters were not 
 much mended in the following year. Almost the only fresh meat that 
 could be procured was pork. Major (now lieutenant-colonel) Alexander 
 M. Tulloch, ' Statistical Reports on the Sickness, Mortality, and Inva- 
 liding among Her Majesty's Troops, &c., prepared from the Records of 
 the Army Medical Department and War-Office Returns. Presented to 
 both Houses of Parliament, by command of Her INIajesty.' 
 
1824.] STKTA wo:iTGEE. 461 
 
 Madras, and of parts of the two detachments which had 
 subdued the islands of Cheduba and Negrais, raised the 
 effective strength just at the critical moment. By the end 
 of Jime, the Burmese in this quarter appeared to have 
 somewhat recovered from their dismay. Chiefs of the 
 highest fame, who, until they came in contact with our 
 troops, had always been victorious, were sent down the 
 Irawaddi from Ava, and from Prome, with orders to slay or 
 torture and mutilate every Biu'mese soldier that did not 
 fight to the utmost, and one of the brightest of golden 
 umbrellas, Sykya Wongee, minister of state, was appointed 
 commander-in-chief, with positive commands from the 
 Golden Foot to attack and drive the British at once into 
 the sea. On the last day of June, all the woods in Sir 
 Archibald's front again exhibited bustle and commotion ; 
 8,000 men had crossed to the Eangoon side of the river ; the 
 jungles around all seemed animated ; clouds of rising smoke 
 marked the encampments of the different corps of the 
 Burmese army in the forest ; and their noisy preparations 
 for attack formed a striking contrast to the still and quiet 
 aspect of the British line.* 
 
 The Shoodagon, or Golden Dagon pagoda, was the key 
 of the British position. This splendid edifice ^in itself a 
 fortress is about two miles, or two miles and a half, from 
 the town of Rangoon ; in shape it resembles an inverted 
 speaking-trumpet ; it is 338 feet high, and is surmounted 
 by a cap made of brass forty-five feet high : the whole is 
 richly gilded. The base of this pagoda is a conical hill, flat 
 at the top, and rising about seventy-five feet above the road. 
 Here Sir Archibald Campbell placed a whole battalion of 
 British troops. The two roads running from the pagoda to 
 the town were occupied by our forces, native and European, 
 the minor pagodas, bonze houses, and pilgrims' houses along 
 those two roads affording good shelter to the troops against 
 the inclemency of the season, and some shelter from the 
 attack of an enemy, whose artillery was but light. Two 
 detached posts completed our position one at the village 
 of Puzendown, about a mile below the town, where the Pegu 
 and Rangoon rivers meet ; the other at Kemmendine, about 
 three miles above the town ; this second post being chiefly 
 intended to protect our shipping against the descent of the 
 
 * Snodgrass. 
 
462 MOEE TICTORIES. [1824. 
 
 enemy's fire-rafts. On the morning of the 1st of July, tlie 
 enemy issued in dense masses from the jungle to the right 
 and front of the great pagoda. Detaching to their left a 
 column, which succeeded in setting fire to part of the village 
 of Puzendown, their main body came boldly up to within 
 half a mile of Rangoon, and commenced a spirited attack 
 upon part of our line. But two field-pieces, served with 
 grape and shrapnel, presently checked their advance, and 
 then a brilliant charge by the 43rd Madras native infantry 
 put them all to flight. In a very few minutes not a man 
 could be seen of the Burmese host, except the killed, nor 
 could anything be heard of them except a wild screaming 
 which proceeded from the depths of the forests and jungle. 
 
 Sykya Wongee was recalled to court and degraded, and a 
 still higher minister of state, named Soomba Wongee, who 
 had arrived with reinforcements, took the command, and 
 commenced stockading his army in the most difficult and 
 intricate part of the forest, at Kummeroot, about five miles 
 from the great pagoda, intending, chiefly under cover 
 of night, to carry on such a system of desultory warfare as 
 would harass, and ultimately destroy, our sickly, worn-out 
 soldiers. He also fortified a commanding point on the 
 river above Kemmendine, in communication with his stock- 
 aded camp, hoping by this means not only to obstruct the 
 navigation of the river, but also to construct and employ 
 numerous fire-rafts. But this new commander-in-chief had 
 scarcely finished his works ere he was driven from them 
 with a terrible slaughter. On the 8th of July Sir Archibald 
 Campbell embarked with one column for the attack of the 
 position upon the river, and Brigadier- G-eneral MacBean, 
 with a land column, marched upon the forest stockades at 
 Kummeroot. The works on the river were found to be so 
 formidable that it was judged necessary to employ breaching 
 vessels ; and a brig and three Company's cruisers, manned 
 by seamen of his majesty's and the Company's navy, under 
 the superintendence of Captain Marryat, soon opened a heavy 
 cannonade, and silenced the enemy's guns. Our troops 
 then pushed across the river in boats, entered the practi- 
 cable breach which the firing of our seamen had made, and 
 carried all those works with comparatively trifling loss. The 
 Burmese suffered severely in killed, and many of them were 
 drowned in trying to escape across the river. The operations 
 of the land column, under MacBean, were equally successful. 
 
1824.] BTJEMESE I^'YULJs'EEABLES. 463 
 
 It was unprovided with artillery ; but tlie storming parties, 
 who escaladed stockade after stockade, consisted entirely of 
 British troops. Here again the slaughter was dreadful. 
 Soomba "VVongee, and several chiefs of high rank, with 800 
 men, were killed within the stockades ; and the neighbouring 
 jungles were filled with the unhappy creatures who were 
 wounded, and left to die from want of food and care. Some 
 of these poor Burmese were found by the English soldiers 
 and brought into our hospitals ; but unfortunately none of 
 them recovered. The monsoon rains were now at their 
 height, the adjacent country was almost wholly under water, 
 nothing was to be obtained from it, and the sickness of our 
 troops increased to an alarming extent. 
 
 An expedition, consisting of his majesty's 89th regiment 
 and the 7th Madras native infantry, under the command of 
 Colonel Miles, was detached from Rangoon, with a con- 
 siderable naval force, to subdue the maritime possessions of 
 his majesty to the eastward, in the hope that their loss 
 might induce him to sue for peace. The success of the 
 expedition was complete : Tavoy surrendered. Mergui was 
 taken by storm ; and the people all along the coast of Tenas- 
 serim gladly placed themselves under British protection. 
 
 Towards the end of July Sir Archibald Campbell attempted 
 to release such of the inhabitants of Eangoon as were 
 desirous of returning to their houses ; and by means of the 
 sudden, unexpected, and to the natives inexplicable, move- 
 ment of our steam-boat, a few families, who had been driven 
 to the villages at the heads of the numerous creeks which 
 branch off from the Rangoon river, were released from their 
 guard, and joyfully took the opportunity of returning to 
 their city. It was to the report of these people of the kind 
 treatment they met with, our army was afterwards indebted 
 for the return of the great body of the people, whose services 
 and exertions contributed to the final success of the war. 
 By degrees our foraging parties were enabled to take a 
 wider range, the enemy were obliged to draw their resources 
 from a more distant part of the country, and more of the 
 people of Rangoon and the neighbourhood escaped from 
 their guards, and returned to their homes. 
 
 The lord of the AVhite Elephant now sent his two brothers, 
 the prince of Tonghoo and the prince of Sarrawaddy, with a 
 whole host of astrologers, and a corps of " Invulnerables," 
 to join the army, and to direct the future operations of 
 
464 ASTEOLOGY IN WAE. [1824. 
 
 the war. The astrologers were to fix the lucky moments 
 for attacking: the Invulnerables had some points of re- 
 semblance to the Tiu-kish Delhis ; they were the despera- 
 does or madmen of the army, and their madness was kept 
 up by enormous doses of opium. The corps of Invulnerables 
 consisted of several thousand men, divided into classes ; the 
 most select band of all being called the King's Invulnera- 
 bles. The prince of Tonghoo established his head-quarters 
 at Pegu, and the prince of Sarrawaddy took post at Donoo- 
 pew, upon the great river, about sixty miles from Eangoon. 
 
 In the beginning of August the prince of Sarrawaddy sent 
 down a force to occupy a strong post at the mouth of the 
 Pegu river, a few miles below Eangoon, giving his people 
 strict orders to block the chainiel of the river in our rear, 
 that not one of the " wild foreigners," or " captive strangers," 
 might escape the punishment that was about to overtake 
 them. Sir Archibald Campbell presently detached a small 
 corps, under Brigadier Smelt, to dislodge Sarrawaddy's 
 warriors. Our land troops were brought to a standstill, 
 when within musket-shot of the place, by a deep and im- 
 passable creek; but a party of sailors from his majesty's 
 ship Lame, under Captain Marryat, threw a bridge over 
 the creek ; and soon as the column of attack pushed for- 
 ward, the enemy began to fly, leaving eight guns and a 
 quantity of ammunition in their stockade. A strong pagoda, 
 with a numerous garrison, and with cannons pointing 
 down every approach, was next carried with equal faciUty. 
 Other posts on the rivers and creeks were successively and 
 successfully attacked. Such of the enemy as had had any 
 experience of our way of fighting seldom stopped to fight in 
 their stockades ; but a new set of people from the interior 
 made a good stand in a succession of stockades on one of the 
 rivers, and cost us the loss of a good many brave men. 
 These affairs of posts were very numerous. 
 
 At last the astrologers told the prince of Sarrawaddy that 
 the stars had told them that the moment was come for a 
 decisive action ; and on the night of the 30th of August a 
 body of the king's Invulnerables promised to attack and 
 carry the great or Golden Dagon pagoda, in order that the 
 princes, and the sages and pious men in their train, might 
 celebrate the usual annual festival in that sacred place ^a 
 place now crowded, not with Bonzes, but with English 
 grenadiers. And, true so far to their promise, the Invul- 
 
1824.] THE MAHA BA2s^D00LA. 465 
 
 nerables, at the hour of midnight, rushed in a compact body 
 from tlie juugle under the pagoda, armed with swords and 
 muskets. A small piquet, thrown out in our front, retired 
 in slow and steady order, skirmishing with the Invulnerables 
 until they reached the flight of steps leading from the road 
 up to the pagoda. The moon was gone down, and the night 
 was so dark that the Biu^mese could be distinguished only 
 by a few glimmering lanterns in their front ; but their noise 
 and clamour, their threats and imprecations upon the 
 impious strangers, if they did not immediately evacuate the 
 sacred temple, proved jtheir number to be very great. In a 
 dense column they rolled along the narrow pathway leading to 
 the northern gate of the pagoda, wherein all seemed as silent 
 as the grave. But hark ! the muskets crash, the cannons roar 
 along the ramparts of the British post, drowning the tumult 
 of the advancing column ; and see ! see by the flash of our 
 guns, the column reels back, the Invulneral3les fall, mortally 
 wounded, and the rest turn their backs on the holy place, 
 and run with frantic speed for the covering of the jungle. 
 Our grape-shot and our musketry broke the spell those 
 Invulnerables ventured no more near any of our posts. But 
 a far more terrible enemy had gotten within our lines 
 the dysentery broke out among our troops, killing many of 
 them, and reducing more to a most emaciated and feeble 
 state. Scarcely tln'ee thousand duty soldiers were left to 
 guard our lines. Floating hospitals were established at the 
 mouth of the river ; bread was now furnished in sufficient 
 quantities, but nothing except change of season or of 
 climate could restore the suflerers to health. Mergui and 
 Tavoy, portions of our recent conquests on the sea-coast, 
 were represented by the medical officers who visited them as 
 admirable convalescent stations; and thither a number of 
 our people were sent, and with the most beneficial result.* 
 
 As all kinds of gilt umbrellas had been rolled in the dust 
 as fire-eating chiefs, ministers of state, princes royal, had 
 all failed the Golden Foot determined to call down from 
 the mountains of Arracan his prime favourite, the Maha 
 Bandoola, who had promised to sack Calcutta, and to carry 
 ofi'the governor-general in golden chains. Bandoola obeyed 
 the call, and led his reinforced army from the mountains 
 
 * Men who had for months continued in a most debilitated state at 
 Rangoon rapidly recovered on arriving at Mergui, and were soon restored 
 to their duty in full health and vigour. 
 
 2h 
 
466 THE KIXG OF SIAM. [1824. 
 
 of Arracan to the Irawaddi river. He began Lis march 
 about the end of August, at a season of the year when none 
 but Burmese could have kept the field for a week, much less 
 have attempted to pass the unhealthy jungles and the pesti- 
 lential marshes of the country. The distance, by the shortest 
 route, was more than 200 English miles ; but Bandoola, 
 gathering fresh forces in the latter part of his long march, 
 reached Donoopew before Sir Archibald Campbell knew that 
 he had left Arracan. 
 
 Happily our troops, though wofuUy reduced in numbers, 
 were now fast recovering their health and strength ; and two 
 fresh British regiments, some battalions of native infantry, a 
 regiment of cavalry, a troop of horse-artillery, and a troop of 
 rockets, arrived from Calcutta and Madras, together with 
 admirable draught cattle of the true Mysore breed. Five 
 hundred native boatmen came round from Chittagong, 
 and were busily employed in preparing boats for river 
 service. 
 
 Before relating the grand struggle and final catastrophe 
 of the Maha Bandoola, we must turn to, the south-east, and 
 relate some spirited proceedings which took place in Siam. 
 An inveterate enmity and an almost constant state of 
 war had existed for many years between the Siamese and 
 the Burmese. Being by far the more warlike people, the 
 Burmese had defeated their neighbours in many bloody 
 conflicts, and had conquered wide tracts of their country. 
 The landing of the British at E-angoon seemed to open to the 
 Siamese a favourable opportunity for vengeance and recovery 
 of dominion ; but that court regarded the vicinity of a British 
 force with much jealousy and dread, and were indisposed to 
 our alliance by our seizure of Mergui and Tavoy, which places, 
 together with nearly the whole of the coast of Tenasserim, 
 had once belonged to Siam. Moreover, the court of Ava set 
 on foot negotiations with his Siamese majesty, making pro- 
 mises of friendship and restitution, and endeavouring to show 
 that the British were equally the enemies of Siamese and 
 Burmese, and that the two neighbouring peoples ought to 
 unite their forces against the common enemy. It was 
 imagined, and it was afterwards proved by abundant testi- 
 mony, that the king of Siam firmly believed that the English 
 must fail in conquering Ava, or in bringing its government 
 to sue for terms ; and it was thought that the situation of 
 Bankok, his capital, open to an attack by our much-dreaded 
 
1824.] CONQUEST or maetabait. 467 
 
 sliipping, alone prevented liim from making common cause 
 against us, "What the king of Siam did, was to make friendly- 
 declarations to both parties, and to intimate to each of them 
 that he was anxious for its success, and would soon join it. 
 "When, however, the Siamese began to collect a considerable 
 army on his frontier, Sir Archibald Campbell thought it 
 expedient to check-mate him. The city of Martaban, at the 
 bottom of the gulf of that name, and about a hundred miles 
 from Eangoon, was a frontier fortress of the Burmese, a 
 depot of military stores, the place where the Burmese 
 armies usually assembled in their wars with the Siamese, 
 and from which they had made their annual irruptions into 
 the territories of the king of Siam, to plunder the country, 
 and to carry off the inhabitants as slaves. It was a place 
 difficult of access, and of very considerable strength ; but the 
 inhabitants of the town and of the neighbouring districts, 
 which had not long been annexed to the Burmese empire, 
 detested theii* conquerors. On the 13th of October part of 
 his majesty'^ 41st regiment, and a regiment of Madras 
 light infantr}', under Lieutenant-Colonel Godwin, sailed 
 from Eangoon for Martaban. Owing to light and con- 
 trary winds, the little expedition did not reach its destination 
 so soon as was expected ; and thus, instead of taking the 
 enemy by surprise, Colonel Grodwin found them fully aware 
 of his approach, and prepared to give him a warm reception. 
 The Burmese governor had fortified every commanding 
 eminence about the town, and its distance from the coast 
 (from fifteen to twenty miles) offered many serious obstacles. 
 By land, difficult forests, marshes, and inundated rice-fields 
 presented themselves ; by water, the intricate navigation of 
 a shallow, winding, and little-knoTvn river presented almost 
 equally serious impediments. It was, however, resolved to 
 proceed by water, and after great toil and perseverance our 
 lighter vessels were anchored nearly abreast of the town of 
 Martaban. As the Burmese governor showed no disposi- 
 tion to come to terms, our guns opened, and an assaidt took 
 place. The Burmese were soon driven with severe loss 
 from the town and aU their defences { and the inhabitants, 
 being chiefly Taliens or Peguers, received the British troops 
 with every appearance of satisfaction and joy. Having 
 settled matters at Martaban, Colonel Grodwin detached a 
 party against another frontier fortress of the Burmese, 
 and Yeh, situated between Martaban and Tavoy, fell into 
 2 II 2 
 
468 BATTLE OF [1824. 
 
 our hands.* In all tliis part of tlie coiuitry the native 
 population the descendants of the subjects of the once 
 powerful dynasty which ruled the ancient kingdom of Pegu, 
 were eager to be released from the iron sceptre of Ava, and 
 to be included among the subjects of the British. By the 
 end of October the rains had entirely ceased at Eangoon, 
 and, reinforced as he was, Sir Archibald Campbell was com- 
 pleting his preparations for the ascent of the Irawaddi, and 
 for an attack upon Prome, when he learned that the Maha 
 Bandoola had reached Donoopew with 60,000 fighting men, 
 a considerable train of artillery, and a body of Cassay horse, 
 the best cavalry of this part of Asia. Bandoola' s musketeers 
 were estimated at 35,000 men. Other numerous bodies 
 were armed with gingals, which carried an iron ball of from 
 six to twelve ounces, and were mounted on light carriages 
 easily dragged about by two men ; and great numbers were 
 attached to the guns, which were transported on the backs 
 of elephants. The rest of the host were armed with swords 
 and spears, and all were well provided with implements for 
 stockading and intrenching. Scattered through the army, 
 there were also some more of the " Invuhierables " who had 
 not yet tasted the sour grape of English guns, and who 
 were amply provided with charms, spells, opium, bang, and 
 betel-nut. 
 
 As Bandoola proclaimed on all sides his intention of 
 going at the head of his' invincible army, with horses and 
 elephants, and all manner of warlike stores, to capture and 
 destroy the English at Eangoon, it was deemed proper to 
 wait for him there. This would save our troops much 
 fatigue, and a great decisive battle might bring the court of 
 Ava to reason. 
 
 As a great part of the country was still under water, the 
 Burmese, for the most part, came down to the neighbour- 
 hood of Eangoon in boats. Our force was still but weak 
 for the extensive line it was necessary to defend. But, to 
 remedy this e^dl as far as possible, posts, consisting of 
 redoubts and fortified pagodas, were speedily constructed, 
 coimecting the G-reat Golden Dagon Pagoda, by two dis- 
 tinct lines, with Eangoon and the river, and leaving a dis- 
 posable force for moving to the support of any point that 
 might require support. The post at Kemmendine was 
 
 * Snodgrass. H. H. Wilson, * Documents illustrative of the Burmese 
 War.' &c. 
 
1824.] KEMMENDINE. 469 
 
 also strongly occupied, and was supported on the river bv 
 his majesty's sloop Sophie, Captain Eyres, a Company's 
 cruiser, and a strong division of gun-boats.* On the 30th 
 of jN'ovember, Bandoola's gi-eat army assembled in and 
 behind the dense forest which almost touches at one point 
 the conical hill and the great pagoda ; and his line, extending 
 from the river above Kemmendine in a semicircular direction 
 towards Puzendown, might be distinguished by a curved 
 line of smoke rising above the trees. " During the ensuing 
 night, the low, continued murmur and hum of voices pro- 
 ceeding from the enemy's encampment suddenly ceased, and 
 were speedily succeeded by the distant but gradually ap- 
 proaching sounds of a multitude in slow and silent move- 
 ment through the woods ; and we soon became aware that 
 the enemy's masses had approached to the very edge of the 
 jungle, within musket-shot of the pagoda, apparently in 
 readiness to rush from their cover to the assault at the 
 
 break of day The day had scarcely dawned, on 
 
 the 1st of December, when hostilities commenced with a 
 heavy fire of musketry and cannon at Kemmendine, the 
 reduction of that place being a preliminary to any general 
 attack upon our line. The firing continued long and 
 animated, and from our commanding situation at the great 
 pagoda, though nearly two miles distant from the scene of 
 action, we could distinctly hear the yells and shouts of the 
 infuriated assailants, occasionally returned by the hearty 
 cheer of the British seamen, as they poured in their heavy 
 broadsides upon the resolute and persevering masses. The 
 thick forest which separated us from the river, prevented 
 our seeing distinctly what was going forward ; and when 
 the firing ceased, we remained for a short time in some 
 anxiety, though in little doubt as to the result of the long 
 and spirited assault. At length, however, the thick canopy 
 of smoke which lowered over the fierce and sanguinary 
 conflict gradually dissolving, we had the pleasure of seeing 
 the masts of our vessels lying at their old station off" the fort 
 a comincing proof that all had ended well on that side. 
 
 " In the course of the forenoon Burmese columns were 
 observed on the west side of the river, marching across the 
 
 * " This post at Kemmendine was of great importance in preventing 
 tbe enemy from attacking Rangoon by water by means of their war- 
 boats, or launching from a convenient distance the formidable fire-rafts 
 they had prepared for Ihe destruction of our shipping." Snodgrass. 
 
470 HAED FIGHTlNa [1824. 
 
 plains of Dalla towards Eangoon. They were formed in 
 five or six different divisions, and moved with great regu- 
 larity, led by numerous chiefs on horseback their gilt 
 umbrellas glittering in the rays of the sun, with a suffi- 
 ciently formidable and imposing effect, at a distance that 
 prevented our perceiving anything motley or mobbish, which 
 might have been found in a closer inspection of these war- 
 like legions."* 
 
 Opposite Eangoon the leading column of five or six 
 Burmese divisions commenced intrenching and throwing 
 up batteries, while their main body were stockading in the 
 jungle. In the course of the day several heavy columns 
 issued from the forest, and successively took up their ground 
 along a woody ridge, gently sloping towards Eangoon. 
 Here they commenced operations with their intrenching 
 tools, and with such activity and good will, that in the 
 course of a couple of hours their whole line was covered, 
 their flags and banners, which had been flying in profusion, 
 all disappeared, and nothing was seen but a parapet of 
 fresh-turned earth, gradually increasing in height. " The 
 moving masses, which had so very lately attracted our anxi- 
 ous attention, had sunk into the ground ; and by any one 
 who had not witnessed the whole scene, the existence of 
 these subterranean legions w^ould not have been credited. 
 The occasional movement of a chief with his gilt umbrella, 
 from place to place, superintending the progress of their 
 labour, was the only thing that now attracted notice. By 
 a distant observer, the hiUs, covered with mounds of earth, 
 would have been taken for anything rather than the ap- 
 proaches of an attacking army ; but to us, who had watched 
 the whole strange proceeding, it seemed the work of magic 
 or enchantment." t But, thus working like moles in the 
 earth, the Burmese could no more see than they could be 
 seen, and their men on watch must have been careless or 
 fearftil of exposing their heads and shoulders by looking too 
 often over the mounds. In the afternoon Major Sale, with 
 his majesty's 13th regiment, and a regiment of Madras 
 native infantry, moving rapidly forward upon the busily 
 employed and two confident enemy, fell upon them before 
 they were well aware of the visit, and drove the whole line 
 from their earth-cover with considerable loss. Having 
 
 * Snodgrass. f Ibid. 
 
1824.] AT KEillSIENDINE. 471 
 
 destroyed as many of their arms and tools as they could find, 
 our detachment retired unmolested before the numerous 
 bodies which were now forming on every side. " These 
 Burmese trenches were found to be a succession of holes, 
 capable of containing two men each, and excavated so as to 
 afford shelter both from the weather and the fire of an 
 enemy ; even a shell lighting in the trench, could at most, 
 kill but two men. As it is not the Burmese system to 
 relieve their troops in making these approaches, each hole 
 contained a sufiicient supply of rice, water, and even fuel 
 for its inmates ; and under the excavated bank a bed of 
 straw or brushwood was prepared, in which one man could 
 sleep while his comrade watched. When one line of trench 
 is completed, its occupiers, taking advantage of the night, 
 push forward to where the second line is to be opened, 
 their places being immediately taken up by fresh troops 
 from the rear, and so on progressively." * 
 
 During the same busy day (the 1st of December), repeated 
 attacks were made on Kemmendine, and were all repulsed 
 by our troops or by the' seamen of our Kttle flotilla. But 
 it was not until night that the Burmese made their last 
 desperate efibrt to open their way down the river, and so 
 get possession of the port of Rangoon. Our wearied 
 soldiers had lain down to rest, when suddenly the heavens 
 and the whole surrounding country, became brilliantly 
 illuminated. The enemy had launched their fire-rafts into 
 the stream with the first of the ebb tide, and had now applied 
 the match to those huge masses of combustible materials, 
 in the hope of driving the Sophie and our other vessels 
 from their stations off Kemmendine ; and as these fire-rafts 
 came down, it was seen by the light of their flames, that 
 they were followed by a vast fleet of war-boats, whose crews 
 were ready to take advantage of the confusion which might 
 ensue, if any of our vessels should be set on fire. And as 
 the rafts floated rapidly do^ivn to Kemmendine with the 
 ebbing tide, columns of attack moved once more by land 
 against that well-defended post, with artillery, with gingals, 
 and musketry. But the skill and intrepidity of British sea- 
 men proved more than a match for the numbers and devices 
 of the Burmese ; after gazing for a while at the red, and 
 blue, and yellow, and green flames of the mighty fireworks, 
 
 * Snodgrass. 
 
472 FIHE-KAFTS. [1824. 
 
 our sailors leaped into their boats, pushed oft' to meet the 
 flaming rafts, grappled them with their grappling-irons, and 
 conducted them past our shipping, or ran them ashore, to 
 finish their short life of fire and flame upon the river- 
 bank without injury to any one.* After this, it is hardly 
 necessary to say that the attack on Kemmendine failed 
 completely. 
 
 If the fire-rafts could have reached the harbour of Ean- 
 goon, which was now crowded with transports and country 
 vessels of all kinds, the eflect might have been very tragical. 
 Kemmendine, where the river makes a sudden angle, was 
 the only point from which the rafts could have been launched 
 with effect. Fully aware of this, Bandoola ordered attack 
 upon attack to be made, and for seven days no rest by 
 nig^t or by day was allowed to our troops or to our seamen 
 there. But every effort of the enemy failed, nor were 
 they more successful in any other part of their line of cir- 
 cumvallation. On the 5th of December, when the materiel 
 and warlike stores of the Burmese left wing were brought 
 forward from the jungle to their foremost intrenchment in 
 front of Rangoon, and were fairly within our reach, ,'Sir 
 Archibald Campbell ordered a decisive attack to be made 
 upon their army. Major Sale, with one column 800 strong, 
 and a troop of British dragoons, who had only been landed 
 the preceding day, was directed to fall upon their centre ; 
 and Major Walker, with 500 men, was sent to make a 
 vigorous attack on their left wing. The operations of these 
 two columns of troops were greatly facilitated by Captain 
 Chads, of the navy, who proceeded up the creek to within 
 gun-shot of the rear of the enemy's line, with the man-of- 
 w^ar boats and a part of the flotilla, and commenced a heavy 
 
 * " Upon examination, the Burmese fire-rafts were found to be ingeni- 
 ously contrived and strongly constructed. They were made almost en- 
 tirely of strong bamboos, firmly wrought together. Between every two 
 or three rows of bamboos there was a line of earthen jars filled with 
 petroleum, or earth-oil, and cotton : gunpowder and other inflammable 
 ingredients were distributed in different parts of the floating infernal 
 machine ; and the almost inextinguishable fierceness of the flames pro- 
 ceeding from it could scarcely be conceived. Many of the rafts were con- 
 siderably more than 100 feet long, and were divided into many pieces, 
 attached to each other by means of long and flexible hinges. It was 
 expected by the Burmese that when they caught upon the cable or bow of 
 a ship, the force of the current would carry the ends of the raft quite 
 round her, and envelope her inflames from the deck to her mast-head." 
 Major Snodgrass. 
 
1824.] DEFEAT OF BAITDOOLA. 473 
 
 cannonade, wliicli distracted; the attention of tlie Burmese, 
 and prevented their reinforcing in front. Our two columns 
 broke through the intrenchments, and completely routed 
 both the centre and the left with vigorous bayonet-charges ; 
 but Major Walker and a good many of his gallant comrades 
 fell. The loss of the Burmese was appaUiug ; they were 
 driven from every part of their works into the jungle, leav- 
 ing the ground behind them covered mth dead and wounded, 
 with all their guns, intrenching-tools, and a great number 
 of small-arms. On the 6th of December, Bandoola was 
 employed in rallying his defeated troops. On the 7th the 
 Burmese made their last and grand attack on the great 
 pagoda. Here they were beaten, driven back to their in- 
 trenchments, then driven into them, and forced back into 
 the jungle by the British bayonet. Our troops at that post, 
 worn out by seven days and nights of incessant fighting 
 or watching, could not pursue the flying enemy, who 
 left in the trenches a great number of dead nearly all 
 stout, tall, athletic fellows, who might ahnost have mea- 
 sured with English grenadiers. During these seven 
 busy and fiery days, the Burmese, in addition to a pro- 
 digious loss of lives, had lost every gun they had, and 
 the entire materiel of their army. The survivors were 
 flying towards Donoopew ; but they were stopped on their 
 flight by some great and terrible chiefs, who had been sent 
 down vath. numerous reinforcements, and they rallied at 
 Kokeen, about four miles beyond the great pagoda. It is 
 said that when Bandoola counted his forces, he found them 
 reduced, from more than 60,000 fighting men, to less than 
 25,000. This favourite of the Golden Poot was allowed to 
 retain the chief command ; he immediately began to intrench 
 and stockade himself at Kokeen, and employed incendiaries 
 to bum the invaders out of Eangoon, and destroy all their 
 stores, powder-magazines, &c. The latter attempt ^which 
 very nearly succeeded* brought down a rapid attack upon 
 his new position, and disgrace and ruin upon himself. On 
 
 * On the night of the 12th of December the cry of fire resounded through 
 the town of Rangoon, and nearly the whole of that filthy wood and bam- 
 boo-built place seemed to be immediately in a blaze. The incendiaries 
 had placed their matches in various parts of the town, and had set fire to 
 them at the same moment. One half of the town was burned ; but the 
 flames were prevented from reaching our depot of stores and ammu- 
 nition. 
 
474 OUE ADVA]S"CE UPON AYA. [1825. 
 
 the 15th of December three days after the midnight fire 
 at Eangoon, 1,500 British troops and sepoys, unaided by 
 artillery, under the command of Brigadier- Greneral Wil- 
 loughby Cotton, drove Bandoola and his mighty host from 
 all their intrenchments and stockades at Kokeen, and 
 strewed the position with dead and dying. Here ended the 
 operations in front of Rangoon ; the British troops returned 
 in the evening to their cantonments, and the remnant of 
 the Burmese army retreated upon Donoopew. 
 
 Sir Archibald Campbell resolved to advance up the coun- 
 try, at least as far as Prome, reducing Donoopew on his 
 way, and to move in two separate columns, the one proceed- 
 ing b}'- water, the other by land. The land column was to 
 proceed in as direct a line as it could, and to strike the main 
 stream of the Irawaddi at Sarrawah, or at some other 
 place above Donoopew and below Prome. The water column, 
 carrying supplies for the whole army, was to ascend the 
 B/angoon branch of the Grreat Biver, to get into the main 
 channel below Donoopew, to dislodge the enemy from all 
 their positions there, to clear the Irawaddi, and to give the 
 hand to the land column at Sarrawah, or some place in that 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 On the 11th of February, the British began to move. 
 The land column, under the immediate command of Sir 
 Archibald Campbell, consisted of 1,300 European infantry, 
 1,000 sepoys, two squadrons of dragoons, one troop of horse 
 artillery, and one rocket troop ; the marine or river column^ 
 under Brigadier- Greneral Willoughby Cotton, counted 600 
 European infantry, one small battalion of sepoys, and a 
 powerful train of artillery ; and this column was embarked 
 in a flotilla of sixty boats, commanded by Captain Alexander, 
 of the navy, escorted by the boats of our men-of-war. The 
 column marching by land, and the column proceeding by the 
 river, were so to time their movements as to reach Sarrawah 
 nearly at the same time. But Sir Archibald Campbell, for 
 reasons which do not seem to be sufficiently explained, 
 pushed on much faster than Brigadier- Greneral Willoughby 
 Cotton ; and he continued to advance as if the river column, 
 or the forces under Cotton, would be quite sufficient for the 
 reduction of Donoopew, and could not possibly encounter 
 either defeat or delay. A few wretched families of Ban- 
 goon were found wandering in the woods and looking like 
 spectres, from starvation and misery ; but, with the excep- 
 
1825.] SEKTOTJS CHECK. 475 
 
 tion of these poor people, the country seemed to be left to the 
 dominion of the tiger and wild hog. But Sir Archibald 
 Campbell marched on his column until it reached Sarrawah, 
 about thirty miles beyond Donoopew, on the main stream of 
 the majestic Irawaddi, which is here from 700 to 800 yards 
 broad. Here he halted for four days the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 
 6th of March expecting to cut off the enemy's retreat 
 from Donoopew by water, and also to prevent their rallying 
 higher up the river. Early on the morning of the 7th of 
 March, Sir Archibald heard a heavy cannonade in the direc- 
 tion of Donoopew ; he believed it to proceed from the 
 marine division, and when the noise ceased, he felt con- 
 vinced that the place had fallen. He halted, however, 
 where he was, for the chance of hearing from Brigadier- 
 General Willoughby Cotton, until the morning of the 9th, 
 when, leaving a strong detachment at Sarrawah to pre- 
 vent the enemy's retreat by water, he advanced twelve 
 miles inland, through jungles and deserted and bare tracks 
 of country. On the 10th, he advanced fourteen miles far- 
 ther up the country, to a town of considerable extent upon 
 the banks of the Grreat Eiver, He found that the town 
 was wholly deserted, and that here, as well as everywhere 
 else, every article had been removed that could be of use 
 to his army. " This," says the historian of the campaign, 
 " only made him the more eager to reach Prome by rapid 
 marches, lest that city, the promised quarters for the rainy 
 season, should be equally stripped." Early on the following 
 morning, the 11th of March, as the land column were about 
 to resume their march, official intelligence was received that 
 the marine coliunn had failed in their attack upon Donoo- 
 pew. The news is said to have been as unexpected as it 
 was unpleasant; but it was not very astonishing that a 
 column which did not much exceed 1,000 men should fail in 
 reducing by a coup-de-main one of the strongest positions in 
 the Burmese country, defended by at least 15,000 of the 
 best Burmese troops. The whole mistake lay in Sir Archi- 
 bald's dividing his forces, and attempting to reach Prome 
 with one division, before making sure of the reduction of 
 Donoopew, which the enemy had been strengthening for 
 nearly a whole year. And yet it was made to appear that if 
 Brigadier- Greneral Willoughby Cotton had begun his attack 
 in the right direction, his single column might have sufficed 
 to drive Bandoola out of that formidable place. The works 
 
476 THE AEMY BEACHES [1825. 
 
 at Donoopew consisted of three stockades, which rose one 
 above the other, and the heavy batteries of which were all 
 pointed to the river. Instead of passing the whole fortress 
 and taking the enemy in flank, which would have rendered his 
 guns almost useless, Cotton attacked the first part of the 
 works he came to, or the extremity of the stockade that was 
 lowest down the stream. After meeting with an obstinate 
 resistance, he carried the first stockade ; but on proceeding 
 to the second, he received by far the severest check that the 
 European troops met vdth during the whole war. 'No fewer 
 than 150 of our men were killed and wounded ; and the 
 retreat was so precipitate that the wounded were not car- 
 ried off, although it was well known they would all be put to 
 a cruel death. The whole flotilla retreated ten miles down 
 the river, being constantly assailed and tormented by the 
 Burmese war-boats. The next day most of our killed and 
 wounded men who had been left in the stockade were cruci- 
 fied and put upon rafts, which were sent floating down the 
 river towards the flotilla.* This barbarity was the most 
 revolting, as the wounded among the Burmese, taken pri- 
 soners in the first stockade, had been carefully dressed and 
 attended to by our surgeons, and had been permitted to go 
 whithersoever they pleased. 
 
 Upon receiving intelligence of this disaster, Sir Archibald 
 Campbell, who had certainly gone on too heedlessly, or in 
 too entire a confidence, felt that there was nothing to do 
 but to retrace his steps, and to join Cotton as soon as 
 possible. His land column depended entirely upon the 
 flotiUa for its supplies ; and the flotilla being stopped, the 
 navigation of the Irawaddi was so completely commanded 
 by the enemy that not a canoe could get up the river or 
 pass the works at Donoopew. At the time the commissariat 
 of the land column had not two days' rations left. In a 
 word, starvation stared us in the face ; and the occupation 
 
 * Article on the Burmese war, and review of Major Snodgrass's volume, 
 in * Quarterly Review,' No. Ixx. 
 
 The writer of this article appears either to have served in the Burmese 
 war as an officer of his majesty's navy, or to have derived information 
 from naval officers who were engaged in that war. 
 
 The commanding officer's own account of the operations at Donoopew 
 is, however, entitled to consideration. See Despatch of Brigadier- 
 General Willoughby Cotton, dated March 9th, 1825, in * Documents 
 illustrative of the Burmese War, &c. ; compiled and edited by Horace 
 Hayman Wilson, Calcutta, 1827.' 
 
1825.] DONOOPEW. 477 
 
 of Prome, however desirable, was not to be attempted under 
 circumstances so eminently hazardous. On the other hand, 
 it became every day more certain that Bandoola's army was 
 the chief, if not the only force now left to oppose us ; and the 
 natives evidently looked to that alone for checking our ad- 
 vance.* By the 13th Sir Archibald and his land column got 
 back to Sarrawah. Here an obstacle of a most serious nature 
 presented itself. To reach Donoopew the broad and rapid 
 Irawaddi must be crossed by an army with cavalry, artillery, 
 and commissariat equipments, and unprovided with any 
 means for such an undertaking, beyond a few small canoes 
 which had been procured with much difficulty. Energy 
 and perseverance, however, triumphed over every difficulty. 
 In the course of the 13th the Madras infantry were carried 
 over the river, and sent to occupy a position in advance. 
 On the 14th rafts were constructed to carry over the 
 artillery, stores, &c. ; and by labouring day and night, 
 before the evening of the fifth day, every man, and every 
 thing belonging to the division, had been safely landed 
 on the right bank of the Irawaddi. It was, however, the 
 25th of March ere the land column arrived within gun-shot 
 distance of Donoopew. In order to spare the lives and 
 limbs of his soldiers, Sir Archibald gave order not to attempt 
 to carry the truly formidable place by a coup-de-main. It 
 was, however, found to be much too extensive to admit of 
 its being surrounded even by a chain of posts, by so small a 
 force ; and consequently a position was taken up from which 
 their stockade might be cannonaded. "While our people 
 were taking up this position, the enemy, wonderfully elated 
 by his recent success, manned his works, and opened a fire 
 from a great many guns. Numerous golden umbrellas 
 glittered iti the morrdng sun, denoting how many great men 
 were assembled within the works, which extended for nearly 
 a mile along the sloping bank of the river, the breadth 
 varying, according to the nature of the ground, from 500 to 
 800 yards. The stockading was made of solid teak beams, 
 from fifteen to seventeen feet high, driven firmly into the 
 earth ; and behind this wooden wall the old brick ramparts of 
 the place rose to a considerable height, and afibrded a firm 
 and elevated footing to the defendants. 
 
 Upwards of 150 guns and swivels were mounted on these 
 
 * Snodgrass. 
 
478 OPEEATIOXS AT [1825. 
 
 works, and tlie garrison was protected from tlie shells of 
 tlie besiegers by numerous traverses and excavations. A 
 ditch of considerable breadth and depth surrounded the 
 defences; and the passage of it was rendered the more 
 difficult by spikes, great nails, holes, and other contrivances. 
 Beyond the ditch several rows of strong railing were inter- 
 posed ; and in front of all, a formidable abbatis, thirty yards 
 broad, extended round the works, except on the river face, 
 where the Irawaddi presented a sufficient barrier. Regard- 
 less of the enemy's long shots, Sir Archibald Campbell en- 
 camped his division, and immediately commenced prepara- 
 tions for breaking ground. The camp being pitched, 
 t^e heavy fire of the Burmese entirely ceased. But 
 the sudden calm, the disappearance of the defendants from 
 their ramparts, the occasional patrolling of their cavalry, 
 and the long-continued observation of our line by a party 
 of native chiefs posted on a lofty watch-tower, foreboded a 
 very early interruption of this tranquillity. The soldier3 
 regarded the momentary repose as seamen do the treacherous 
 lull which precedes the increasing storm. The Burmese did 
 not keep them long in suspense. The clock had struck ten, 
 and the moon was fast approaching to the verge of the 
 horizon, when sharp musketry, and the loud and wild war- 
 cry of the enemy, roused the camp. In an instant every 
 soldier's hand was on his musket, and in a minute every 
 soldier was in his place. Our line was scarcely formed ere 
 the enemy's intention became apparent : his columns were 
 distinctly heard moving towards our right for the purpose 
 of turning it ; and at the same time he kept up a distant fire 
 upon our left and centre, to encourage a belief that these 
 were the selected points of attack. They reached and out- 
 flanked our extreme right, but our two regiments rapidly 
 changed front, and kneeling, to insure a better aim, kept up 
 a rapid running fire, which instantly checked the advancing 
 columns, and laid a good many of the Burmese prostrate. 
 Ha"sdng repeated their attempt two or three times more, 
 they drew off and returned in silence to their irritated com- 
 mander, Bandoola, who beat some of them soundly because 
 they could not beat the British. The darkness of the night 
 enabled them to carry ofi" their killed and wounded. On 
 our side, only two or three were killed, and about twenty 
 wounded. 
 
 !N'o communication had as yet been opened with Cotton 
 
1825.] DONOOPEW. 479 
 
 and his marine column ; but, early on tlie morning of tlie 
 26tli, a party of 100 European infantry and a few cavalry 
 were sent to march round the enemy's works, in order 
 to reach the flotilla at its station below Donoopew, and there 
 request the naval commander to move up and form a junc- 
 tion with Sir Archibald Campbell. Forcing their way 
 through a thick jungle by the aid of three elephants, the 
 detached party reached the flotilla without receiving or 
 firing a shot. Before the evening of this day, his majesty's 
 47th regiment occupied an old pagoda which was about 
 300 yards from the outward defences of Donoopew, and 
 which seemed the most eligible point for breaking ground 
 an operation that commenced immediately. 
 
 At nine o'clock in the morning of the 27th our flotilla 
 came in fall sail up the river. This was no sooner observed 
 by the Burmese than they sortied in great force, with in- 
 fantry and cavalry, and with seventeen war elephants fully 
 caparisoned. This attack was directed upon Sir Archibald 
 Campbell's right. "While it was coming on, and while our 
 flotilla was coming up under the fire of the fort. Sir Archi- 
 bald's cavalry, covered by his horse artillery, charged the 
 elephants who led the van. The war elephants stood the 
 charge mth extraordinary steadiness ; but the men on their 
 backs were mostly shot, and no sooner did they feel them- 
 selves unrestrained by the hand of their drivers, than they 
 turned their stunted tails to our dragoons, and walked back 
 to the fort with the greatest composure. The flotilla, having 
 passed the fort with trifling loss, anchored close on the left of 
 Sir Archibald's column.* On the next day (the 28th) our 
 working parties continued making approaches towards the 
 place, and our steam-vessel (a source of amazement and 
 superstitious alarm to the Biu-mese) and some light boats 
 pushed up the river after the enemy's war-boats, and suc- 
 ceeded in capturing four gilded and five plain ones. 
 
 After these operations, three days were spent in con- 
 structing batteries and landing heavy ordnance. On the 
 evening of the 31st, a Burmese came out of the fort to the 
 English camp with a piece of dirty canvas, containing this 
 laconic epistle from Bandoola : " In war we find each 
 other's force ; the two countries are at war for nothing, and 
 
 * Major Snodgrass. Brigadier- General Sir Archibald Campbell's 
 * Despatch to George Swinton, Esq., Secretary to Government, Secret 
 and Political Department, dated Donoopew, April 2nd, 1825.' 
 
480 DEATH OF BANDOOLA. [1825. 
 
 we know not each other's minds!" The bearer being 
 questioned, declared that he was only a common soldier, 
 and knew nothing of the matter, but believed his chief 
 wished to make peace. Early the next morning (the 1st of 
 April) our mortar batteries and rockets began the work of 
 destruction, and continued firing at intervals during the day 
 and pai't of tlie succeeding night. The Burmese remained 
 close under the protection of their works, making little, then 
 less, and at last no return at all to our fire. This excited 
 surprise, but on the next morning the mystery was ex- 
 plained. At daylight on the 2nd of April, two lascars, who 
 had been prisoners in the fort, came running out, and 
 informed our people, that the great Bandoola had been 
 killed the day before, by one of our shells or rockets ; that 
 after his death was known, no entreaties of the other chiefs 
 could prevail upon the Burmese to remain at their posts, 
 and, in short, that the whole army had fled or dispersed 
 during the dark hours of the night. The British line was 
 in consequence put under arms, and the place was imme- 
 diately taken possession of. Sufficient proof remained of 
 the hurry and confusion of the flight ; not a gun was 
 removed, and even the very large depot of grain which had 
 been formed remained uninjured. Within the fort were 
 found a number of wounded men. . One poor fellow, who 
 had both his legs shot off, related circumstantiaUy his chiefs 
 death. 
 
 The grain found in Donoopew was sufficient for the con- 
 sumption of our entire force for many months. Besides the 
 ordnance mounted on the works, a considerable quantity 
 was found concealed in a tank. Some more of the war- 
 boats were taken, together with a vast number of other 
 boats of an excellent description, and well'suited for convey- 
 ing troops up the Irawaddi. That magnificent river was 
 now entirely under our command from its broad mouths on 
 the ocean to the valley of Ava and Amarapoora, where it 
 shallows and contracts and becomes unnavigable.i 
 
 The confidence of the Burmese court, which was at the 
 very highest point when the war commenced, had been for 
 some time rapidly declining ; but when the death of the 
 great Bandoola and the flight of his army of Invincibles and 
 Invulnerables became known in the city of Ava, almost the 
 last spark of pride and presumption went out. It was con- 
 fessed openly, and even before the Golden Face, that the 
 
1825.] MAJOR SALE. 481 
 
 Burmese were inferior to our European troops, and could 
 not withstand them ; and that to break the lines of the 
 British, or to arrest their advance in action, was an impos- 
 sibility.* 
 
 "Wliere the great Bandoola had failed, none could hope for 
 success. The chiefs, knowing their double liability, or the 
 double risk to which they were exposed, of being killed by 
 the English in battle, and of having their heads taken off 
 by the king if they failed in their attempts to drive the 
 English back to the sea, were far from being anxious for 
 the honour of the chief command ; and the king knew not 
 how to choose or whom to trust. A new chief was, however, 
 invited to court, and forced to accept the chief command of 
 the forces, and every nerve was strained to recruit the army 
 and to restore its former self-confidence. At the same time, 
 however, it was resolved to endeavour to amuse the English 
 commanders, and delay their approach by pretending a 
 readiness to treat with them.f 
 
 In the meanwhile, other successes had been gained by our 
 arms, and Sir Archibald Campbell had resumed his advance 
 upon Prome. Major Sale entered the Irawaddi by another 
 of its mouths, called the Bassein River, and with a small 
 detachment he cleared and destroyed several stockades, 
 without meeting with any resistance. On the 3rd of March, 
 Sale arrived at the town of Bassein, and found it abandoned 
 and on fire, the governor of the district having retreated 
 to Lamina, a town about six days' journey up the river. 
 
 * Deposition of Henry Gouger, Esq. They likened the British, troops 
 in action to a particular class of demons called Balu. They compared 
 the rapidity of their movements to a whirlwind, and were astonished 
 beyond measure at their skill in the use of artillery, shells, rockets, &c. 
 By this time they also admired the forbearance and moderation of British 
 soldiers after victory. Our mode of attacking them in their stockades at 
 the point of the bayonet, and with a mere handful of men, struck them with 
 consternation. " They stated, that when one of the assailants was killed, 
 another immediately took his place ; and that they were not to be dis- 
 couraged from advancing even by wounds, so that it was in vain to con- 
 tend with such an enemy. Their imaginations were so wrought upon 
 that, to these particulars, they added many fabulous ones ; such as that 
 the Europeans continued to advance after their hands had been chopped 
 oflf in scrambling over the stockades ; that the arms and legs of the 
 wounded were carefully picked up, and replaced by English surgeons, who 
 were represented to be as skilful as the warriors were bold.'' Deposition 
 of the Rev. Dr. A. Judson, American Baptist missionary, taken at Ran- 
 goon by the English commissioners, after the close of the war. 
 
 t MS. by Henry Gouger, Esq. 
 
 2 I 
 
482 ADVANCE rPON PEOME. [1825. 
 
 Having occupied Bassein, the town was soon restored to a 
 comparatively flourishing state, and the population gradu- 
 ally returned to it, A reconnaissance was made as far as 
 Lamina, by 200 men of his majesty's 13th regiment, 100 
 native infantry, and seventy seamen, who proceeded up the 
 river in boats, bivouacking at night on the banks. Sale 
 with his party got close upon the heels of the retreating 
 governor of Bassein, and was several times very near catching 
 him. All the villages on the banks of the river were 
 deserted, and most of them burned. Lamina, although a 
 large town, was found " completely abandoned, the flying 
 governor having driven all the population into the interior. 
 Sale could obtain hardly anything beyond a golden state- 
 boat, and two war-canoes, and with this little prize he 
 returned to Bassein, after an absence of fourteen days. He 
 was shortly afterwards recalled to Eangoon, to reinforce Sir 
 Archibald Campbell's main army, which had passed the 
 point at which a diversion in the direction of Bassein was 
 likely to be useful ; but Sale left a small garrison in the 
 town of Bassein, and that place continued to be occupied 
 throughout the war. 
 
 On the 4th of April, two days after taking possession of 
 Donoopew, our main army recommenced its march for Prome. 
 By the 12th it was again on the left bank of the Irawaddi at 
 Sarrawah ; and on the 14th, it reached the spot from which 
 it had retrograded just one month before. Passing over 
 several abandoned camps and stockades, our troops, on the 
 19th reached Huddadoon, where the blue mountains of 
 Arracan became for the first time distinctly visible. The 
 landscape was beautiful, but the still smoking ashes of nu- 
 merous villages cast a shade of sadness over the scene. In 
 the evening a messenger came in from Prome, as the bearer 
 of a pacific letter from the chiefs of the Burmese army, 
 now collected at that city. The messenger seemed to be 
 a silly old man, and probably he was not a Burmese, but 
 some half-caste, who spoke some European language. He 
 drank much too freely for a diplomatist, and when he rose 
 to take his departure, he whispered in the general's ear, 
 " They are frightened out of their senses ! you may do 
 what you please with them ! " In reply to the letter 
 which he had brought. Sir Archibald Campbell said that he 
 would be very glad to conclude a proper peace, and that 
 upon the arrival of the British army at Prome, every oppor- 
 
1825.] COLOIs'EL GODWm'S MAECH. 483 
 
 tunitj and facility in opening negotiations would be afforded 
 to the Burmese. And then, instead of gratifying his 
 correspondents by halting and allowing them time to 
 improve their stockades and receive their reinforcements 
 from Ava, Sir Archibald moved on Prome, being preceded 
 by the steamboat, and the rest of our flotilla. On the 
 24th of April, when he reached a point whence the heights 
 of Prome were visible, he received another letter from the 
 Burmese authorities at Prome, who demanded that the city 
 should not be occupied by the British troops. Sir Archi- 
 bald responded, that the military occupation of Prome could 
 not be dispensed with, but that he would be happy to meet 
 deputies at any time and place next day. Long before 
 dayKght the next morning our column was again in mo- 
 tion, for no reliance was placed in the pacific assurances 
 of the Burmese. At daylight, our troops were under the 
 ridge of hiUs which covers Prome to the southward. Every 
 hill was fortified to the very summit, and a more formidable 
 position had seldom been encountered in the East. The 
 stockades, however, were unoccupied, the enemy having 
 evacuated every post, and set fire to the town. Our 
 column, pushing on, found Prome in a blaze ; but by great 
 exertions, a considerable part of the town was saved from 
 destruction. 
 
 On the 25th of April, when Sir Archibald Campbell took 
 possession of Prome, without firing a musket, the rainy 
 season was not far off. There was, however, time before it 
 set in to send a small corps to clear the inland districts of 
 Prome of the armed bands which overran the country, plun- 
 dering and oppressing the inhabitants, and driving them with , 
 their cattle into the jungles. This lightly-equipped corps, 
 nnder the command of Colonel Grodwin, left Prome on the 
 5th of May.* The first two days' march to the north-east- 
 ward was over a rich and fertile country, abounding in rice- 
 
 * Professor Horace Hayman Wilson. * Documents illustrative of the 
 Burmese War.' 
 
 We learn from this curious and valuable collection of materials that 
 Colonel Godwin's force consisted of 800 infantry and a troop of the 
 governor-general's body-guard, with two field-pieces. Lord Amherst 
 had sent a good part of his body-guard to the Irawaddi early in the war ; 
 and throughout these campaigns that brilliant corps attracted universal 
 admiration by its activity and spirit. 
 
 See also, ' Two Years in Ava,' by an officer on the staff of the quarter- 
 master-general's department. 
 
 2i2 
 
484 COUNTRY DEVASTATED. [1825. 
 
 grounds. But the fertility, the industry, the population of 
 the Burmese territories are almost entirely confined to the 
 great valley of the Irawaddi, to the banks of its yarious 
 branches, and the Delta which lies between its mouths on 
 the sea and Donoopew ; as the column advanced into the 
 interior, these signs of industry and population rapidly 
 dimraished, the country gradually assuming the character 
 of a luxuriant wilderness, overgrown with lofty forests and 
 brushwood jungles, with a few miserable villages scattered 
 about at great distances from each other. The inhabitants 
 of these remote places appear to have scarcely known that 
 there was any war in their country until they saw this little 
 column. The armies of the Grolden Eoot had certainly not 
 been near them ; for in almost every instance the villagers 
 were found quietly occupying their huts, and gazing in wild 
 amazement at the strange sight of white faces, red coats, 
 field-artillery, etc. Although they seemed miserably poor 
 and devoid of comforts, they were found to be a cheerful, a 
 frank, and a kind-hearted people. They soon became fami- 
 liar and even friendly with our soldiers, who paid them for 
 whatever they furnished. The column continued to march 
 to Tagoondine, at the foot of the Galadzet mountains. It 
 had been intended to push the reconnaissance across those 
 mountains as far as Tonghoo, a sequestered city, about which 
 much had been said and very little known, except that it 
 had once been the capital of an independent state, and 
 that it was now the jagheer of one of his Burmese majesty's 
 brothers. But the monsoon rains were now beginning to 
 fall, and to swell the mountain-streams : the Graladzet 
 chain was most steep and rugged, without roads, and with 
 hideous-looking though pacific inhabitants; and beyond 
 the mountains the country was for some distance said to 
 be a desert and a dreary waste. Colonel Grodwin there- 
 fore thought it expedient to turn his back upon Tonghoa, 
 and to move to the north-eastward to the town of Meaday, 
 about sixty miles above Prome, and, like Prome and all 
 the other considerable towns, situated on the banks of the 
 Irawaddi. On this march our column occasionally crossed 
 the track by which corps of the Burmese army had retreated 
 from Prome. " It was painful to witness the ruinous efiects 
 of their system of warfare. Even Eussia, in her memora- 
 able resistance to the armies of Napoleon, did not offer to 
 the invading host such a continued scene of desolation. 
 
1825.] OUR AEEITAL AT PROME. 485 
 
 Neitlier man nor beast escaped the retiring column ; and 
 heaps of ashes, with groups of hungry, howling dogs, alone 
 indicated where villages had been."* Meaday was found a 
 blackened ruin, or a heap of ashes. Its old brick wall had 
 been recently cleared and strengthened by breast-works 
 and stockadmgs : but everything was burned, and every 
 soul was gone, so that no intelligence could be obtained as 
 to the enemy's movements. Trom Meaday our light column 
 commenced its retrograde march upon Prome, following the 
 road which runs close along the left bank of the Irawaddi. 
 Colonel Graham and his men, with 500 head of cattle pur- 
 chased from the villagers, arrived at Prome on the 24th of 
 May, and almost immediately after their~retum, the perse- 
 cuted and dislodged inhabitants of the town poured in from 
 every quarter : some from the woods, bringing their families, 
 their cattle, their waggons, and other property ; and some 
 escaped from the military escorts and disjointed corps of the 
 king's fugitive army. Eood and covering were given to the 
 starving and naked ; and those who had houses and property 
 were secured in the possession of them. Our British sol- 
 diers assisted them in rebuilding their wooden houses, and 
 their bamboo huts ; and in a very short time Prome had 
 risen from its ashes, a greater town than it had been before 
 the war. As the people were punctually paid for whatever 
 they brought, plentiful bazaars were soon established, and 
 our soldiers lived in comfort and abundance, and unmolested 
 ease ; while the ill-conducted armies of the king of Ava, 
 unpaid, unsupplied, and driven up the country, were left to 
 the alternative of starvation or dispersion. The towns and 
 districts in our rear followed the example of the provincial 
 capital ; and the banks of the Irawaddi below Prome were 
 soon enlivened by the presence of a contented people. An 
 excellent depot was soon formed at Prome, with supplies 
 sufficient, not only for the rainy season, but for the long 
 campaign which possibly might follow. The plains which 
 our soldiers had traversed on their advance up the country 
 without seeing a single bullock, were again covered with 
 numerous herds ; from every pathway of the deep and 
 extensive forests, which cover far more than half of the 
 country, droves of the finest oxen the oxen of Pegu now 
 issued daily. The meuthagoes, or hereditary head-men of 
 
 * Snodgrass. 
 
48$ THE SHAN TEIBES. [1825. 
 
 the districts and chief towns, tendered their allegiance, and 
 were restored to their municipal functions by the British 
 generals. A state of desolation and anarchy once more 
 gave way to order and plenty ; and from Eangoon to Prome, 
 from Bassein to Martaban, all classes of natives not only 
 contributed their aid in collecting such supplies as the 
 country afforded, but readily lent their services in facili- 
 tating the equipment and movement of military detach- 
 ments.* The only anxiety which the people seemed to feel 
 was, that the English would leave them, and give them back 
 to their old masters. 
 
 During the season of rain and repose (it was no season of 
 rest at Ava !) the king, encouraged by false reports, took 
 vigorous measures for recruiting his armies, and for pro- 
 viding them with powder and weapons. Men were leaded 
 in all the upper parts of the country. Money, which had 
 never been employed before for that purpose, was now 
 freely spent in the enrolling of troops. Far away to the 
 north and to the east, gold, and the orders of the Grolden 
 Pace were sent. The tributary Shan tribes, whose country 
 borders on China, were induced to put 15,000 men in march 
 for Ava ; and by the end of September, the whole disposable 
 force of his majesty was estimated at 60,000 or 70,000 men. 
 By the beginning of October, the head-quarters of the Bur- 
 mese army were again at Meaday ; and the breast- works 
 and stockades, which Colonel Grodwin and his light column 
 had seen in ruin and in ashes, began to raise their heads again. 
 To oppose to these forces, Greneral Campbell had at Prome 
 Bomething less than 3,000 effective men ; but he was to be 
 joined by 2,000 more by the time the campaign opened. 
 His instructions from the governor-general bound him to 
 neglect no opportunity of entering upon pacific negotiations ; 
 he wrote a letter to the chiefs in command of the army 
 assembling at Meaday, to offer them lenient terms of peace. 
 Some time after this letter had been received, the cliiefs 
 sent a complimentary mission to Prome to speak many good 
 words to the British general, and to state that the king and 
 his ministers were equally desirous that a lasting peace 
 should be concluded between the two great nations. Sir 
 
 * la the month of August Sir Archibald Campbell went down to Ran- 
 goon, and returned from that place to Prome in the steam-vessel the 
 Diana, with as much ease and tranquillity as we go from London Bridge 
 to Ramsgate and back again. 
 
1825.] 2fEG0TIATI0NS TOE PEACE. 487 
 
 Archibald Campbell lost no time in sending two British 
 officers to Meaday to ofler an armistice, and to propose a 
 meeting of commissioners from the two armies. The Bur- 
 mese prime minister tried hard to delay the meeting. It 
 was found necessary to allow a delay of nearly two weeks, 
 the wongees protesting that they must wait until full powers 
 ai-rived from their court. The kee wongee, or prime minister, 
 agreed to be one of the commissioners, and it was finally 
 settled that the meeting should take place at a spot mid- 
 way between the two armies, and that each party should 
 be escorted by 600 men the rank of the kee wongee not 
 permitting him to move with a smaller escort. 
 
 On the appointed day the meeting took place. Sir Archi- 
 bald Campbell being accompanied by Commander Sir James 
 Brisbane, commander of his majesty's naval forces in the 
 Indian seas, who had come up to Prome to take the direc- 
 tion of the operations by water. The kee wongee was 
 accompanied by another chief and minister, named Lamain 
 "Woon, and sundry other chiefs, arrayed in splendid state 
 dresses, and wearing the gold chaias which denote their 
 rank. The first day was spent in an interchanging of 
 ceremony and compliments. On the following day. Sir 
 Archibald Campbell entered upon business by recapitulating 
 the many unprovoked aggressions which had obliged the 
 Indian government, after many vain endeavours to obtain 
 redress by milder measures, to appeal to arms. 
 
 The wongees confessed that many aggressions had been 
 committed on our frontiers ; but they pretended that these 
 deeds had not been authorized by the king or his govern- 
 ment. They concluded by proposing that the armistice 
 should be prolonged for twenty days beyond the l7th of 
 October, the term fixed. Although our officers suspected 
 that nothing was meant but to gain time in order to bring 
 more troops down the valley of the Irawaddi, and erect more 
 stockades, they agreed to this proposition.* Sir Archibald 
 Campbell and Sir James Brisbane had scarcely reached 
 Prome, on their return from these conferences, ere reports 
 
 * " Among ourselves," says Major Snodgrass, " many believed that 
 the war was at an end, while others could not forget that we were dealing 
 with a government proverbially false, and so completely influenced and 
 guided by signs and omens, that an unusual grunt from the white elephant 
 was at all times sufficient to interrupt the most important affairs, and 
 cause the most solemn engagements to be broken off." 
 
488 THE KEE WONGEE. [1825. 
 
 poured in from all quarters of tlie irruption of predatory- 
 bands from the Burmese armj within our line, and into the 
 districts under our protection. And these bands, continuing 
 their inroads, burned and plundered the country almost to 
 the gates of Prome, and cut off' some of the supplies for our 
 army that were coming up the river from Eangoon. 
 
 The armistice was on the point of expiring, when the kee 
 wongee sent the following laconic epistle to Sir Archibald : 
 " If you wish for peace, you may go away ; but if you ask 
 either money or territory, no friendship can exist between us. 
 This is Burmese custom." The ultimatum was accompanied 
 by a general advance of the Burmese army upon Prome. 
 They came on in three great divisions ; their total force was 
 estimated at 60,000 men, besides which there was a reserve 
 left at Melloone. Sir Archibald, after providing a garrison 
 for Prome, could now bring into the field 5,000 men, of 
 whom 3,000 were British. On the evening of the 15th of 
 November the general sent Colonel McDowall with two 
 brigades of Madras sepoys to dislodge the left division of 
 the enemy, which was stockading itself at Wattygoon. 
 McDowall got killed, four of his officers were wounded, and 
 the sepoys commenced a rapid retreat, leaving nearly all 
 their wounded behind them to the merciless fury of the 
 Burmese. On the following day the enemy, with a great 
 increase of confidence, began gradually to close round the 
 English positions. In their left division 8,000 men were 
 Shans from the country bordering upon China. These were 
 expected to fight with more spirit than the men who had 
 been previously engaged in the war. In addition to their 
 chobwas and petty princes, the Shans were accompanied 
 by three young and handsome women of high rank, who 
 were believed to be endowed with the gift of prophecy and 
 foreknowledge, and to possess the miraculous power of 
 turning aside the death-dealing balls and bullets of the 
 English. These Amazons, in strange warlike costume, were 
 seen constantly riding among the Shan troops. Eor some 
 days the enemy were allowed to gather and stockade ; but, 
 on the 1st of December, all the three divisions were attacked 
 simultaneously by Sir Archibald Campbell, Sir "Willoughby 
 Cotton, and Commodore Sir James Brisbane, who carried 
 the flotilla up the river, and cannonaded the stockades in 
 flank, while the land troops attacked them in front. Every- 
 where the Burmese and the Shans were defeated and dis- 
 
1825.] WE ADTANCE. 489 
 
 lodged as soon as our troops got into the interior of their 
 crowded works. The wongee who commanded the left 
 division was slain; and a great many of the Shans, who 
 did not understand the signs that were made to them to 
 surrender and take quarter, were killed in a most desperate 
 and most useless struggle within these stockades. One of 
 the Shan Amazons received a fatal bullet in the breast. 
 The moment her sex was recognized, our soldiers bore her 
 from the scene of carnage to a cottage in the rear, where 
 she soon expired. In the retreat, another of the Shan 
 ladies was seen flpng on horseback across a little river with 
 the remnant of her people. Before she could gain the 
 opposite bank of the river, one of our shrapnels exploded 
 over her head, and she fell from her horse into the water. 
 Whether she was killed or only frightened could not be 
 ascertained, as she was immediately borne off by her 
 attendants. 
 
 The mass of the retreating army rallied on the heights of 
 Kapadee, in front of a deep jungle, a few miles higher up 
 the Irawaddi. This new position, in which tliey were 
 attacked the very next day, was uncommonly strong. The 
 nature of the country admitted of no approach to the main 
 defences upon the hills, except in front, and there only by a 
 narrow pathway. JN'evertheless our storming column went 
 on imder a heavy fire, and finally succeeded in expelling the 
 enemy at the point of the bayonet, and in driving them 
 from hill to hill, until the whole of the position, nearly 
 three miles in extent, was entirely in our possession. Our 
 loss diu'ing the two days' fighting, on the part of the regi- 
 ments of the line, was twenty-five killed and 100 wounded. 
 During the attack on the heights, our flotilla, pushing 
 rapidly past the works, succeeded in capturing all the boats 
 and stores that had been brought down for the use of the 
 Burmese army. That army was now in fact utterly broken 
 up and ruined. Both banks of the Irawaddi were com- 
 pletely cleared, and nothing remained to check Sir Archibald 
 Campbell's advance upon Melloone.* 
 
 On the 9th of December our first division, accompanied 
 by head-quarters, began its march across a melancholy, 
 deserted country, and through jungles and swamps over- 
 groYTD. with reeds and elephant-grass, fifteen feet high. The 
 
 * Snodgrass. Professor H. H. Wilson. Col. Alex. M. Tulloch. 
 
490 PEOCEASTINATION. [1825. 
 
 King's 1st regiment, or "Eoyals," went by water, the other 
 regiments of the line, in two divisions, by land. Two corps 
 of sepoys were left to garrison Prome, in which a field 
 hospital was established. 
 
 On the 12th the cholera broke out among the troops on 
 march, and ere it could be checked it carried off a great 
 many of the Madras sepoys, and rendered two British regi- 
 ments almost unfit for duty.* The roads continued to be 
 execrably bad, and the advance to be very slow. It was 
 the 19th before the 1st division reached Meaday, where a 
 scene of misery and death surrounded them. Within and 
 among the stockades the ground was strewed with dead and 
 dying Burmese lying promiscuously together, the victims of 
 wounds, of disease, or of want. Several large gibbets stood 
 about the stockade, each bearing the mouldermg remains of 
 three or four crucified Burmese, who had been thus barba- 
 rously put to death for having wandered from their posts in 
 search of food, or for having followed the example of their 
 chiefs in flying from the enemy. Beyond Meaday similar 
 horrors presented themselves. 
 
 On the 26th of December, when the division had marched 
 140 miles from Prome, and was within ten miles of Mel- 
 loone, a flag of truce was sent to Sir Archibald Campbell 
 from the last-named place, with letters communicating the 
 arrival of a high commissioner sent down from Ava with full 
 powers to conclude a treaty of peace. On the 27th Sir 
 Archibald encamped on the banks of the Irawaddi about 
 four miles below Melloone, and was there joined by the 
 flotilla. On the 28th he sent two officers to the Burmese 
 chiefs, for the purpose of arranging an immediate meeting 
 with the new negotiator. Our officers plainly saw that the 
 Burmese chiefs wanted to procrastinate, and that the forces 
 they had collected behind the stockades of Melloone were 
 numerous, and were busily occupied in improving the 
 defences of the place. 
 
 On the 29th Sir Archibald took up a position at Patanagoh, 
 directly opposite to Melloone, and the flotilla anchored 
 abreast of that town, and pointed its guns against the 
 stockades. Upon this a chief put off" in a war-boat to com- 
 pliment the commander of the flotilla, and to assure him that 
 the new and high delegate from Ava would gladly open 
 negotiations on the 1st of January. 
 
 * Lieutenant Colonel Tulloch, ' Statistical Reports,' &c. 
 
1826.] BATTLE or MELLOONE. 491 
 
 At the appointed day and liour the conferences were 
 commenced, on board of a large boat moored in the middle of 
 the Irawaddi between the two armies. After four meetings 
 and long and wearisome discussions, the Burmese accepted 
 the conditions which were offered, and a treaty of peace and 
 amity was signed. Fifteen days were allowed for obtaining 
 the ratification of the Grolden 'Foot and the execution of 
 preliminaries, such as the delivery of Mr. Henry Grouger 
 and all other prisoners taken up the country, and the pay- 
 ment of the first instalment of the money indemnity. 
 
 During the quiet interval which ensued, the Burmese 
 visited our camp by day in the most friendly manner, and 
 by night they worked at their stockades. 
 
 On the 17th of January, the day preceding that upon 
 which the ratified treaty was to be presented to Sir Archi- 
 bald and his coadjutors, three officers of state visited the 
 British camp, and declared that some unfortunate accident, 
 of which they were entirely ignorant, must have delayed the 
 arrival of the king's ratification, and the arrival of the pri- 
 soners and money. They offered to pay on the spot small 
 instalments, and to give hostages for the payment of the rest 
 of the money and the due execution of the other articles of the 
 treaty, if Sir Archibald would only reti^n to Prome. Having 
 received a decided negative to this proposal and to another, 
 they at last entreated for a delay of five or six days. This 
 also was refused by Sir Archibald. On the next day, the 
 18th, three British officers proceeded to Melloone, to tell 
 the wongees that they had broken their promises, and had 
 rendered it impossible to trust them, and that after 12 o'clock 
 that night hostilities would recommence. And at the mid- 
 night hour the British camp was on the alert ; and by 
 10 o'clock the next morning twenty-eight pieces of artdlery 
 were in battery, and ready to open upon the enemy's 
 defences. Two hours of heavy firing opened the way for 
 our storming column (formed of the 13th and the 38th 
 British regiments), which was carried across the river in 
 boats,ujider the superintendence of Captain Chads, now senior 
 naval officer, and which was headed by Lieutenant- Colonel 
 Erith, Lieutenant- Colonel Sale having been badly wounded 
 in the boats. In a very brief space of time the column 
 entered by escalade, and estabhshed itself in the interior of 
 the works. This almost finished the affair. From 10,000 
 to 15,000 armed men were driven away in a confused and 
 helpless mass from the strongest works they had ever 
 
492 ME. GOUGER, A PRISONEE. [1826. 
 
 erected. Our other brigades, cutting in upon the retreat, 
 completed their discomfiture. The Burmese were driven 
 with severe loss from all their stockades, and they left the 
 whole of their artillery and military stores in our pos- 
 session. Our 13th and 38th had only five men killed 
 and twenty wounded. In the house of Prince Memiaboo, 
 cash to the amount of 30,000 or 40,000 rupees was found ; 
 all his stud was likewise taken ; and, what was considered of 
 still more consequence, as affording undeniable proof of the 
 perfidious conduct of the Burmese during the late negotia- 
 tions, both the English and Burmese copies of the treaty 
 were also found in the house, just in the same state as when 
 signed and sealed at the meeting of the 3rd. 
 
 Prince Memiaboo and his beaten army continued to 
 retreat upon Ava with all possible speed. Sir Archibald 
 Campbell prepared to follow them up without delay. 
 
 On the 25th of January our people resumed their march 
 over a barren country and bad roads. On the 31st head- 
 quarters were at Zaynangheoun. Here Sir Archibald was 
 met by Doctor Price, one of the captive American mis- 
 sionaries (avIio had been seized at Ava with Mr. Grouger), 
 and by Assistant-Surgeon Sandford, of the Eoyal regiment, 
 who had been taken prisoner some months before. These 
 gentlemen came on their parole of honour to return again to 
 Ava. Doctor Price explained that they were despatched 
 to express the sincere desire of his Burmese majesty for 
 peace, and to bring back a statement of the terms that the 
 English would grant him. 
 
 By this time the Golden Pace was completely clouded 
 with despair. Every hope and promise had failed ; every 
 day fixed upon by his star-gazers as a lucky day had turned 
 out an unlucky day ; and all his astrologers and soothsayers 
 had proved themselves to be but cheats and liars. Sir 
 Archibald assured the two envoys, that he was desirous of 
 peace, and that his terms would vary very little from those 
 which had been offered and accepted by the wongees at 
 Melloone. He furnished them with a statement of his terms, 
 and promised not to pass Pagahm-mew for twelve days. 
 On the following morning, the 1st of Pebruary, 1826, the 
 two delegates quitted the English camp to return to Ava, 
 the American missionary being sanguine in his expectations 
 of returning in a few days with cash, and a treaty of peace, 
 duly signed by the king. Yet, in truth, his Burmese 
 
1S26.] WE STILL ADYA^'CE. 493 
 
 majesty was still undecided, and in the course of two or 
 three days, it became known in the British camp that he 
 was displaying a determination to try the fortune of war 
 once more ere he submitted. He was probably encouraged 
 herein by a knowledge of the smallness of the force with 
 which Sir Archibald Campbell was advancing upon his 
 capital, and by intelligence received of the defeat of a 
 weak British detachment before the strong stockade of 
 Zitoung in Pegu, where the commanding officer. Colonel 
 Conroy, and another officer were killed, and several 
 wounded, and where the loss in men was very heavy for so 
 small a force. 
 
 Sir Archibald Campbell continued his advance. On 
 approaching Pagahm-mew, a town about one hundred miles 
 above Melloone, he obtained positive information that a 
 levy of 40,000 men had been ordered ; that the Grolden 
 Poot had bestowed upon this new army the flattering appel- 
 lation of "Retrievers of the King's Glory;" and that this 
 army had been placed under the command of a savage war- 
 rior, styled Nee Woon-Breen, which has been variously 
 translated as "Prince of Darkness," " King of Hell," and 
 "Prince of the Setting Sun." Upon the 8th of Pebruary, 
 when within a few days' march from Pagahm-mew, Sir 
 Archibald ascertained that the Eetrievers of the King's 
 Glory and the Prince of Darkness were [prepared to meet 
 him under the walls of that city. 
 
 On the 9th the British column moved forward in order of 
 attack, being much reduced by the absence of two brigades, 
 and considerably under 2,000 fighting men. The advanced- 
 guard was met in the jungle by strong bodies of skirmishers ; 
 and after maintaining a running fight for several miles, the 
 column debouched into the open country, and there dis- 
 covered the Burmese army, from 16,000 to 20,000 strong, 
 drawn up in an inverted crescent, the wings of which 
 threatened the little body of assailants on both their flanks. 
 But Sir Archibald pushed boldly forward for their centre, 
 threw the whole weight of his column upon that point, 
 broke and shattered it in the twinkling of an eye, and left 
 the unconnected wings severed from each other. The 
 Eetrievers of the King's Glory did not fight so well as 
 those who had been accused of forfeiting his majesty's 
 glory : they all fled as fast as their legs could carry them to 
 a second Hne of redoubts and stockades, close under the 
 
494 BATTLE OF PAGAHM-MEW. [1826. 
 
 walls of Pagahm-mew ; but the Britisli column followed 
 tliem so closely that they had little time for rallying in 
 those works ; and as soon as a few English bayonets got 
 within the stockades, all the Burmese went off, screaming 
 like a scared flock of wild-geese. Hundreds jumped into 
 the river to escape their assailants, and perished in the 
 water ; and, with the exception of 2,000 or 3,000 men, the 
 whole army dispersed upon the spot. The unfortunate 
 Prince of Darkness, or King of Hell, or Prince of the Set- 
 ting Sun, fled to Ava ; and he had no sooner reached the 
 court, when he was put to a cruel death by order of the 
 king.* One immediate and very gratifying result of this 
 victory was the liberation of the people of the country 
 from the restraint under which they had been kept by the 
 Burmese army. As soon as the action was over, they 
 began to come into the British camp for protection, and 
 many hundred boats, crowded vnth people, passed Pagahm- 
 mew downwards, on their way to their native towns and 
 villages. By this time Colonel Conroy's disaster in Pegu 
 had been remedied and avenged by Colonel Pepper, who, 
 with a stronger detachment, carried the strong stockade 
 of Zitoung, scattered a force of 3,000 or 4,000, and killed 
 300 of them within the stockade alone.f 
 
 In order to refresh his troops after their late fatigues, 
 Sir Archibald Campbell halted for a few days at Pagahm- 
 mew. On the evening of the 13th of February, Mr. Price, 
 the American missionary, and Mr. Sandford, now liberated, 
 arrived in camp. The missionary, who had been selected 
 as mediator, announced that our terms had been accepted 
 and agreed to. But he neither brought the rest of the 
 prisoners, nor the first instalment of the money payment. 
 Mr. Price, however, explained that everything demanded 
 was in readiness to be delivered, but that the king demurred 
 about letting the cash out' of his hands, from an idea that 
 after its payment the English would still keep his country. 
 His majesty was therefore anxious to know whether Sir 
 Archibald could not be prevailed upon to accept of six lacs 
 of rupees upon the spot, and to receive the other nine- 
 teen lacs of the first instalment on the return of the army 
 to Prome. On the following morning, Mr. Price returned 
 
 * Snodgrass. 
 
 t Horace Hayman Wilson, ' Documents illustrative of the Burmese 
 War,' &c. 
 
1826.] TREATY OF PEACE. 495 
 
 to Ava, to acquaint tlae king that all tlie prisoners must 
 be liberated, that the twentj-five lacs must be paid down, 
 and that Sir Archibald Campbell was resuming his march 
 upon Ava. 
 
 The army, continuing to advance, was met at Tandaboo, 
 only forty-jGLve miles from Ava, by Mr. Price and two 
 Burmese ministers of state, accompanied by Mr. Henry 
 Grouger, Mr. Judson, the American missionary, and his wife, 
 an adventurous Scotch sea-captain of the name of Laird, 
 who had gone up the country before the war to make some 
 contract about timber, and all the rest of the prisoners, 
 whether Europeans or sepoys. A sadder spectacle has 
 seldom been presented by living human beings than that 
 which was offered to the English camp by these liberated 
 captives. They were covered with filthy rags ; they were 
 worn to skin and bone, and their haggard countenances, 
 sunken, wandering eyes, told but too plainly the frightful 
 story of their long suffering, their incessant alarms, and their 
 apprehensions of a doom worse than death. 
 
 The sight exasperated our troops, and made them more 
 eager than ever to advance upon the capital and take 
 yengeance upon the tyrant and his savage court. 
 
 Mr. Price and the two wongees brought the stipulated 
 sum of twenty-five lacs of rupees, and an authority under 
 the sign manual to accept of and sign whatever terms the 
 English might insist upon. On the 24th of Eebniary, the 
 treaty of peace was for a second time settled and finally 
 signed at Yandaboo, the Burmese government at the same 
 time engaging to furnish boats for the conveyance of a great 
 part of our force back to Rangoon. By this treaty it was 
 agreed that there should be perpetual peace and friendship 
 between the Honourable Company and his majesty the 
 king of Ava that the king of Ava should renounce all 
 claims and abstain from all future interference with the 
 principality of Assam and its dependencies, and also with 
 the contiguous petty states of Cachar, Jynteea, and Mun- 
 nipoor that his majesty should cede to the Company in 
 perpetuity the conquered provinces of Arracan, including the 
 four great divisions of Arracan, Eamree, Cheduba, and 
 Sandoway that the Arracan mountains should hence- 
 forward form the boundary between the two great ''nations 
 on that side that his majesty should also cede the con- 
 quered provinces of Yeh, Tavoy, and Mergui, and Tenas- 
 
496 co:n'ditions. [1826. 
 
 serim, with tlie islands and dependencies thereunto apper- 
 taining, taking the Saluen river as the line of demarcation 
 on that frontier that his majesty, as part indemnification 
 for the expenses of the war, should pay the sum of one 
 crore of rupees* that henceforth accredited British minis- 
 ters, with a body-guard of fifty men, should be allowed 
 to reside at Ava, and that an accredited Burmese minister 
 should be sent to reside at Calcutta ; and that free trade 
 should be allowed to British subjects in all the dominions of 
 his majesty, who should abolish all exactions upon British 
 ships entering his ports, &c and that " the good and 
 faithful ally of the British government, his majesty the king 
 of Siam, having taken a part in the present war," should 
 " to the fullest extent, as far as regards his ^majesty and 
 his subjects, be included in the above treaty." 
 
 The money demanded as part indemnification was far 
 too moderate a sum. The king was rich and given to 
 hoarding, and both gold and silver bullion abounded in Ava. 
 The court could easily have paid three or four times the 
 amount, and in all probability it woidd have paid it rather 
 than evacuate the capital, and burn it or abandon it to the 
 English. A crore of sicca rupees, at par, were barely equiva- 
 lent to 1,000,000 sterling. The war had cost us from 
 7,000,000 to 8,000,000. In other respects, the treaty 
 was such as it should be. The cession of Arracan gave us 
 an admirable mountain frontier, and amply provided for the 
 freedom from Burmese interference with our Indian terri- 
 tories on that side. Our troublesome neighbours are now 
 confined within their ancient boundaries by the lofty Arracan 
 chain, and their court is not ignorant that we can now 
 march a force across those mountains from our post at 
 Aeng, appear on the Irawaddi in eight or ten days, and 
 reach the city of Ava within a month. The possession of 
 the Tenasserim provinces, and of the islands that lie ofi* 
 that coast, and off" the coast of Arracan, gives increased 
 security to our commercial navigation, opens the road to 
 an inland commerce with the Siamese, Shans, and other 
 
 * Twenty-five lacs, or one-fourth of the sum total, were paid down 
 when the treaty was signed. Upon the further payment of a similar sum 
 at Rangoon, within one hundred days from the date of the treaty, our 
 army was to evacuate the dominions of the king of Ava, leaving the re- 
 "kmoiety of the sum total to be paid, by equal annual instalments, 
 f^ars. 
 
1826.] EESULTS or the BURMESE WAE. 497 
 
 distant people, places at ' our disposal teak-forests of 
 enormous extent, and productive of the very best timber. 
 Moreover, a variety of valuable ravr produce is procurable, 
 or may be raised from these new territories, to be replaced 
 by the manufactures of India or Great Britain. The 
 provinces of Cachar and Asam, though holding out less 
 promising prospects to commerce, helped to form a well- 
 defined and strong frontier, and in the approximation they 
 afford to Thibet and China, our trade may possibly be 
 extended, in process of time, in those directions. 
 
 Nor was there wanting the consolation that the condition 
 and prospects of some millions of natives were improved by 
 the results of our Burmese war. " These countries, dis- 
 tracted hitherto by incessant feuds, and overrun by hostile 
 armies or by predatory bands, regions once animated by a 
 happy and numerous population, had been converted into 
 wide and unwholesome thickets, and had ceased, not only to 
 be the haunts of man, but had become hostile to human life. 
 Under their new masters, Asam, Cachar, Arracan, and the 
 Tenasserim provinces will experience a tranquillity and 
 security they have not known for ages, and must once more 
 assume that character of plenty and prosperity which the 
 latter wore when the Europeans first visited their coasts, 
 and which tradition, and the remains of roads and towns still 
 found in them, indicate were equally the enjoyment of all."* 
 
 The sufferings of our troops, during nearly the whole of 
 the war, were excessively great. The loss by the sword was as 
 nothing cdbipared with the ravages of disease and the mor- 
 tality caused by excessive fatigue. It was not often thatascore 
 of men feU in escalading and carrying even the strongest 
 stockades ; but they died by heaps on their marches through 
 the pestilential jungles or in their unhealthy camp-stations. 
 Throughout the campaigns, and all the way from Rangoon, 
 every British soldier had to carry his knapsack, sixty rounds 
 of ammunition, a blanket, and three days' provisions, toge- 
 ther with his arms and accoutrements, under the scorching 
 rays of a tropical sun. " Perhaps," adds an ofiicer who 
 served in' the war, " there are few instances on record in the 
 history of any nation, of a mere handful of men, with consti- 
 tutions broken down by many months of previous disease 
 and privation, forcing their way, in the face of such difficul- 
 
 * Professor Horace Hayman Wilson, ' Documents illustrative of the 
 Burmese War,' &c. 
 
 2k 
 
498 GEN. moerison's expedition. [1825. 
 
 ties, and tlirougli a wilderness hitherto untrodden by Euro- 
 peans, to the distance of five hundred miles from the spot 
 where they originally disembarked, and ultimately dictating 
 a peace within three days' march of the enemy's capital."* 
 In the month of January, 1825, while the army of Sir 
 Archibald Campbell was cooped up at Eangoon, General 
 Morrison, Avith his majesty's 44th and 54th regiments, about 
 200 European artillery, and several regiments of native in- 
 fantry and pioneers, who had all been assembled at Chitta- 
 gong, near the north-west frontier of the Burmese empire, be- 
 gan his march from Chittagong with the view of taking posses- 
 sion of the whole province of Arracan, and then reaching the 
 upper part of the Irawaddi, in the vicinity of the Burmese 
 capital. This line of march upon Ava was very short and 
 direct, compared with the course that Sir Archibald Camp- 
 bell had taken, as the reader will perceive by looking at the 
 map ; and, with the exception of a few mountain-passes, 
 which might have been cleared by proper manoeuvres and a 
 liberal employment of shrapnels, the country between 
 Chittagong and Ava was not of a very difficult nature. InTact 
 there was a fine road the only good road in the Burmese 
 empire which traversed the mountains of Arracan and ran 
 nearly the whole way to the city of Ava. Although the 
 road was annually frequented by native traders many of 
 w^hom were the Company's own subjects who went and 
 came between the Burmese capital and our frontiers, the 
 existence of the route does not appear to have been known 
 to those who planned the invasion. It wa^ afterwards 
 proved, practically, that an army with baggage, artillery, and 
 all its materiel^ might march from the upper part of the Ira- 
 waddi to Aeng, on our frontier, in less than twenty days, the 
 distance being not much more than 200 English miles. And 
 it appears scarcely doubtful, that if General Morrison had 
 pushed quickly through Arracan, vrithout halting to occupy 
 the unhealthy part of the coimtry, he would have cleared the 
 mountain-passes, and have reached the upper part of the 
 Irawaddi and the denuded capital, while all the forces of 
 the empire were engaged or were concentrating in the lowest 
 part of the river near Rangoon. General Morrison encoun- 
 tered none but the most contemptible opposition in his 
 march from Chittagong to the town of Arracan, a distance 
 
 * Lieutenant- Colonel Alexander M. Talloch, * Statistical Reports on 
 the Sickness, Mortality, and Invaliding among her Majesty's Troops,* &c. 
 
1826.] MAECH OF CAPTAIN EOSS. 499 
 
 of about 150 miles : but bis means of transport or sometbing 
 else must bave been defective, as it was tbe 1st of April 
 before be arrived at Arracan, and took possession of tbat 
 town witb a very trifling loss. And bere, in one of tbe 
 most unliealtby places anywbere between tbe tropics, be 
 halted to complete tbe occupation of tbe country wbere 
 tbere was bardJy anytbing left to subdue. And bere be put 
 his troops in quarters for tbe season of rain. In tbe month 
 of May, as the monsoon set in, fever began to appear, and it 
 continued augmenting, both in prevalence and severity, tiU. 
 scarcely a man was left fit for duty. Even to tbe animal 
 creation tbe climate seemed inimical ; scarcely a single indi- 
 genous quadruped of any description was met witb during 
 tbe stay of our troops ; and tbe cattle, horses, and elephants 
 which accompanied the force, deteriorated daily after their 
 arrival, and idtiraately perished by hundreds. The mortality 
 in tbe two British regiments, tbe unlucky 44th and 54th, 
 was prodigious : together they did not average above 1,004 
 men, and 595, or three-fifths of tbe whole, perished at Arra- 
 can in the course of eight months : his entire force was re- 
 duced to a state of inefficiency, for the sepoys suffered quite 
 as much as the British soldiers. 
 
 Tbe practical proof about the road was given by Captain 
 Ross, who, in March, 1826, when our army was returniag 
 homeward, marched with the 18th regiment of Madras in- 
 fantry, 50 pioneers, and aU the elephants of the army, from 
 Yandaboo, on the Irawaddi, to Aeng, crossing tbe Arracan 
 mountains by tbe excellent road, and finishing the march 
 within nineteen days.* 
 
 After tbe war was over, and aU our enormous expenses of 
 movement bad been incurred, great pains were taken to 
 procure an accurate knowledge of the Burmese country, and 
 of tbe best approaches to Ava, its capital ; and a mass, of 
 most valuable and correct information was obtaiued and 
 published. t Better late than never. But, if some of these 
 pains bad been taken antecedently to tbe commencement of 
 
 * * Two Years in Ava,' by an officer on the staff, &c. The author of 
 this interesting volume accompanied Captain David Ross on this march, 
 and gives an excellent account of the roads of the country, and of a 
 remarkable people called Kieaans, who inhabit the mountains, and are 
 gentle and hospitable. 
 
 t See ' Appendix of Topographical and Statistical Notices to Professor 
 Wilson's Documents Illustrative of the Burmese War.' 
 2 k2 
 
500 A MTJTIXY IN BENGAL. [1824. 
 
 hostilities, some millions of pounds sterling and some thou- 
 sands of human lives might possibly have been spared. 
 
 However managed, the Burmese war was a necessity. If 
 our government had yielded to the demands of territory ar- 
 rogantly demanded by the court of Ava, the Burmese and 
 their stockades would soon have been established on the 
 very threshold of Calcutta, and universal insurrection would 
 have been invited in our empire. " From the king to the 
 beggar they were all hot for a war with the English."* 
 Nothing but beating could have brought them to reason. 
 
 In the autumn of 1824, when the arduous Burmese war 
 was but beginning, an alarming mutiny broke out among 
 some of our Bengal sepoys, who were under marching 
 orders for Barrackpoor, whence thej^ were to proceed to the 
 Irawaddi. Although other Hindus had gone willingly 
 enough, and by sea, these sepoys, of the 47th native in- 
 fantry, pretended that they should lose caste if they went 
 by sea. It should appear that the men had, or thought 
 they had, other grievances to complain of. In the month 
 of October, when ordered to appear upon parade in march- 
 ing order, they appeared without their knapsacks, and 
 openly manifested their mutinous spirit. Their command- 
 ing officer. Colonel Cartwright, ordered the men back to 
 their quarters, and hurried to consult General Dalzell. 
 General Dalzell hastened down to Calcutta to consult the 
 commander-in-chief. On his return. General Dalzell ordered 
 a parade for the next day. The men appeared, but were 
 more mutinous than ever. In the ensuing night the muti>- 
 neers slept upon their arms, appointing guards, piquets, 
 patrols, &c. This brought Sir Edward Paget up from 
 Calcutta. Finding that the two other native regiments at 
 Barrackpoor were suspected of being infected, Sir Edward 
 called up two British regiments of the king's service 
 (the 1st Eoyals and the 47th), a battery of Hght artillery, 
 and part of the governor-general's body-guard. The mu- 
 tinous native 47th fell in on the parade-ground, but refused 
 to obey orders, and turned a deaf ear to the explanations 
 and the promises of pardon that were offered to them. 
 This left Sir Edward Paget nothing to do but to order a 
 round of grape-shot to be fired at them. Almost at the 
 first discharge the fellows broke, and fled in all directions, 
 
 * Deposition of John Laird, in Professor Wilson's * Documents Illus- 
 trative of the War,' &c. 
 
1825.] EEYOLrTIONS AT BHIJETPOOR. 501 
 
 throwing away tlieir arms and accoutrements. Only a few 
 were killed, but a good many were taken prisoners, brought 
 forthwith to trial by court-martial, and condemned to death. 
 The number of executions was, however, but small, the far 
 greater part of the mutineers having their sentence com- 
 muted to imprisonment and hard labour in irons. The regi- 
 ment was disbanded, and its name erased from the Kst of 
 the army. The mutiny spread no further. 
 
 In the early part of the year 1825, when but little pro- 
 gress had been made in the Burmese war, and when much 
 exaggerated reports were circulating all through India of 
 the difficulties, the checks, and reverses that Sir Archibald 
 Campbell was encountering, the attention of Lord Amherst 
 was demanded by certain proceedings at Bhurtpoor, which 
 did not terminate without causing great excitement and 
 some alarm. On the 26th of February (1825), the rajah 
 of Bhurtpoor, the ally of the Company, died, leaving his 
 son, Bulwunt Sing, a boy of tender years, to succeed him. 
 Knowing that the succession to the musnud could not fail 
 of being disputed, the deceased rajah, our ally, had im- 
 plored the protection of General Sir David Ochterlony for 
 nis young son ; and Sir David had acknowledged the boy's 
 right to the musnud, and had pledged his word to support 
 him. The rajah was scarcely cold when Doorjun Sal, cousin 
 to Bulwunt Sing, having gained over part of the Bhurt- 
 poor troops, murdered the uncle and guardian of the 
 young rajah, and seized the person of the helpless boy. 
 Sir David Ochterlony, who was at Delhi as commander of 
 the forces and political resident, forthwith assembled troops 
 and a battering-train, and put them in motion for Bhurt- 
 poor, issuing at the same time a proclamation to the Jaut 
 people of the Bhurtpoor country, in which he called upon 
 them to rise in defence of their lawful rajah, and told them 
 that the British troops were advancing to rescue Bulwunt 
 Sing. Lord Amherst and the supreme council disapproved 
 of all that Sir David Ochterlony had done, and sent him 
 peremptory orders to recall the troops that were marching 
 upon Bhurtpoor. Sir David was also commanded to withdraw 
 his proclamation to the Jauts, and to tell them that an inquiry 
 would be instituted by the British government into the 
 transactions which had taken place in Bhurtpoor. It was 
 clearly manifested that Lord Amherst and the council 
 wished to avoid any final arrangement of the Bhurtpoor 
 
502 THE JAri WAE. [1824-5. 
 
 question, and preferred putting up with temporary incon- 
 venience to the rushing into a new campaign at an unpro- 
 pitious season of the year, and at a time when so large a 
 portion of the attention and resources of goyemment 
 were demanded by the war on the Irawaddi. The veteran 
 Ochterlony was too brave a soldier to be startled by the 
 strength of Bhurtpoor or by any other obstacle, and much 
 too high-minded a man to undo what he had conscien- 
 tiously done, or willingly to abandon the boy after 
 promising his dying father that he would protect him. 
 Sir David tendered his resignation, declaring that he 
 should be guilty of falsehood if he acknowledged any con- 
 viction of having acted incorrectly or with impropriety. 
 Lord Amherst accepted the tendered resignation. Sir David 
 Ochterlony retired to Meerut, with a mortified and wounded 
 spirit, and there he died very soon after. The conqueror of 
 the Gorkhas, the man who remedied the blunders of others 
 in the Nepaul war, the veteran who had served the Com- 
 pany for half a century, was honoured by the high func- 
 tionaries of Calcutta with minute-guns and a complimentary 
 general order. 
 
 Yet, after all, the Calcutta government were compelled 
 to resort to the measures whicW Ochterlony had recom- 
 mended, and to undertake the siege of Bhurtpoor before 
 the war on the Irawaddi could be terminated. Doorjun Sal 
 quarrelled with his own brother, who had hitherto acted in 
 concert with him. This brother, after an unsuccessful 
 attempt to make himself master of Bhurtpoor, raised an 
 independent standard in the fortress of Deeg, subjected 
 or plundered all the neighbouring country, and invited 
 adventurers of all kinds to join and share his fortunes. 
 Doorjun Sal's troops were defeated in a battle near Deeg; 
 the Company's frontiers were thrown into a ferment. 
 Many of the Company's subjects took up arms, some to 
 join one, and some the other of the two contending bro- 
 thers; anarchy was threatening to return to the regions 
 from which she had been expelled by the marquis of 
 Hastings' successful wars against the Mahrattas and the 
 Pindarrees. And all the while the usurper was strengthen- 
 ing the always formidable fortress of Bhurtpoor, and the 
 native princes most inimical to the EngUsh were inculcating 
 the belief that that place could never be taken, and that the 
 Jauts were destined to be the rallying-point of India.* 
 
 * Bhurtpoor was the only fortress and the Jauts the only people in 
 
1825.] SIEGE OF BHUETPOOE. 503 
 
 At last, however, the govemor-general yielded to the 
 arguments contained in an admirable state-paper drawn up 
 by Sir Charles Metcalfe, and on the 18th of September, 
 just two months and three days after the death of Sir David, 
 determined to support the minor Bulwunt Sing. It was 
 not, however, until the 10th of December, 1825, that the 
 new commander-in-chief, Greneral Lord Combermere, who 
 had gained such high distinction under the duke of "Wel- 
 lington in the Peninsular war as Sir Stapleton Cotton, sat 
 down before Bhurtpoor with an army of upwards of 20,000 
 men, and a field of more than a hundred pieces of artillery. 
 The Jauts had cut the embankment of a lake, hoping to fill 
 the broad and deep ditch, as they had done in 1805, at the 
 time of Lord Lake's siege ; but our troops arrived before 
 much water had flowed into the ditch, and instantly made 
 themselves masters of the embankment, and repaired the 
 breach. On the next day, the 23rd of December, the be- 
 siegers, under a heavy fire of the garrison, completed their 
 first parallel ; and on the morning of the 24th two heavy 
 batteries opened upon the town. Other batteries opened in 
 quick succession, and during the rest of the month of 
 December a vast quantity of powder and ball were thrown 
 away. Scarcely a roof in. the town was left uninjured, but 
 neither cannon-shot nor shells could make any impression 
 on a tough mud wall from fifty to sixty feet thick. On the 
 evening of the 6th of January, our engineers began to do 
 what they ought to have done a fortnight earlier they 
 commenced a mine in the scarp of the ditch on the northern 
 face of the work. This mine was sprung before it was 
 sufficiently advanced to have any material eff'ect upon the 
 waU. In making a second attempt, our miners were coun- 
 termined by the garrison. The gallery of this mine was 
 subsequently blown up, it being discovered that the enemy 
 were keeping watch in it. A shot fired by the enemy set 
 fire to one of our tumbrils, and 20,000 lbs. weight of gun- 
 powder was blown up. On the 14ith, another mine, under 
 one of the bastions of Bhurtpoor, was exploded too preci- 
 pitately, and thus did little more than make a great smoke 
 and a loud noise. 
 
 Two more mmes were driven into the same work, and 
 
 India that boasted they had never been subdued either by the Mogul 
 emperors or the English. 
 
 " The Jauts," adds Bishop Heber, "are the finest people in bodily 
 advantages and apparent martial spirit whom I have seen in India." 
 
504 SIEGE OF BHUETPOOE. [1825. 
 
 these being sprung on the 16th, so far succeeded that, 
 with the aid of another day's battering, the breach was 
 reported to be practicable. On the 17th a mighty mine 
 was dug and crammed with powder under another angle of 
 the works ; and the following day was fixed for the storm. 
 Early in the morning of the 18th our storming-parties esta- 
 blished themselves in the advanced trenches. The left 
 breach, or that which was already practicable, was to be 
 mounted by the brigade of Greneral NicoUs, headed by his 
 majesty's 59th regiment ; the breach on the right was to be 
 mounted by General E-eynell's brigade, headed by his majes- 
 ty's 14th regiment: the explosion of the mine under the north- 
 east bastion was to be the signal for the attack. "With the 
 single exception, we believe, of the tremendous explosion 
 made, under the superintendence] of General Pasley, for 
 clearing the obstructions to the line of the Dover railway 
 and opening the road to the Shakspere Cliff, no mine can 
 bear comparison with this mine under the north-east angle 
 of Bhurtpoor. It is lamentable to add that the construction 
 of this Bhurtpoor mine was far from being so perfect as the 
 explosion it made was loud and sublime. At eight o'clock 
 in the morning the match was applied to the train, and 
 with terrific effect : the whole of the salient angle and part 
 of the stone cavalier behind it were lifted into the air, which 
 for some minutes, was as dark and black as the darkest 
 night ; all the garrison there were blown to the winds or 
 buried under the ruins. The breach was made, and more 
 than breach enough, but, owing to the defective construc- 
 tion of the mine, many of the ejected stones and masses 
 of earth fell upon the head of our column of attack, killing 
 a number of men and severely wounding three officers. The 
 stones fell so thickly about Lord Combermere himself, that 
 Brigadier- G-eneral Mac Combe was knocked down by his 
 side, and two sepoys were killed on the spot, within a few 
 feet of his lordship. 
 
 The troops, however, rushed on to the assault with 
 admirable spirit and in good order, ascended the breaches, 
 and cleared them in the teeth of a very determined oppo- 
 sition. On the left, where the ascent was steep and difficult, 
 our grenadiers moved up slowly and resolutely, without 
 stopping to draw a trigger in return for the volleys of round 
 shot, grape, and musketry which were fired upon them. 
 Within two hours all the ramparts and the command of the 
 
1825.] EEDUCTION OF BHUETPOOE. 505 
 
 gates of the citadel were in the possession of the besiegers, 
 and early in the afternoon the citadel surrendered. Briga- 
 dier-Greneral Sleigh, who commanded the cavalry, had taken 
 excellent measures, outside, to prevent the escape of Doorjun 
 Sal ; and when that chief, with 160 chosen horse, attempted 
 to force a passage, he was made prisoner by the 8th regi- 
 ment of light horse. One of his wives and two of his sons 
 were taken with him. They w^ere all sent prisoners to 
 Allahabad, to be supported by the Company. Our entire 
 loss, during the siege and storming, amounted to 61 Euro- 
 peans and 42 natives killed, and 283 Europeans and 183 
 natives wounded. The loss of the garrison was estimated 
 at 4,000 men, mostly killed, and for the most part killed by 
 the awful explosion of the last mine. 
 
 After the ammunition, arms, stores, &c. had been removed 
 to places of safety, the principal bastions, curtains, and other 
 important parts of the fortification, were blown into the air. 
 It was left to the monsoon rains to complete the ruin of 
 Bhurtpoor. Deeg, Biana, Kama, and all the other for- 
 tresses within the Bhurtpoor rajah's dominions, surrendered 
 immediately, and were occupied by British garrisons ; the 
 inhabitants returned quietly to their homes, and the young 
 rajah was reinstated under the protection of the British 
 government. Lord Combermere broke up his camp on the 
 20th of Eebruary, and returned to Calcutta. Thanks were 
 voted by parliament and by the Company ; and the prize- 
 money granted to the Company by the king was ordered by 
 the Court of Directors to be distributed among the army. 
 
 The attention of all India was fixed on the siege of Bhurt- 
 poor, on the issue of which, far more than on anything 
 which might happen in the Burmese empire, the renown of 
 the British arms and the permanency of the British empire 
 in Asia were felt to depend. Our officers rejoiced at the 
 opportunity ofiered for effacing the injurious impression 
 which had been made by Lord Lake's failure ; yet they 
 admitted that, should our army fail again, few events would 
 go so near to fulfil the shout of a mob which had been 
 heard in the streets of Delhi a few months before : " The 
 rule of the Company is at an end!" All the surrounding 
 principalities were in a ferment, and most of them would 
 nave been up in arms, if Lord Combermere had not suc- 
 ceeded or had not been rapid in his achievement. " Should 
 he fail," wrote Bishop Heber, " it is unhappily but too 
 
506 EESIGNATION OF LOED AMHEEST. [1827. 
 
 true, that all northern and western India, every man who 
 owns a sword and can buy or steal a horse, from the Sut- 
 ledge to the Nerbudda, mil be up against us, less from 
 disliking us than in the hope of booty. And, still more 
 unfortunately, it is not easy to say where another army can 
 be found to meet them, now that Bombay is fully occupied 
 on the side of Scinde ;* and the strength of British India is 
 in Ava." But Lord Combermere's rapid triumph com- 
 pletely destroyed the prestige of the Jauts, overawed aU the 
 native chiefs, checked the disposition to revolt, and com- 
 pletely confirmed the supremacy of Britain over the whole of 
 India. The fall of Bhiu-tpoor moreover carried dismay or 
 discouragement to the court of Ava, and to many countries 
 beyond the limits of India. 
 
 In the course of the following year Lord Amherst pro- 
 ceeded to the upper provinces. During his stay at Delhi, 
 a final settlement took place of the relations in which the 
 British government in India and the poor descendant of 
 the Great Moguls stood towards each other. An end was 
 now put to that prejudicial fiction highly prejudicial to the 
 English, and of no benefit to the king of Delhi or to any 
 other party that our governor-general was but the vassal 
 of the Mogul Shah. Our sovereignty was now openly 
 asserted, and an end was thus put to many causes of embar- 
 rassment and of false or anomalous positions. There was 
 no lustre to be gained from borrowing the name or autho- 
 rity of so discredited a prince, and one so weak in intellect 
 as the shah, who gladly resigned a shadowy suzerainty for 
 the sake of a little more hard cash. 
 
 Having returned to Calcutta, Lord Amherst resigned the 
 provisional government into the hands of W. B. Bayley, 
 Esq., and embarked for England at the close of the month of 
 March, 1827. His lordship, as well as the directors at 
 home, had been sufficiently anxious for peace, yet nearly 
 the whole of his administration had been occupied by wars. 
 During a good part of this administration the army of India 
 was kept np to the stupendous amount of an efiective force 
 of 274,000 men! 
 
 * The ameers of Scinde were again becoming very troublesome. During 
 the Burmese war, and just before the siege of Bhurtpoor, they invaded 
 Cutch, throwing everything into confusion there, and menacing the ter- 
 ritories of the Guicowar and even the Bombay presidency. 
 
1828.] LOED W. BENTINCK aOYEEITOE-GENEEAL. 507 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 The new governor-general was Lord "William Bentinct, 
 whose former Indian career, as governor of Madras, had not 
 been a very fortunate one. 
 
 His lordship landed at Calcutta on the 4th of July, 1828, 
 when Mr. Bayley's provisional authority ceased. 
 
 The Burmese and Bhurtpoor wars had added more than 
 13,000,000 sterling to the registered debt of India. Upon 
 his lordship was, therefore, imposed the generally unpopular 
 duty of carrying into effect measures of economy, retrench- 
 ment, and reduction. A system of economy was introduced 
 into various departments of the government. Murmurs 
 were heard from all sides a dishke, which seemed to be 
 almost universal, was expressed ; but his lordship pleaded 
 his imperative instructions and orders from home, and con- 
 soled himself with the conviction that he was doing his 
 duty. Several governors-general had been instructed by 
 the Court of Directors to abolish sundry allowances made ta 
 the army under the name of batta, half-batta, etc. ; but for 
 fourteen years and more they had all shrunk from the odium 
 and perhaps the danger attendant on this abohtion. But 
 Lord William resolved to obey his orders, and most of these 
 allowances were abolished almost as soon as his lordship 
 reached Bengal, much more to the dissatisfaction of the 
 army than to the real benefit of the Company. The rupees 
 saved were not worth the good spirit which was sacrificed, 
 and which some men think has not yet been perfectly 
 recovered. The conduct of his lordship was disapproved 
 by two of the members of the supreme council, by Sir Charles 
 T. Metcalfe and W. B. Bayley, Esq., both men of ability and 
 of great experience in India, and both of opinion that the 
 Company and the British empire in India were not to be 
 served or saved by means of petty savings. To Lord Com- 
 bermere, the commander-in-chief, this and other changes 
 
508 THE SUTTEE. [1828. 
 
 were so distasteful, that his lordship resigned and came 
 home. 
 
 The chief command of our Anglo-Indian forces afterwards 
 devolved upon Major-Greneral Sir Edward Barnes, who had 
 proved himself to be an admirable soldier in Spain, in the 
 south of France, and on the field of Waterloo, and an en- 
 lightened and excellent governor in the island of Ceylon ; 
 but, in 1833, when Sir Edward resigned, and when the 
 government of Earl Grrey seemed to be firmly established, 
 Lord "William Bentinck, who had been an unlucky general 
 on the eastern coast of Spain, added the functions of com- 
 mander-in-chief to those of governor-general. 
 
 His authority could not reach to the king's troops, but 
 his lordship abolished flogging in the native part of the 
 army, by a general order. This, however, he did not do 
 unti the very eve of his departure for Europe. Doubts are 
 entertained, even by those who are no advocates for corporal 
 punishment, and who reprobate the excess to which these 
 punishments were once carried, whether the entire mass^of 
 the Indian army, European as well as native, has not been 
 seriously injured by this regulation. The sepoy cares very 
 little for confinement, or the other punishments which have 
 been substituted for the lash ; and the British soldier feels 
 himself doubly degraded by the lash, when he sees that, 
 while he is exposed to it, the black soldier is not to be 
 touched by it. The frequent acts of indiscipline which have 
 broken out of late years among the sepoys, not without cre- 
 ating a painful alarm in England, as well as in India, have 
 been in good part attributed to this reform of Lord William 
 Bentinck. 
 
 Erom the time of Warren Hastings, every governor- 
 general, in common with every man possessing an English 
 heart in India, had deplored the revolting practices, the ob- 
 scenity, and the cruelty inherent to the corrupted and cor- 
 rupting religion of the Hindus ; and if our men in authority 
 had somewhat overrated the difficulty of abolishing these prac- 
 tices, and had approached them with a timid step, through 
 the persuasion that any bolder attempt would lead to uni- 
 versal rebellion and carnage, still, in the course of half a cen- 
 tury, various experiments had been tried, and a good deal had 
 been done, by slow degrees, towards a wholesome reforma- 
 tion. Lord Teignmouth, who was deeply impressed with reli- 
 gious feelings, had done much ; and the Marquis Wellesley 
 
1828.] THE SUTTEE. 509 
 
 who came after him and because lie did come after him 
 was enabled to do a good deal more. If very much had 
 been attempted at once, the experiment woidd have failed. 
 Lord "William Bentinck could do more than the Marquia 
 "Wellesley had done, because he came a quarter of a century- 
 after that illustrious man. The marquis had put down the 
 horrible annual sacrifices of human life which had been cele- 
 brated for many ages on Sagor Island; and he had laid dowB 
 the principle that all such superstitious enormities were to be 
 gradually and cautiously, yet resolutely checked.* The suttee 
 {sati, from the Sanscrit sat, good) or the act of self-immolation 
 by Hindu widows, is described by Grreek writers of the age 
 of Alexander the Great, and it was in all probability an an- 
 cient custom in their time. Diodorus relates an instance of 
 a suttee which occurred in the army of Eumenes upwards 
 of three hundred years before the Christian era ; and he 
 ascribes the zeal for this kind of self-sacrifice, in most 
 instances, to the infamy which attached to those widows who 
 refused to conform to the custom, or to burn themselves 
 with the bodies of their deceased husbands. This is also the 
 view taken of the custom by our missionaries ; but Mr. 
 Mountstuart Elphinstone has observed, in the first volume 
 of his admirable " History of India," that if the motive were 
 one of so general an influence, the practice would scarcely be 
 80 rare.f In modem times, at least, it has been exceedingly- 
 rare. In Upper India, where the holiest of the cities of the 
 Hindus abound, the practice is by no means common. 
 Bishop Heber found it common nowhere except in Bengal 
 and some parts of Bahar. In the year 1821, during the 
 administration of the marquis of Hastings, a bold blow 
 was aimed at the custom, by arresting a man who had 
 assisted at a suttee, and by trying him for murder before an 
 
 * Marquis Wellesley, * Indian Despatches,* &c. 
 
 t On the curious subject of suttee, read Moor, * Hindii Pantheon ;' 
 Bishop Heber, ' Indian Journal; * ' Penny Cyclopaedia,' article Suttee ; 
 Arthur Steele, ' Summary of the Laws and Customs of Hindu Castes.' 
 This last-named amiable and accomplished man returned from Bombay 
 to Europe with his patron and friend Mr. Elphinstone in 1828. He was 
 about returning to India when, in the summer of 1829, he paid a visit to 
 some friends in Ireland, and got drowned while bathing in a little rive/, 
 scarcely more than & brook. I knew him well, and still lament his 
 loss. Young, active, enthusiastic in the pursuit of knowledge, and im- 
 bued with the soundest and best principles, he bade fair to be one of the 
 foremost men in the Indian service a service which requires eminent 
 men as much as ever it did. 
 
510 THE SUTTEE. [1829- 
 
 English court of justice. In 1826, during the administra- 
 tion of Lord Amherst, and nearly two years before Lord 
 William Bentinck arrived at Calcutta, the evil practice was 
 seriously circumscribed by legal enactments ; the govern- 
 ment declared the burning of a widow without the body of 
 the deceased husband to be illegal ; and all persons, whether 
 relations or others, aiding or abetting in such an act, either 
 before or after the death of the husband, were to be com- 
 mitted for trial at the circuit courts, and be made liable to 
 the pimishments inflicted for murder and homicide. Even 
 before this time no woman was supposed to be burned with- 
 out her own wish duly certified to a magistrate. And now 
 the burning of a widow was declared to be illegal under 
 various circumstances. In fact, only those suttees were to 
 be considered lawful where the widow appeared in court 
 and solicited permission in person from the magistrate. 
 At the same time, all the property, real and personal, in 
 actual possession of the deceased husband and widow who 
 performed suttee (even though under the sanction of the 
 proper authorities), was declared to be forfeited to go- 
 vernment. Moreover, it was declared that no person 
 should be eligible to any oifice or employment whatsoever 
 under government, in whose family a suttee should take 
 place from this time forward. All this legislation, which 
 was quietly submitted to, and was productive of the desired 
 efiect, really left Lord William Bentinck very little to do, 
 and rendered the execution of that little a safe and easy 
 task. It is absolute nonsense, and something worse, to over- 
 look everything that was done by his predecessors, and to 
 attribute to his lordship the sole merit of putting down the 
 fiuttees. On the 14th of December, 1829, Lord William 
 Bentinck, as governor-general, and Lord Combermere, W. 
 B. Bayley, Esq., and Sir Charles T. Metcalfe, as members 
 of the supreme council of Calcutta, passed a regulation 
 declaring the practice of suttee, or burning or burying 
 alive the widows of Hindus, with or without the bodies 
 of their deceased husbands, to be abominable, illegal, and 
 punishable by the criminal courts. We believe that between 
 the year 1826, or the time when Lord Amherst's regulations 
 were passed, and the end of 1829, hardly any suttees had 
 been known to occur in Bengal. 
 
 ^ Lord William Bentinck made the tour of the upper pro- 
 vinces. Quitting Simla in the month of October, 1831, his 
 
1831.] VISIONS OF A. BrEXES. 511 
 
 lordship proceeded to the territories of the protected Seikhs, 
 and halted at Eoopur, a town situated on the banks of the 
 Sutledge just where that river quits the mountains and 
 enters the plains of Hindustan. Here he was met by that 
 powerful Seikh ruler, Maharajah Eunjeet Sing, the lord 
 and lion of Lahore, who made professions of the warm- 
 est friendship, having then a fresh and lively recollection 
 of the great English dray-horse and the other presents 
 which Lieutenant Burnes had carried to him a short 
 time before. The governor-general had seen this very 
 adventurous and self-confident young of&cer (Burnes) during 
 his recent stay at Simla, and this ill-omened meeting con- 
 tributed not a little to those frightful catastrophes in 
 Afghanistan with which the name of Burnes must be inse- 
 parably connected. Burnes had ascended the Indus from 
 its mouth, between Cutch and Scinde, as far as Lahore, and, 
 though he had ascertained that, for the extent of a thousand 
 miles, from the sea to Eunjeet Sing's capital, there might 
 be an uninterrupted navigation, and that, by the agency of 
 steam, that famed river might be made a valuable commercial 
 highway if the fierce ameers of Scinde, who exercised do- 
 minion or perpetuated an anarchy along its banks, could be 
 reclaimed from their habits ; and if the countries to which 
 the Indus afforded access could speedily become (what they 
 certainly had not been for many ages) the homes of a 
 numerous, industrious, agricultural population, with wants 
 to be supplied by European industry and ingenuity. The 
 high-road of trade lay across the Indus, and not up the 
 river. Lieutenant Burnes, however, proud of the novel 
 voyage he had made, seemed to think that, merely by sending 
 a few steamboats, or framing a treaty or two with the 
 beggarly barbarians dwelling on the banks, a great and 
 profitable trade might be created forthwith, and that, rather 
 than lose this chance, the Indian government ought to incur 
 almost any expense or risk. And, far beyond the Indus 
 and the Punjaub, or the regions watered by the five rivers, 
 in the country of the pastoral and warlike Afghans, and 
 farther still, in the wilds and deserts which lie between 
 India and the Caspian Sea, Lieutenant Burnes had built up 
 sundry little visions, besides the bright, innocent, and laud- 
 able one of making large additions to our geographical 
 knowledge. His design, he says, received the most liberal 
 encouragement from the governor-general. Lord WiUiam 
 
512 TREATY -VYITH THE AMEEES OF SCINDE. [1831. 
 
 Bentinck.* Encouraged and aided in various ways by his 
 lordship, Burnes, with a small party, descended the Sut- 
 ledge, crossed the Hyphasis near to the spot where Lord 
 Lake had encamped, and where Alexander the Great was 
 supposed to have halted, and then went on by the town of 
 Peshawer, and the pass of Luta-Bund, to the city of Cabul, 
 where Dost Mohamed Khan then reigned almost vrithout a 
 competitor. This Dost Mohamed, whom it was afterwards 
 Burnes's destiny to assist in deposing, received him with 
 much friendship and hospitality ; and it was during his stay 
 at Cabul, and his travels through the rest of Afghanistan, 
 that our countryman contracted his very unsound notions 
 as to the facility of managing the Afghans, and establishing 
 intimate connections in their country. Continuing his 
 journey, and traversing mountains, rivers, and deserts, and 
 going through Balkh, Kurshee, Bokhara, Shurukhs, and 
 Astrabad, Burnes safely reached Teheran, the capital of 
 Persia ; and as he and his small party had succeeded ^by 
 means of the friendly assistance of the different rulers of the 
 countries through which they passed, and by attaching 
 themselves to different caravans in crossing the hungry 
 deserts of Tartary, and in surmounting other obstacles, he 
 concluded that a Russian, or Eusso-Persian army, strong 
 enough to contend with the British for the dominion of 
 India, and with all the materiel of artillery, stores, etc., 
 might overcome those difficulties likewise ; and might, pos- 
 sibly, by moving in the direction opposite to that which 
 he took, reach and go through the mountain-passes of 
 Afghanistan, cross the Punjaub and the Sutledge, and deploy 
 in the plains of Hindustan ! 
 
 In conformity with, the opinions expressed to him at 
 Simla by Burnes, Lord "William Bentinck despatched 
 Colonel Pottinger to effect a treaty with the ameers of 
 Scinde another easily-to-be-managed set of men, accord- 
 ing to our sanguine explorer of the Indus. These ameers, 
 who were only a little less lawless and rapacious than the 
 Pindarree chiefs of former days, gladly accepted the pre- 
 sents and promises that were offered them, and concluded 
 with Pottinger certain agreements for allowing the Indus 
 to be opened and navigated by our trading vessels, whose 
 trade was to be found hereafter. Thus were we brought 
 
 * Lieutenant Alexander Burnes, F.R.S., &c. Preface to ' Travels in 
 Bokhara,' &c., 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1834. 
 
1835.] EETIEEMENT OF LOED W. BENTIXCK. 513 
 
 into correspondence and a sort of connection with the ameers 
 of Scinde. The immediate consequence was a great jea- 
 lousy and alarm on the part of that older ally, Runjeet Sing, 
 the Lion of Lahore. 
 
 The only military achievement during the administration 
 of Lord William was of a very insignificant character. 
 The rajah of Coorg, a son of that faithful ally who had 
 rendered most valuable services to the British during the 
 siege of Seringapatam, was a monster in cruelty, and faith- 
 less to the last degree. He misgoverned his country, 
 ground the faces of his subjects, established a complete 
 reign of terror, and outrageously insulted the Company. 
 After vain attempts at negotiation, a small armament was 
 sent against him. On the 6th of April, 1834, the miserable 
 little capital of Coorg surrendered to Brigadier Lindsay, 
 and on the 10th the rajah delivered himself up. So ex- 
 tensive had been his murders, that not a member of the 
 family, save himself, was left alive. His dewan, or chief 
 minister, who was reported to have urged him on in his 
 mad career, was found in the jungle, hanging by the neck 
 on a tree. All the Coorg territories were assumed by the 
 Company, and placed under direct British rule, conformably 
 with a minute drawn up by Lord "William at Bangalore. 
 
 His lordship, whose health was failing, resigned the 
 governor-generalship, and quitted Calcutta for England, in 
 March, 1835. 
 
 2 I 
 
614 HOME LEGISLATION. [1813-33. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 It was very generally foreseen, even at the time of passing 
 it, that the act of 1813, which made the first great inroad on 
 the Company' s'exclusive commercial privileges, would be but 
 the introduction to far more extensive changes in the Com- 
 pany's charter. From the year 1813 down to 1833, the 
 advocates for free trade never rested, and there was a suc- 
 cession of enactments and regulations all subversive of 
 the old monopoly. In 1820, committees of parliament 
 were nominated to inquire into the foreign trade of the 
 nation, and to deliberate on the means of extending it. 
 Among other branches of trade, that with India and China 
 claimed a large portion of the attention of these committees. 
 In both houses of parliament, and in the country at large, 
 the notion had long prevailed that the monopoly the East- 
 India Company had of the trade of China was injurious 
 to the interest of commerce in general. But many who 
 entertained this notion felt, at the same time, that it would 
 be difficult for any body of men, less organized and expe- 
 rienced than the Company, to carry on a trade with so strange 
 a people as the Chinese, without being constantly involved 
 in quarrels. 
 
 In May, 1820, Mr. Canning, then president of the Board 
 of Control, pressed on the attention of the Court of Directors 
 the expediency of establishing an entrepot in the Eastern 
 Archipelago, where British ships might take in tea for 
 foreign Europe ; and he pointed out the expediency of the 
 Company's allotting a portion of their tonnage to China, 
 to the free use of the British public. The Court of Directors 
 alleged that, without the monopoly of the China trade, they 
 could neither preserve their territories in India, nor pay 
 their dividends in England. They declined being parties to 
 any change in the China trade, and expressed a hope, 
 
1813-33.] ALTEEATIONS Or THE CHAETEE. 515 
 
 or rather a wish, that it might be left as regulated by 
 the act of 1813. The committee of the Commons, in 
 their report of July, 1821, stated that they could not 
 concur in all the apprehensions entertained by the Com- 
 pany of the consequences of even a partial relaxation of 
 their monopoly ; but, at the same time, they acknowledged 
 that the Chinese monopoly was of the utmost importance 
 to the prosperity of the Company, and of all connected 
 with it. It was, however, unavoidable that some concessions 
 should be made to the loud demands of free trade and 
 political economy ; and in the course of the year 1821, 
 British ships were permitted to carry on trade between all 
 parts within the limits of the charter, and all ports, whe- 
 ther in Europe or elsewhere, belonging to countries in amity 
 with Great Britain. The Company also consented to relin- 
 quish the restriction as to the tonnage of ships engaging in 
 the India trade. From this time down to 1827, no legis- 
 lative alterations were made ; but the subjects of India and 
 China trade were several times brought before parliament, 
 and a warm discussion upon them was kept up by means 
 of reviews, magazines, pamphlets, and newspapers. In May, 
 1827, shortly after Mr. Canning had been gazetted as first 
 lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. 
 Whitmore moved, in the Commons, for the appointment 
 of a select committee to inquire into the trade between 
 Great Britain and the East. Mr. Whitmore did not 
 hesitate to recommend the entire dissolution of the " China 
 monopoly." Mr. Canning was to a great extent a free- 
 trader ; a large section of his present supporters were 
 declared antagonists to monopolies and restrictions of all 
 kinds ; and Mr. Huskisson, his colonial secretary, was a 
 leader and oracle of the free-traders and political economists ; 
 nevertheless, Mr. "Whitmore's motion was opposed, on the 
 ground that the proper time was approaching for recon- 
 sidering the whole of the Company's charter and system 
 of trade. Mr. Canning died in the month of August; 
 the Goderich administration fell to pieces in a very few 
 months ; Mr. Huskisson and his friends of the free-trade 
 school resigned ; and in January, 1828, the duke of Wel- 
 lington became prime minister. In May, 1829, Mr. 
 Huskisson presented a strong petition from the merchants 
 of Liverpool, praying for the removal of aU restrictions on 
 2l2 
 
516 POLITICAL CHANGES. [1830. 
 
 the trade witli India and China. In the month of February, 
 1830, Lord EUenboroiigh moved for the appointment of a 
 select committee of the House of Lords to inquire into the 
 present state of the affairs of the East-India Company, 
 and the trade between Grreat Britain, the East Indies, and 
 China. His lordship said, that the Company had afforded 
 all the aid in their power to increase the facilities given 
 to the external and internal trade of India ; that the most 
 important questions for parliament now to decide were, 1st, 
 "Whether it would be possible to conduct the government 
 of India, directly or indirectly, without the assistance of 
 the Company ? 2nd. Whether the assistance of the Com- 
 pany should be afforded in the manner in which it had 
 hitherto been afforded, or in some other way ? On the 
 same day, Mr. Secretary Peel moved in the Commons for 
 a committee for the same purpose, stating that he proposed 
 its appointment with the plain and honest view of having a 
 full and unreserved investigation of the affairs of the Com- 
 pany, and not for the purpose of ratifying any charter or 
 engagement previously existing between the government 
 and the Company. Committees were appointed by both, 
 houses. Their reports were unfavourable to the Company, 
 whose evidence had been taken. 
 
 The deatli of George lY., on the 26tli of June, 1830, led 
 to the prorogation of parliament on the 23rd of July, and 
 to its dissolution on the day following. The new parliament 
 met on the 26th of October ; on the 15th of JSTovember the 
 ministry was broken up, and on the 22nd Earl G-rey was 
 gazetted as prime minister. The Right Honourable Charles 
 Grant (now Lord Glenelg) succeeded Lord Ellenborough as 
 head of the Board of Control. This gentleman and his 
 family had been closely connected with the Company, and 
 had owed much of their fortune and illustration to the 
 Indian service ; but these considerations did not prevent the 
 newly-appointed president of the Board of Control from 
 going along with his official colleagues. Mr. Grant, as 
 president of the Board of Control, moved, on the 4th of 
 Eebruary, 1831, for the re-appointment of the committee on 
 East-India affairs. This committee, however, was scarcely 
 appointed ere parliament was dissolved. The new parlia- 
 ment assembled on the 14th of June, and, losing no time, 
 Mr. Grant, on the 28th, moved again for the renewal of the 
 committee. This was readily voted. 
 
1832.] INDIA COMMITTEE. 517 
 
 In the course of the debate, ministers complained that the 
 Company had not petitioned for a renewal of their charter. 
 The Court of Directors deemed it the most prudent course 
 to abstain from petitioning parliament, and to leave it to 
 the Company's adversaries to make out their case first. The 
 chairs, in a conference with the president of the Board of 
 Control, on the 7th of July, urged the necessity of being 
 put in possession of the views of his majesty's government 
 at the earliest possible period. In the mean time the table 
 of the House of Commons had been loaded with petitions, 
 from merchants and others, against the renewal of the 
 Company's charter upon its former terms. Mr. Langton, a 
 merchant of Liverpool, decidedly impugned the general 
 integrity of the Company's accounts. " This," adds an 
 official of the Court of Directors, " was, in fact, the only 
 remaining point ; and had it been proved vulnerable, the 
 public might have proposed their own terms, and have 
 placed the Company at the entire mercy of parliament, 
 without any apparent plea of justice to rest upon in support 
 of the interests of the proprietors." * Mr. Langton failed in 
 convincing the house that he had made out his case. The 
 session terminated on the 20th of October. On the 27th 
 of January, 1832, the president of the Board of Control, 
 still the Eight Honourable Charles Grrant, moved for the 
 re-appointment of the select committee. 
 
 A general committee on the affairs of the East-India 
 Company being appointed, it was divided into six sub- 
 committees : 1. Public ; 2. Finance, accounts, and trade ; 
 3. Revenue ; 4. Judicial ; 5. Military ; 6. Political. Their 
 labours terminated in August, 1832, when the several 
 reports were all laid before the house, and ordered to be 
 printed.! 
 
 On the whole, the reports were highly honourable to the 
 Company. It was admitted that the whole system, which 
 had united commerce with government, and allowed of the 
 trade monopoly, had not been unattended with advantages ; 
 
 * Peter Auber, ' Rise and Progress of the British Power in India.' 
 f These ' Reports ' filled more than 8,000 pages of close print. These, 
 with the matter previously given to parliament, made an aggregate of 
 about 14,000 closely-printed folio pages ! 
 
 The public reports touched upon the important subjects of local govern- 
 ment, law, police, patronage, education civil and military, education of 
 natives, liberty of the press in India, settlement of Europeans in the 
 country, &c. 
 
518 INDIA COMMITTEE. [1832. 
 
 that without that system our vast empire in the East could 
 not have been created could never have been enlarged, as 
 it had been, during seasons of depression and disgrace, and 
 bad or weak government at home ; that the finances of 
 India had derived advantage from their existing connections 
 with the commerce of the Company, through the direct ap- 
 plication of surplus commercial profits, and by the rates of 
 exchange at which tlie Board of Control decided that the 
 territorial advances from commerce in England should be 
 repaid to commerce in India. But our empire in the East 
 was formed, and semed to be so firmly established as to defy 
 every attack ; and our free-traders and political economists, 
 again forgetting that we must have the one to secure the other 
 tliat without our sovereignty the wealth and resources of 
 India would be absorbed in a maelstrom of anarchy were 
 incessantly declaring that free trade with India and China 
 was worth more than our empire. 
 
 No longer able to stand aloof, or to decline entering 
 into negotiation about the charter with his majesty's 
 government, the Court of Directors sent their chairman 
 and deputj^-chairman to confer w4th Earl Grey and Mr. 
 Grrant. This interview was followed up by a long corre- 
 spondence, and an interchange of propositions and counter- 
 propositions, which must be read in full in order to be 
 understood. The grand change proposed by government 
 was simply this that the East-India Company should 
 cease to trade, and devote its undivided attention to the 
 arduous duties of governing, in conjunction with the Board 
 of Control, our empire in the East. "With respect to the 
 competency of India to answer all just demands on her 
 exchequer, Mr. Grant said that no rational doubt could 
 exist. A revenue which had been steadily progressing 
 during the last twenty years, which had now reached the 
 annual amount of 22,000,000 sterling, and which promised 
 still to increase ; a territory almost unlimited in extent ; a 
 soil rich and fertile, and suited to every kind of produce ; 
 great resources not yet explored ; a people, generally speak- 
 ing, patient, laborious, improving, and evincing both the 
 desire and capacity of further improvement ; these, Mr. 
 Grant thought, were sufficient pledges that our treasury in 
 the East, under wdse management, would be more than 
 adequate to meet the current expenditure. The Court of 
 Directors, after sundry murmurs, contended for a guarantee, 
 
1833.] COFET OF PEOPEIETOES. 519 
 
 or some collateral security, for tlie payment of i;lie divi- 
 dends, and ultimately (if necessary) for the capital, to 
 the holders of East-India shares. The duke of Wellington 
 and Lord Ellenborough had told the chairman of the court, 
 in 1830, that the proprietors had full security for their 
 dividends and capital in the commercial assets, and in the 
 fixed property in India, which might be deemed to appertain 
 to the Company in its trading capacity. Now Mr. G-rant 
 assured the court that his majesty's government was willing 
 and anxious to fortify the interests of the proprietors by a 
 collateral security, in the shape of a sinking fund, formed 
 by the investment of a portion of the commercial assets in 
 the national stocks, Mr. G-rant proposed, as a sufficient 
 sum, 1,200,000. 
 
 Nevertheless the court asked for further explanations, 
 and demanded that the sinking fund, or guarantee fund, 
 should be at least 2,000,000 sterling. The Court of Direc- 
 tors could not give their assent to the plan of ministers 
 without the sanction of the Court of Proprietors. Two or 
 three years earlier such a sanction could scarcely have been 
 hoped for, and the motion for it would have called together 
 all the proprietors that were not bed-ridden or out of the 
 country ; but now, on the 3rd of May, 1833, it was decided 
 in a general court, by 477 votes, against a minority of 
 52, that, provided the' guarantee fund were raised to 
 2,000,000, and some other money conditions complied 
 with, the plan of ministers should be accepted, and the 
 Company cease to be a trading company.* 
 
 On the 27th of May Mr. Grrant expressed the satisfaction 
 with which his majesty's government had learned the ter- 
 mination of the appeal to the ballot in Leadenhall- street. 
 He stated it to be the anxious wish of ministers to accommo- 
 date themselves, as far as possible, to the views and feelings 
 of the Company, and he agreed to increase the guarantee 
 fiind to 2,000,000. Other minor points were yielded, as 
 requested by the Court of Directors, or by the general 
 court. The Court of Directors had conceived that the 
 government, through the Board of Control, intended to 
 claim and exercise a veto on the recall of governors-general, 
 
 * " The attendance in this general court was but thin, if we consider the 
 magnitude of the question. 529 votes were scarcely a fourth part of the 
 proprietor?, and a little beyond a third part of the number who have 
 attended to vote in favour of a candidate for the direction." Auber. 
 
520 THE COMPANY [1S33. 
 
 &G., as exercised by tlie Court of Directors. On this point 
 Mr. Grrant said, " If the words have been inserted, in conse- 
 quence of the hint thrown out in the memorandum that 
 the board should have a veto on the recall of governors and 
 military commanders in India, I must state that it is not 
 the intention of his majesty's ministers to insist on that 
 suggestion." Thus the power of recall was left undisturbed 
 in the hands of the directors. 
 
 On the 13th of June Mr. Grrant, in a committee of the 
 whole house, brought before parliament the subject of the 
 Company's charter, and explained the changes which were 
 about to be made in it. The whole of the transaction was 
 to be entirely free from the finances of this country. It was 
 proposed to establish a fourth government in the western 
 provinces of India; to extend considerably the powers of 
 the governor-general ; to appoint a supreme council of legis- 
 lature, with power to make laws and draw up a code for 
 India ; to define the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court ; ta 
 render the presidencies of Madras and Bombay still more 
 subordinate to the governor-general, and to reduce the 
 councils of those two presidencies. On the 29th of June a 
 printed copy of the bill was submitted to the Court of 
 Directors. That court concurred generally, but ofiered 
 some particular objections. They complained that the bill 
 "placed the whole control in the supreme government^ 
 thereby not only interfering with the control exercised by 
 the home authorities, but investing the governor-general 
 with a sway almost absolute, and rendering it scarcely pos- 
 sible always to select a fit person to be intrusted with 
 authority of such magnitude." 
 
 The court thought that there was no necessity for incur- 
 ring the charge of a fourth presidency ; that the councils 
 of Madras and Bombay ought not to be reduced ; and that 
 it would be very unwise to deprive the commanders-in- 
 chief of the armies of those two presidencies of the seats in 
 council which had been usually allotted to them. The 
 court expressed their satisfaction that the bill reserved 
 to them the necessary powers regarding the laws which the 
 supreme council might enact affecting the natives, and 
 likewise the provincial courts, which laws were also to be 
 subject to the king's approbation. 
 
 On the 12th August the Court of Directors came to the 
 resolution that they could not do otherwise than recom- 
 
1833.] GITES TIP TEADE. 521 
 
 mend tlie proprietors to defer to the pleasure expressed hy 
 both houses of parliament, and to consent to place their 
 right to trade for their own profit in abeyance, in order 
 that they might continue to exercise the government of 
 India for the further term of twenty years, upon the con 
 ditions and under the arrangements embodied in the bill. 
 
 On the 16th of August the proprietors assembled in a 
 very thin general court, and resolved that the bill ought to 
 be accepted. The bill was read a third time in the House 
 of Lords on the evening of this same day, and on the 28th 
 of August it became law, the royal assent being given to it 
 by commission. The rapidity with which it was carried 
 through parliament was thought as extraordinary as the 
 change which it aflected in the character of the Company 
 was extensive. 
 
 The Court of Directors, whose number was continued at 
 twenty-four, now ceased to be merchant-princes: giving 
 up the trade of India and China to others, they retained only 
 their governing faculties. The great mansion in Leaden- 
 hall-street is no longer a mart or place for buying and selling; 
 hence many of its ofiices are deserted and closed, and some- 
 thing resembling the tranquillity of the cloisters prevails, 
 throughout the edifice ; but it is still the spot where the 
 stupendous machinery oifthe Indian government is regulated^ 
 and where administrative details are considered ; it is- 
 still the crown of the arch which supports a mighty 
 system, and most, though not quite all, the keys are kept 
 there which open one of the noblest and most extensive 
 fields for the display of British energy, ability, and enter- 
 prise. Nor can we avoid feeling that it was a blessed 
 chance which kept the patronage of India from being 
 absorbed and monopolized by the ministers of the crown, 
 and thereby made dependent upon mere parliamentary in- 
 fluences. 
 
 During the parliamentary debates on the bill, many 
 tributes of admiration were paid to the past conduct of the 
 honourable court and of the men the Company had trained 
 and employed. Lord Ellenborough, who had devoted much 
 of his time to the study of Indian afiairs, applauded the 
 achievements of the Company's servants both in peace and 
 in war, and doubted whether there was anything in the 
 new theory which would produce such men or such deeds. 
 The duke of Wellington declared that, from what he saw 
 
522 OPINIONS OF THE DITKE OF WELLINaTON. [1833. 
 
 during his long residence in the country, and from what he 
 had seen since in other countries, he believed that the govern- 
 ment of India was one of the best and most purely admi- 
 nistered governments that ever existed, and one which had 
 provided most effectually for the happiness of the people 
 over which it was placed. After saying that he would not 
 follow the marquis of Lansdo\vne into the question whether 
 a chartered company were or were not the best calculated to 
 carry on the government or the trade of a great empire like 
 India, the duke of Wellington added " But whenever I 
 hear a discussion like this, I recall to my memory what I have 
 seen in that country. I recall to my memory the history of 
 British India for the last fifty or sixty years. I remember 
 its days of misfortune and its days of glory, and call to my 
 mind the proud situation in which it now stands ! I re- 
 member that the Indian government has conducted the 
 affairs of I will not pretend to say how many millions of 
 people, for they have been variously calculated at seventy, 
 eighty, ninety, and even a hundred millions, but certainly 
 of an immense population a population returning an 
 annual revenue of 22,000,000 sterling ; and that, notwith- 
 standing all the wars in which that empire has been en- 
 gaged, its debt at this moment amounts only to 40,000,000, 
 being not more than two years' revenue. I do not say that 
 such a debt is desirable, but I do contend that it is a delu- 
 sion on the people of this country to tell them that it is a 
 body unfit for government and unfit for trade which has 
 administered the affairs of India with so much success for 
 so many years!" After urging the necessity of support- 
 ing the power and influence of the Company, the duke said 
 " Depend upon it, my lords, that upon the basis of their 
 authority rests the good government of India." 
 
1835.1 LOUD AUCKLAND GOVEENOE-GENEEAL. 523 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 LoED William Bentinck was succeeded by Lord Auck- 
 land, a very amiable nobleman, but whose qualifications for 
 the supreme post in the Indian government were not gene- 
 rally considered as being very obvious. 
 
 Accompanied by his sisters, Lord Auckland arrived at 
 Calcutta towards the close of the year 1835. 
 
 His lordship appears to have immediately admitted into 
 his entire confidence Captain Alexander Burnes, and those 
 other stirring officers of the Company who were impatient 
 for opportunities of distinguishing themselves as soldiers 
 or diplomatists, or as both, and who (principally, we be- 
 lieve, through this anxiety) had been induced to believe that 
 our Indian empire was threatened by Eussian intrigues and 
 by Persian and Afghan arms. These stirring men suc- 
 ceeded in impressing the too facile mind of the new gover- 
 nor-general with a deep sense of their local knowledge and 
 political talent and foresight, and eventually in making his 
 lordship believe with them, that the whole of our Indian 
 empire was in a perilous condition, and that the black eagle 
 of Eussia, already perched on the Himalaya mountains, was 
 looking down upon the Indus and upon all Hindustan with 
 the confident hope of a carnage and confusion which would 
 leave India her prey. 
 
 For many years after the Honourable Mountstuart 
 Elphinstone's mission the Afghans ceased to be an object 
 of alarm to our Anglo-Indians. Since the days of Zemaun 
 Shah that people had never been able to cross the 
 Indus. Instead of descending towards the south, they had 
 been driven back considerably towards the north. They had 
 proved themselves incapable of contending with Runjeet 
 Sing and liis allies ; the enmity between them and Runjeet 
 Sing was fierce and irreconcilable, and, without traversing 
 the regions held by the Lion, the Afghans could not ap- 
 
524 EUIsJEET SING. [1835. 
 
 proach oiir frontier. The same state of constant war and 
 anarchy whicli Mr. Elphinstone saw in Afghanistan had con- 
 tinued ever since, or rather, it had become much more than 
 it was at the time of his visit. In fact, the Afghan monarchy 
 had been dismembered and almost completely broken up. 
 After the flight of the Shah Shujah, or Sujah, in 1809, the 
 authority of the usurper Shah Mahmood was acknowledged 
 in part of Afghanistan, the rest of the country submitting 
 to the rule or misrule of divers chiefs or princes. After a 
 brief alliance with Eunjeet Sing, who helped him to recover 
 Cashmere, Mahmood quarrelled with that potentate, and 
 was defeated by him near the right bank of the Indus. 
 After this disaster Mahmood, by means of treachery, ob- 
 tained possession of Herat, one of the principal towns of 
 Khorassan, the extensive regions of which had long been 
 disputed by, and were now partially divided between 
 the Persians and different tribes of the Afghan race. 
 Mahmood repulsed an attack made upon Herat by the 
 Persians, and succeeded in maintaining himself in that city. 
 Whatever success had attended his arms or his policy was 
 owing to his able vizier, Putteh Khan. In 1818 this 
 vizier fell a victim to the jealousy of another chief and the 
 ingratitude of Mahmood. His murder was the signal for 
 the breaking up of the monarchy. Mahmood' s brothers 
 revolted against him, and his authority was soon confined 
 to Herat and its dependencies. Cabul, Candahar, and 
 Peshawer were held by different brothers of Mahmood, 
 who soon fell out among themselves. 
 
 During this decay of the Dooranee monarchy, Eunjeet 
 Sing, Lion of Lahore, was rapidly improving the discipline 
 of his army by means of European officers. The final 
 downfall of Buonaparte in 1815 broke up the trade of war 
 in Europe, and drove a considerable number of adven- 
 turers, Prenchmen and Italians, to the East, to Persia, and 
 even into India. Some of these men found their way to 
 Lahore, and under their care the troops of Eunjeet Sing 
 were trained. These circumstances would have made Eun- 
 jeet Sing formidable to the Afghans, even if they had been 
 united ; but divided as those people were, the Lion became 
 irresistible. He took Cashmere, Mooltan, Leia, Upper 
 Scinde, and the nearest part of the Hamaun, and reduced all 
 the Afghan tribes south of Cashmere. After this, taking 
 
1835.] THE AFGHANS. 525 
 
 advantage of a quarrel and war between the Dooranee 
 prince of Cabul and liis brother at Peshawer, and of an 
 expedition which he enabled the expelled Shah Sujah, who 
 had long been his guest, to make against Candahar, Bun- 
 jeet Sing succeeded in conquering Peshawer himself, with 
 all the level country which the Afg:hans had occupied be- 
 tAveen the mountains and the river Indus. The ameers of 
 Scinde seized upon other territories which had belonged to 
 the Dooranee monarchy ; Balkh threw off its nominal 
 dependence, and in other territories of vast extent and thin 
 population which lie between India and Persia, and which 
 had all obeyed Zemaun Shah, various chiefs and princes 
 asserted their independence. Dost Mohamed, however, 
 maintained himself at Cabul, and his brother or half-bro- 
 ther, after a sharp contest with the Shah Sujah, remained 
 master of Candahar. Their brother Mahmood died, or was 
 secretly murdered, at Herat, and was succeeded by his son 
 Kamran, or Camraun, who appears to have made some 
 fruitless attempts to recover from his uncle, Dost Mohamed, 
 the dominion of Cabul. The unfortimate Shah Sujah, 
 ha\ing failed in other expeditions and enterprises under- 
 taken in concert with Runjeet Sing, was at one time per- 
 fidiously seized and barbarously treated by the ungenerous 
 Lion of Lahore, whose main object was to extort from him 
 the famous Afghan diamond called the Koh-i-noor.* He 
 was delivered from his cruel captivity by the spirit and 
 ability of his queen. After all these adventures. Shah Sujah 
 again found a safe asylum beyond the river Sutledge, in the 
 British cantonment of Loodiana, where another ex-king of 
 Cabul, his own brother, the once great Zemaun Shah, who 
 had been dethroned and blinded by Mahmood, had long 
 been residing as a pensioner of the British. A liberal 
 pension was granted to Sujah, and the two exiles and ex- 
 kings appear to have lived lovingly together in the same 
 cantonments, making moral reflections on the insta- 
 bility of Eastern thrones and the uncertainty of all human 
 greatness. 
 
 Dost Mohamed Khan appears to have confirmed and 
 
 * Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, sketch of Afghanistan history, in 
 appendix to ' Account of the Kingdom of Cabul/ &c. ; new and revised 
 edition, 1839. Alexander Burnes, ' Travels.' Lieutenant Conolly, 
 * Travels.' 
 
626 THE ArGHANS. [1836. 
 
 enlarged his authority at Cabul about the year 1824. 
 In 1834 he roused the whole Mahometan population for an 
 attack on the Seikhs, for the propagation of the true faith, 
 and for the recovery of Peshawer and the other Afghan 
 dominions which had been lost. Eunjeet Sing, who had 
 then an army of 25,000 men, was determined not to let go 
 his hold on the conquests he had made.* Until the month 
 of April, 1835, nothing took place except some insignificant 
 skirmishes ; but, at the end of that month, Dost Mohamed 
 joined his army. Eunjeet Sing advanced to meet him, and 
 drew up his Seikhs in battle array across the line of the 
 advancing Afghans. Dost Mohamed, finding that several 
 of his chiefs were in correspondence with the Lion of 
 Lahore, and preparing to betray him, would not risk a 
 battle. He retreated towards Cabul, and was followed for 
 some distance up the Khyber Pass by Eunjeet Sing's Seikhs. 
 Upon his retreat, the Afghan sirdars, whose territories lay 
 exposed, tendered their unconditional allegiance to Eun- 
 jeet.t But other Afghan chiefs repaired to Cabul with 
 their armed clans, and urged Dost Mohamed to make 
 another forward movement. 
 
 Another Afghan army, 20,000 strong, assembled at 
 Jellalabad. Descending the Khyber Pass with about half 
 of this number, Dost Mohamed's eldest son, Afzul Bey, fell 
 upon a Seikh army, about 5,000 strong, and completely 
 defeated it, after an obstinate fight and a terrible slaughter. 
 
 This was in the month of June, 1836. But the victory 
 of the Afghans was thrown away through the feuds and 
 jealousies of the chieftains, and Eunjeet Sing, instead of 
 losing territory, soon began to make new conquests. Ever 
 since he became master of Cabul, Dost Mohamed Khan had 
 been constantly seeking for the friendship of the British 
 government. But by the treaty made between Lord AVil- 
 liam Bentinck and Eunjeet Sing at Eoopur, in 1831, Eunjeet 
 was allowed to do what he pleased in the country beyond 
 the Sutledge, and all notion of succouring the crazy and 
 distracted Afghan monarchy was given up. On the 31st of 
 May, 1836, Dost Mohamed addressed a letter of compli- 
 
 * Letter from Captain Waite, political resident at Loodiana. 
 
 + ' Outline of the Operations of the British Troops in Scinde and Af- 
 ghanistan, betwixt November, 1838, and November, 1841 ; with Remarks 
 on the Policy of the War;' by Geo>i-ge Buist, LL.D., editor of the 
 'Bombay Times.' 
 
1837.] SIR A. BURNES. 527 
 
 ment to Lord Auckland, the newly-arrived governor-general. 
 No answer was returned to this letter untn the month of 
 October. His lordship's letter, however, when it arrived, 
 gave great satisfaction, as it stated that he intended to 
 depute some gentlemen to the court of Cabul to discuss 
 certain commercial topics with a view to mutual advan- 
 tages, &c. It was not, however, until the 20th of Septem- 
 ber, 1837, that Captain A. Burnes reached Dost Mohamed's 
 capital as envoy from the governor-general. In the mean- 
 while several fierce conflicts had taken place between the 
 Afghans and the Seikhs ; the success had been various, but 
 the celebrated Seikh leader, Hurry Sing, had been defeated 
 and slain in one of the battles. Dui'ing the same interval 
 Dost Mohamed had applied, not only to the Persians and to 
 the Tartars, but also to the Bussians, for aid and assistance. 
 Burnes represented to the Cabul court that the object of 
 his mission was purely commercial.* Dost Mohamed 
 wanted arms and ammunition and artillery wherewith to 
 fight the Seikhs, and not bales of manufactures. Never- 
 theless he received our envoy in a very flattering manner, 
 and impressed him with the notion that he was the best 
 ruler that Cabul could possibly have, and the best ally the 
 English could find anywhere beyond the Sutledge. The 
 khan assured Burnes that our Indian government might 
 rely on his cordial co-operation in any measures which 
 tended to promote our trade in Cabul, and through Afghan- 
 istan with Bokhara, Kurdistan, Khorassan, &c. coimtries 
 of sounding names and of great extent, but far too bar- 
 barous or thinly peopled, or anarchic, to promise any 
 significant advantage to our commerce. Dost Mohamed 
 complained that his hostilities with the Seikhs narrowed his 
 resources, and compelled him to take up money from the 
 merchants, and even to increase the duties on merchandize ; 
 but, at the same time, he displayed a very lively anxiety to 
 get possession of Peshawer, which had been taken from 
 one of his brothers by Eunjeet Sing. The young shah of 
 
 * In his account of the mission, this unfortunate man says, "The 
 objects of government were to work out its policy of opening the river 
 Indus to commerce, and establishing on its banks, and in the countries 
 beyond it, such relations as should contribute to the desired end." 
 ' Cabool : being a personal Narrative of a Journey to, and Residence in^ 
 that City, in the Years 183G, 7, and 8,' by Lieut.-Col. Sir Alexander 
 Burnes, C.B., &c. London, 1842. 
 
528 PEESIAJf linrASION. [1837. 
 
 Persia, who had succeeded his grandfather in October, 
 1834, had lost no time in responding to Dost Mohamed's 
 desire for an alliance. The court of Teheran hoped that 
 while E-unjeet Sing and the Seikhs were pressing upon 
 Afghanistan on one side, a Persian army, favoured still 
 further by the dissensions of the Afghan rulers and chiefs, 
 might easily make conquests on the other, recover Herat, and 
 establish the dominion of the young shah at least over the 
 whole of Khorassan and Candahar. Kamran, the Afghan 
 ruler of Herat, on the death of the old shah of Persia in 
 1834, had made a predatory incursion into the Persian 
 territories, in concert with Turcomans, Hazarees, and other 
 robbers, and had captured some thousands of Persian sub- 
 jects, for the purpose of selling them as slaves in Central 
 Asia. Although this wholesale kidnapping was a very 
 ancient practice, it certainly seemed, of itself, to justify 
 the young shah in marching an army against Herat and the 
 Afghan ruler Kamran. At the same time he was invited 
 ^nd pressed to the enterprise by most of the Afghan 
 sirdars of Candahar, who had long been engaged in a blood- 
 feud with Kamran, and who, for the gratification of their 
 Tengeance, were willing to bring their old enemies the 
 Persians even into the heart of Afghanistan Proper. 
 But when it was found, or rather suspected, by our mission 
 at Teheran, that the young shah of Persia had been encou- 
 raged and promised pecuniary assistance by the Russians, 
 great alarm was felt by our mission, and was by them com- 
 municated from Teheran to Downing-street. In short, our 
 ministers at home and our diplomatists in Persia were sud- 
 denly excited by all that jealousy and dread of Eussia 
 which had been diffused through the greater part of our 
 -Indian government by Burnes and others. 
 
 In spite of all the remonstrances of our ambassador, the 
 young shah, in July, 1837, put himself and an army of 
 40,000 men, with seventy pieces of artillery, on their march 
 from Teheran to Herat. Although the route of the Persian 
 army lay almost entirely through their own country, they 
 were unable to reach Herat before the end of November, 
 1837, or about two months after Burnes's arrival at Cabul. 
 'Owing to their empty treasury, defective commissariat, and 
 want of discipline, this Persian army frequently threatened 
 to melt away before they had seen an enemy; and when they 
 approached Herat, they were but a miserable and hall- 
 
1838.] THE CAlfDAHAE CHIEFS. 529 
 
 starved rabble. After some further delays they commenced 
 what has been complimentarily termed " the Siege of 
 Herat." This miserable operation occupied them for more 
 than nine months. 
 
 The ruler of Cabul at first considered the fall of Herat, 
 and the advance of the Persians towards his own dominions, 
 as inevitable ; and in this behef, he was eager to secure a 
 previous treaty with the conquerors. 
 
 When Dost Mohamed justified his negotiations with the 
 Persians by pleading the necessity of making terms for 
 himself beforehand, in case of the shah advancing to Can- 
 dahar, Burnes told him that there was no fear of any move- 
 ment, offered himself to serve with the troops of Canda- 
 har, and to assist the sirdar with money ; and he suggested 
 to our Indian government an advance of 30,000. But 
 these proceedings were repudiated by Lord Auckland, who 
 declared in a minute that he would not oppose the hostile 
 advance of Persia either by arms or by money. His lord- 
 ship must have known by this time that the Persians had 
 no chance of making such advance, and that the operations 
 contemplated by his government in the Persian Gridf, would 
 make the young shah fly back towards his capital, even 
 though he should have reduced Herat previously. Not 
 being able to do more, Burnes despatched a member of his 
 mission, Lieutenant Leech, to Candahar, to ascertain how 
 matters stood in that quarter. The three brothers who 
 ruled in that part of Afghanistan Kohun Dil Khan, Eehem 
 Dil Khan, and Meer Dil Khan were at this time actually in 
 treaty with the Persians, with a view to their assisting in the 
 attack on Herat, and in the subjugation of Kamran and their 
 own countrymen. Here English money was again offered ; 
 but the three chiefs, jealous of Burnes's connection with the 
 ruler of Cabul, declined the offer, and stated that the intent 
 of their negotiations had been to keep off" Persia, to iniin 
 Kamran, and make themselves masters of Herat. Like Dost 
 Mohamed, these three khans had no settled line of policy : 
 what they evidently wanted was to play off" England against 
 Russia and Persia, and these two powers against England. 
 From this moment our English officers, who were dabbling 
 in diplomacy, ought to have felt that no Afghan treaty could 
 be worth the piece of paper or parchment on which it might be 
 written. Such must have been the fact, even if the Afghan 
 chiefs had entered into a treaty vrith good faith, as the 
 2 M 
 
530 BETUim or BUENES. [183S. 
 
 wild anarchic state of the coimtry, with its blood-feuds and 
 intrigues, rendered the power of every khan to the last 
 degree precarious.* 
 
 Ai'ter passing the winter of 1837-38 in Cabul, Captain 
 Burnes, in the spring, prepared to depart. At this moment 
 Dost Mohamed would very willingly have agreed to accept 
 an English subsidy. But Burnes had no money to give 
 him, and had been rather sharply censured for having 
 offered any. Our envoy left Cabul on the 26th of April, 
 1838, carrying with him. abundant professions of personal 
 friendship and regard from Dost Mohamed, in whose hos- 
 pitality he had frequently shared. The Dost was at this 
 moment doubly disappointed, and more than ever perplexed, 
 as no money came to him from Russia and Persia, and none 
 from the English, and Kamraii continued to be brilliantly 
 successful in Herat. 
 
 After visiting Eunjeet Sing, in the most friendly man- 
 ner, and feasting with the French and Italian officers at 
 Peshawer and Lahore, Captain Burnes, in the month of 
 July, repaired to Simla to meet the governor-general, Lord 
 Auckland, and to take a prominent part in a council of all 
 our north-western frontier residents and diplomatists, whose 
 previous differences of opinion as to the course to be pursued 
 vrith regard to the Seikhs and Afghans had become noto- 
 rious. At these conferences, held in the cool and pleasant 
 'recesses of the Himalaya, it was fully determined, in a fatal 
 moment, by the governor-general,t that as Dost Mohamed 
 could not be trusted, he ought to be dethroned ; that the 
 exiled king of Cabul, Shah Sujah, should be called from his 
 easy retirement at Loodiana, and be sent, with an English 
 army, to recover a throne which he had repeatedly proved 
 himself to be incapable of keeping ! Captain Bumes's 
 
 * * Quarterly Review.' 
 
 t " A most unwise provision in the Charter Act permits the governor- 
 general to act alone, and on his own responsibility, when absent from 
 Calcutta. The commander-in-chief (Sir H. Fane) is known to have been 
 hostile to the war, and the Hon. Messrs. Prinsep and Bird {two other 
 members of council) were universally believed to be the same : three out 
 of five." Opinions as to the mode of restoring Shah Sujah, submitted 
 by Burnes, as quoted by Doctor Buist ; ' Outline of the Operations of 
 the British Troops in Scinde and Afghanistan.' 
 
 But these opinions, which are dated in June, 1838, seem to differ in 
 almost every particular from the opinions which this unfortunate man had 
 offered to the governor-general only a few months before. 
 
1838-9.] TRIPAETITE TREATY. 531 
 
 opinions seem to have varied according to times and circum- 
 stances, and the opinions of other men higher in office than 
 himself. At one period he represented Shah Siijah as an 
 imbecile prince, without a party in his own country ; and at 
 another period he represented his party as being so strong 
 that the moving of a handful of our troops into Afghanistan 
 would place him on the throne ; at one time he represented 
 Dost Mohamed as the best ally the governor-general could 
 find ; and, not long after, he describes Dost Mohamed as an 
 irreconcilable enemy, whose factious spirit ought to be 
 broken. He now declared that Shah Sujah had more 
 friends in the country through which the Khyber Pass ru^s 
 than in any other part of Afghanistan; that the distribution 
 of a little money among the Khyberees would convert them 
 all into warm friends of the English, and enable Shah Sujah 
 to advance to Cabul in triumph and without bloodshed. 
 
 Two months before Burnes met the governor-general at 
 Simla, a mission, consisting of Mr. Mac jN^aghten, the Hon. 
 Captain Osborne, and others, had been sent to Lahore, to 
 cement our perpetual friendship with Eunjeet Sing and the 
 Seikhs, to draw up with Eunjeet a new treaty, in which Shah 
 Sujah should be included, and to pave the way for the easy 
 advance of a British army through the Seikh country to 
 Cabul. This mission in whose deliberations Burnes had 
 shared had so far succeeded in its object, that a tripartite 
 treaty had been settled and ratified, in which the dethroned, 
 poor, and helpless shah of Cabul was included with the 
 governor-general of British India and the powerful ruler of 
 Lahore and of all the Punjaub. 
 
 Our warlike preparations, or what Burnes calls " the 
 ulterior measures," which " could only be matured at Simla," 
 went on the while (the governor-general and his numerous 
 party enjoying the interval among the cool hills and green 
 woods, and refreshing waters) ; but it was not until the 
 1st of October that his lordship issued his famous Simla 
 proclamation. At this moment, if the governor-general did 
 not know that the siege of Herat the first alleged great 
 cause of our inquietude had been raised, and the reduced 
 Persian army forced into a disgraceful and ruinous retreat, 
 he might at least have known that the young shah had no 
 chance of success, and that the British expedition sent to 
 tlie Persian Gulf could not fail in its proposed object. 
 Persia had derived nothing but disaster and shame from her 
 2 m2 
 
632 OCCUPATION OF KAEEACK. [183S-9. 
 
 rashly-undertaken expedition, and pusillanimous and ill- 
 conducted siege. Lieutenant Eldred Pottinger, who threw 
 himself into the place, directed the defence. The ignorant 
 besiegers could scarcely preserve so much as a blockade ; 
 they knew nothing about regular approaches, and in all 
 their attempts to storm they were beaten back. In one 
 assault, the shah lost 1,800 men in killed and wounded, 
 and altogether his casualties exceeded 3,000. He was as 
 remote from his object in September, 1838, as in November, 
 1837, when he first came in sight of Herat. His army was 
 short of provisions, and without clothing or pay ; and rather 
 than have continued through another winter before a. 
 fortress which had so repeatedly defeated them, the Persians 
 would in all likelihood have dispersed of themselves, in spite 
 of all their shah could do to retain them.* 
 
 Our expedition from Bombay landed at Karrack, in the 
 Persian Gulf, in the middle of June, when Mac Naghten 
 and Burnes were preparing for the Afghanistan war by 
 negotiating with Eunjeet Sing at Lahore. The possession 
 of Karrack, an island belonging to Persia, and in the centre 
 of the shah's dominions, showed him how completely those 
 dominions were within our grasp, and must have proved to 
 him that we could disembark any force we pleased at Bushire 
 within a fortnight of its quitting Bombay, and possess our- 
 selves of some of the chief towns of Persia before the people 
 at large could be made aware that hostilities were intended. 
 It had been pointed out by a foreign writer, that if all the 
 powers of the Eussian empire were exerted in equip- 
 ping an army for the invasion of India, and if their 
 mighty army, overcoming obstacles that were scarcely to be 
 overcome by any army of any size, reached the western bor- 
 ders of Beloochistan in safety, with its complete materiel, a 
 descent by the British on Bushire would put us in posses- 
 sion of all the communications of that army, compel Persia 
 at her peril to act against it, and place the rear of that 
 army and the line of its advance and relief completely at 
 our mercy.f The descent on Karrack gave practical proof 
 of the soundness of this speculation. Moreover, it had been 
 shown pretty clearly, that for Russia to send an army as 
 
 * Buist, ' Outline of the Operations of the British Troops in Scinde 
 and Afghanistan.' 
 
 t The British Empire in the East,' by Count Bjornstjema, tr?nslated 
 by H. Evans Lloyd. London, 1840. 
 
1838-9.] SIEGE OE HEEAT EAISED. 533 
 
 far as the eastern border of Persia was impossible, and our 
 own experience has now convinced the most sceptical that 
 were the Eussians there, the mountain tribes, mthout our 
 intervention, would cut off their supplies, destroy their 
 cattle, and seize their baggage. "We could any day cut an 
 expedition from the westward to pieces, by landing a force at 
 Bushire, where the coast country, with our commanding 
 fleets and uninterrupted supplies, would furnish a base of 
 operations from wliich Europe and Asia united together 
 could not drive us. Prom the moment that our troops 
 landed on his island of Karrack, the eyes of the Persian 
 shah were turned more anxiously in that direction than upon 
 the siege of Herat ; and, at the end of September, when he 
 gave up that siege altogether, and put his diminished and 
 rabble army in motion for a retreat into the heart of his 
 own country, he declared that he did so in consequence of 
 the presence of our armament, and that if Karrack had not 
 been seized by us, Herat would have been taken by hiiii. 
 
 Well ! Herat was safe that key to the British dominions 
 in India could not be given by Persia to Eussia, for Persia 
 could not get it. All the dispositions for a grand campaign 
 beyond the Indus and in the heart of Afghanistan were 
 made (badly enough, no doubt !), and marching orders were 
 given ; but it appears that when Lord Auckland received 
 official intelligence of the retreat of the Persians from Herat, 
 not a single regiment had yet begun to march. But this 
 intelligence had no apparent effect on the counsels and con- 
 duct of men who had made up their minds for war, and who 
 could not rest until the British flag should be carried over 
 the snowy mountains and through the deep defiles of Afghan- 
 istan. 
 
 In the month of October, 1838, when Lord Auckland 
 issued his warlike proclamation at Simla, the army of India 
 was raised to 203,000 men. Sir Henry Pane was at this 
 time commander-in-chief of all India. He disapproved both 
 of the principles of policy and of the arrangement of the 
 details of the expedition ; and viewed with alarm the pros- 
 pect of ha\dng our armies so far removed from our own 
 frontier. Sir Henry was besides in indifferent health when 
 the first campaign was announced.* As a foretaste of what 
 
 * Colonel Fane, the son of Sir Henry Fane, said afterwards, " I am 
 prepared to prove that the military head in India and second member of 
 council of that country, did oppose, or perhaps rather, point out to the 
 
534 COMMAND OF THE AKMY. [1838-9, 
 
 miglit be expected from him, Hunjeet Sing, in despite of 
 the recent treaty which had been drawn up at Lahore bj 
 Mac Naghten and Burues, refused to allow our troops to 
 cross the Punjaub. Our principal rendezvous was therefore 
 appointed to be Shikarpoor, in Scinde ; and tlience our line of 
 advance was to be by the Bolan Pass, Quettah, and Candahar. 
 At the beginning of December, and not before, the force on 
 the Bengal side was ready to proceed without delay to 
 Scinde. It was 9,500 strong. A reserve division was sta- 
 tioned at Perozepoor, under Major-General Duncan, which 
 was 4,250 strong. Kunjeet Sing had engaged to maintain an 
 army of observation of 15,000 men. The Seikh contingent, 
 about 6,000 strong, was placed under the orders of Lieute- 
 nant-Colonel Wade, and was to move on Cabul by the 
 eastern passes. A Bombay column, 5,500 strong, under Sir 
 John Keane, landed at Vikkur, on one of the mouths of the 
 river Indus, and advanced into Scinde The ameers of Scinde 
 had faithfully promised to provide supplies and the means of 
 conveyance for our armies ; but, on arriving at Kurrachee, 
 about fifty miles from A^ikkur, Sir John Keane found that 
 they had provided nothing but jealousy, hatred, and enmity, 
 and that the mass of the Scinde population were eager to 
 attack his column. As soon as the Bengal column reached 
 Perozepoor, an out-station on the banks of the Sutledge, 
 about fifty miles from Lahore, Sir Henry Pane, whose 
 health was growing worse, resigned the command. Thus at 
 starting, and before the main body got beyond our frontier, 
 our army was left without a commander-in-chief Lord 
 Auckland had nominated Sir John Keane to the direction 
 of the whole force, and instructed him to send his own 
 orders to Sir Willoughby Cotton, who, as senior ofiicer, had 
 succeeded to the command of the Bengal column, as a tem- 
 porary measure, until its junction with the Bombay troops. 
 This also gave the temporary command of a division to 
 Major-G-eneral Nott, and of a brigade to Colonel Dennie. 
 We can trace, even at this moment, some of the jealousies 
 and heartburnings, which helped to destroy the discipline of 
 the whole army. 
 
 governor-general, the extreme danger of this wild and unmeasured expe- 
 dition He insured Lord Auckland the success which did 
 
 at first appear to attend us, but warned him that to maintain large bodies 
 of troops in countries so distant, and which scarce produced food suflS- 
 cient for the scanty population, was next to impossible." Letter pub- 
 lished in the * Times' of 5th June, 1842. 
 
183S-9.] MAECK THEOUGH SCINDE. 535 
 
 Sir John Keane and his Bombay column, after numerous 
 difficulties and delays, advanced towards Tatta, on the 24th 
 of December. Here the climate was very trying, both for 
 the European and native troops ; the days were excessively 
 hot, the nights very cold. The granaries had all been plun- 
 dered by the Beloochees, and, as it was discovered, by the 
 sanction of the ameers. When the Shah Sujah's contin- 
 gent of 6,000 men (bad troops, and paid entirely by us) 
 moved down parallel to the line of Sir John Keane' s advance, 
 and occupied Larkhana, and the Bengal column moved 
 upon their right, the Beloochees retreated and disbanded 
 themselves, and then the ameers, seeing Hyderabad, their 
 capital, open to attack, made a new agreement wdth Sir 
 John Keane, and fulfilled some few of its conditions. Sir 
 Alexander Burnes (he had been made Knight Commander 
 of the Bath and lieutenant-colonel for his previous services 
 on the Indus, in Afghanistan, etc., and, perhaps, in part for 
 his ample contribution to the unlucky project novr in 
 process of execution) had been employed to collect at 
 Shikarpoor camels for the use of the whole army. The 
 governor-general had calculated that 45,000 camels might 
 be obtained ; and he had informed Sir John Keane that this 
 number should be fairly and proportionately distributed 
 among the Bengal troops, the Bombay troops, and Shah 
 Sujah's contingent. But Burnes could never collect 20,000 
 camels at Shikarpoor, and the Bengal column, which had 
 just arrived, took it for granted that all the camels were for 
 them ; and thought it extremely hard that Sir John Keane 
 should order any to be appropriated either by the Bombay 
 troops or by the shah's contingent. There were clearly not 
 camels enough for all, and Colonel Dennie and other officers 
 of the Bengal army, who had always been accustomed to 
 assert a superiority over the officers of the other presiden- 
 cies, thought it hard that their troops should be left behind 
 for want of the means of transport, and that camels should 
 h^ given up for the raw levies of Shah Sujah, who were almost 
 sure to run away from the first enemy they met. But the 
 governor-general's instructions were very positive Shah 
 Sujah's contingent must be sent on entire, if possible and 
 accordingly camels were sent after them. This produced 
 fresh murmurs and heartburnings. 
 
 The cholera morbus broke out among the reserved force 
 of 3,000 men at Kurrachee, and carried off a great many of 
 
536 THE BOLAN PASS. [1839, 
 
 tliem. Colonel Thomas Powell, of the 40th regiment, an 
 old and experienced peninsular officer, died of this dreadful 
 disease. Everywhere disasters and forebodings of cala- 
 mity thickened, and ought to have warned men who seemed 
 heedless of the warning to check their advance and retrace 
 their steps. There was no dependence to be placed either upon 
 the Scinde ameers or upon Eunjeet Sing there was little se- 
 curity for our communications and supplies, and the means 
 that were adopted for the obtaining of some such security 
 were inadequate to the end, were slovenly, unsystematic, and 
 unworthy of British officers at this time of day. The Bengal 
 army, the Bombay army, Shah Sujah's rabble, and the other 
 contingent forces went on, each in its own way, and with 
 little or no attention to the progress of all the rest ; and 
 nearly every division was accompanied by an amazing num- 
 ber of camp-followers, who could not shift for themselves in 
 the countries beyond the Indus. On the 20th of February, 
 1839, when Sir Willoughby Cotton commenced his march 
 towards the Bolan Pass with the Bengal army, he was 
 attended by about 80,000 camp-followers, who were all to 
 be fed from the commissariat. Crossing a broad and dreary 
 desert, this Bengal column reached Dadur, at the foot of 
 the mountains of Western Afghanistan, on the 6th of March. 
 Here supplies began to run short, so that the non-combatants 
 of the column were put on half-rations before entering the 
 mountain country. Yet they had scarcely left the territories 
 of professing friends and allies, and had performed no more 
 than one-half of the journey to Cabul. The Bombay column 
 was at this time nine marches, or nearly 100 miles, behind. 
 Close by Dadur is the mouth of the Bolan Pass a terrible 
 chasm nearly seventy miles long, tortuous, deep, and flanked 
 by lofty rocks. This portion of the country is inhabited by 
 the poorest and wildest of the Afghan tribes. Fortunately 
 they offered no opposition to the passage of our troops until 
 they were on the point of quitting the defile, when some 
 skirmishing took place and a few of our people were wounded. 
 But the excessive barrenness and steepness of this line of 
 march caused the destruction of a vast number of horses 
 and camels. On the 26th of March, Sir "Willoughby Cot- 
 ton reached Quettah, a town situated in a fertile valley, and 
 containing a population of 5,000 or 6,000 souls. Here 
 supplies and other good things were expected, but none 
 were found. The place belonged to the khan of Khelat, or 
 
1839.] THE KHAN OF KHELAT. 537 
 
 Meerab Khan, with whom Bumea had negotiated a sort of 
 treaty before our columns were put in motion. Burnea 
 was now sent again to Khelat, to endeavour to reason 
 the khan into terms, or iuto the fulfilment of the treaty 
 which he had concluded with him. The khan, like most of 
 the Afghan chiefs, seemed to entertain a morbid dread of 
 Shah Sujah, whom the EngHsh were restoring to his throne ; 
 and Bumes could not induce him to make a short journey 
 from Khelat to visit Shah Sujah. After a good deal of 
 shuffing and evasion, which ought to have convinced Bumes 
 that the treaty would be worth nothing, the khan of Khelat 
 agreed to receive a subsidy of 15,000 a year during the 
 continuance of our army in Afghanistan ; and to supply pro- 
 visions, carriage, and escorts to the extent of his ability (but 
 these were to be separately paid for). While they were dis- 
 cussing this precious treaty, the khan of Khelat told Burnes 
 that Dost Mohamed Khan, the ruler of Cabul, whom Lord 
 Auckland had determined to dethrone, was a man of resource 
 and ability, and that though we might put him down and 
 thrust Shah Sujah in his place, we could never win over the 
 Afghan nation.* The khan used these words: "You 
 have brought an army into the country, but how do you 
 propose to take it back again ?"t This was the very 
 expression which fell from the duke of Wellington when the 
 intimation of our advance into Afghanistan was made in 
 parliament. 
 
 Sir John Keane brought up the Bengal column, and esta- 
 blished his head-quarters at Quettah, on the 4th of April. 
 So scarce and dear had grain already become, that his camp- 
 followers greedily devoured the fried skins of sheep, coagu- 
 lated blood, roots, or whatever else they could procure. 
 With a march of 150 miles before them to Candahar, they 
 were obliged to push on, upon half-rations for the men, and 
 without provision for the cattle. All communications be- 
 tween the front and rear divisions, even now 100 miles apart 
 from each other, were completely cut off by the fierce tribes in 
 the pass. The camp-followers were brought down to quarter- 
 rations, or " famine allowance," as one of our officers calls 
 
 * Letter from Sir Alexander Bumes to government, as quoted by 
 Buist. 
 
 t Dr. Atkinson, superintending surgeon of the Bengal division, ' Ex- 
 pedition into Afghanistan,* &c. Major Hough, ' March and Operations 
 of the Army of the Indus.* 
 
538 HA.EDSHIPS or THE MAECH. [1839. 
 
 it. On the first marcli towards Candahar, sixty of our 
 artillery horses were shot to prevent their falling into the 
 hands of the enemy no more food for them being procu- 
 rable. In the course of the week 116 cavalry horses died, 
 and between the Gth of April and the middle of June this 
 arm of the service was nearly disabled for want of food ! 
 Nine hundred camels had died since the column commenced 
 their advance. The robbers of the pass were incessantly 
 harassing our soldiers and pouncing down from their rocks 
 and hills upon the baggage. Savage and unwise orders were 
 carried into execution by our harassed and exasperated 
 troops ; they pursued, and not unfrequently overtook the 
 marauders ; and whenever these Afghans were captured, they 
 were shot or hanged no quarter heing on any occasion given 
 them. It was thus that our people prepared for their own 
 destruction in the mountain passes for their bloody exodus 
 from Afghanistan ! On the 26th of April the head-quarters 
 of the army reached Candahar, the Bengal column having 
 marched 1,000 miles since quitting Ferozepoor, 
 
 The Bombay column had so far gained on the advance as 
 to be in the Kojuk Pass, only sixty miles behind, when the 
 head-quarters of the grand army arrived under the walls of 
 Candahar. It had endured terrible fatigues and still more 
 terrible privations, and was reduced to 3,600 men before it 
 came to the desert. It had been intended that it should 
 move by the Grundava Pass and Khelat ; but the road had 
 not been previously examined, and when the column came 
 to this pass, it was reported to be impracticable. Nothing, 
 therefore, was to be done but to march the column through the 
 Bolan Pass, in the already impoverished track of the leading 
 division. The khan of Khelat proved his steady adherence 
 to the treaty he had concluded with Burnes, by writing 
 to the hill chiefs " What is the use of treaties and arrange- 
 ments ? All child's play ! . There is no relief but in death ! 
 No cure but in the destruction of the English. Their heads, 
 bodies, and goods must be sacrificed. Strengthen the pass. 
 Call on all the tribes to harass and destroy !" On the 12th 
 of April, this Bombay column entered the Bolan Pass : the 
 thermometer was at 110, but above the pass there had re- 
 cently been a heavy snow-storm, and the cold on those heights 
 (5,000 feet above the level of the plain) was excessive and 
 destructive, if not to the life to the energy of our sepoys. 
 In the pass the column was annoyed by the stench of dead 
 
1839.] CANDAHAB. 539 
 
 camels and of multitudes of unburied bodies of the enemy, 
 which marked in horrible characters the line of the advance 
 of our first division. Numerous executions swelled the 
 number of the Afghan dead, for the army of Bombay, like 
 the army of Bengal, gave no quarter to the hill people ! 
 Many of our camels loaded with grain were killed, and the 
 greater part of the camel-drivers began to desert. Although 
 Greneral JSTott had been left behind at Quettah to keep open 
 the communications, all oiu* letter-bags were seized and 
 rifled, so that from the end of March to the beginning of 
 August, when our troops reached Cabul, the safe arrival of 
 a single packet could never be depended on. As the Bom- 
 bay column reached the height above the pass, the men were 
 attacked by dysentery. Making rapid marches, they, how- 
 ever, reached Candahar on the 4th of May, and there found 
 the Bengal troops. Colonel Dennie, who had been left be- 
 hind with the reserve stores and carriages, and with some of 
 the shah's raw contingents, and the 31st and 42nd Bengal 
 native infantry, by means of some extraordinary marches, 
 released Captain Stockley, of the Bombay commissariat, 
 who, on his way to Dadur with cattle, grain, and stores, had 
 been surrounded and shut up in a small fort by the Beloo- 
 chees ; saved Captain Anderson, who was commanding two 
 newly-raised troops of the shah's horse-artillery, with tum- 
 brils, and ammunition filling fifty carriages, etc. ; fought his 
 way nobly through the Bolan Pass, and reached Candahar ; 
 but many ofhis men had been killed and wounded, and many 
 had died of apoplexy, or had gone mad from the excess of 
 heat. 
 
 The army now assembled at Candahar, exclusive of the 
 shah's contingent, amounted to 10,400 fighting men. The 
 camp-followers had dwindled away, through death and sick- 
 ness, and the dread of the Bolan Pass, but they still amounted 
 to nearly 29,000 men. The shah's contingent, which was 
 entirely paid, and also ofiicered, by our Indian government, 
 mustered about 13,000 men but we could not call them 
 fighting men. Sir John Keane strongly condemned the 
 uniting of such a force as this to the two well-appointed 
 armies of Bengal and Bombay. It appears that this was 
 done in the vain hope of giving plausibility to the fiction that 
 Shah Sujah was entering his dominions surrounded by Ids 
 own troops when, in fact, it was too notorious to escape 
 exposure, that he had not a single subject or Afghan among 
 
540 CAPTUEE or [1839. 
 
 tliem ; his sham army being made up of camp-followers from 
 the Company's military stations.* 
 
 Candahar contained a population of from 60,000 to 100,000 
 inhabitants. On the approach of our imposing force, the 
 three brother sirdars, who had held the city for about twelve 
 years, fled wdth their families and some two hundred followers 
 to Grhirisk, a small fortress, eighty miles distant. They were 
 pursued by Brigadier Sale, in the month of June, and they 
 then continued their flight without interruption to Meshid, 
 in Persia. Hajji Khan and some other of the chiefs had 
 deserted to us, but only to desert from us and betray us at 
 the first opportunity. Populous as was the city of Candahar, 
 neither money for bills upon India nor a sufficient supply of 
 provisions could be procured for the army. By the 1st of 
 July the whole army had quitted Candahar, and was in full 
 march upon Grhuznee, the soldiers still continuing on half, 
 and the camp-followers on quarter, rations. The distance 
 from Candahar to Ghuznee is about 230 miles ; but on the 
 21st of July the army halted under the walls of Grhuznee, 
 its wide-spread baggage covering an area of sixteen square 
 miles. The works of Ghuznee were found to be far stronger 
 than Sir John Keane had been led to expect. The four 
 heavy guns of our battering-train had been left behind at 
 Candahar, in the belief that they would not be wanted. The 
 result of a reconnaisance was a report to the commander-in- 
 chief, that, if he decided upon an immediate attack on 
 Ghuznee, the only feasible mode of proceeding, and the only- 
 one which held out a prospect of success, was to make a 
 dash at the Cabul gateway (all the other gates had beea 
 built up), and blow the gate open by powder-bags.f Sir 
 John Keane resolved to take this advice, and the artillery- 
 were ordered to make the necessary preparations. On the 
 following day, the 22nd of July, some of the Afghan tribes 
 collected in great force on some neighbouring hills ; but 
 being encountered by Captain Outram, with only 150 
 infantry and matchlock-men, they were beaten and put to 
 flight : thirty or forty of them were killed and wounded, and 
 thirty-eight were made prisoners. According to Sir Alex- 
 ander Bumes, who, as well as Mr. Mac Naghten, was con- 
 
 * Letter of Colonel Dennie, addressed to Lieutenant-Colonel Mac 
 Donald, military secretary to Sir John Keane, as quoted by Buist. 
 
 t Report and Memoranda, by Captains Thomson and Peat, of the 
 engineers. 
 
1839.] GHUZ^'EE. 541 
 
 stantly with Shah Sujah, as soon as the thirty-eight prisoners 
 were brought into his majesty's presence and questioned 
 about their rebellion and treason, they said that they would 
 glory in taking his majesty's life ; that he was an inhdel and 
 had brought an army' of infidels into the country, and that 
 they would take his life whenever they could ; and one of 
 them, suiting the action to the word, plunged a dagger into 
 the breast of one of the shah's attendants, upon which the 
 king gave orders that they should all be beheaded. There 
 is no doubt at all that thirty-six of these thirty-eight cap- 
 tives were immediately put to death, and that, too, in the 
 presence of at least one British officer.* 
 
 Between this night of murders and the following morning 
 the Cabul gate of Ghuznee was blown up by 300 lbs. of 
 powder, in twelve sand-bags, with a hose seventy-two feet 
 long. If this operation had failed (and it never could have 
 succeeded if the Afghans had possessed any military science), 
 Sir John Keane must have retreated to Candahar, and thence 
 hj the terrible Bolan Pass towards our own frontiers. 
 
 As soon as the gate was blown open, our storming party 
 rushed in and commenced a fierce hand-to-hand conflict with 
 
 * Letter from Sir William Mac Naghten to Sir Alexander Burnes, on 
 the subject of the destruction of the thirty-six prisoners who were put to 
 death at Ghuznee in the presence of Major Mac Sherry, on the evening of 
 the 22nd of July, 1839, as quoted by Buist. 
 
 Among other startling things, this historian of the Afghan war quotes 
 the following passage from MacNaghten's letter, which was written about 
 a year after the event. ** Towards evening, a report was brought to me 
 that the king's people had taken several prisoners, and that his majesty 
 had determined upon the execution of them all. On the impulse of the 
 moment, I suggested that a selection should be made of the offenders for 
 execution, and immediately consulted Lieutenant- General Sir John 
 Keane, through Sir Alexander Burnes, who was in his excellency's camp ; 
 and his opinion was that ' the most summary example should be made of 
 such dastardly ruffians.' In the meanwhile, I had received several mes- 
 sages from his majesty, expressing his determination to put the prisoners 
 to death, as the only safe and proper course to be adopted in the exigency 
 of our situation. 1 replied, that his majesty was supreme ; but that I 
 would, at least, strongly recommend him, if he thought a severe example 
 necessary, to liberate some of the prisoners, in order that the retribution 
 which had overtaken their comrades might be made known to the whole 
 of these fanatic offenders. My recommendation was not concurred in by 
 his majesty, to the extent that I could have wished ; of thirty -eight 
 prisoners, two only were released the one on the ground of his being a 
 Syud {a Mussulman saint, or holyman, or Emir), and the other because 
 te begged his life. The remainder, who obstinately persisted in exas- 
 perating his majesty, were executed." Buist. 
 
542 CAPTURE OF GHUZNEE. [1839. 
 
 the Afghans. The fighting was long and desperate. Briga- 
 dier Sale, who commanded the supporting column, received 
 a severe wound on the face from a sabre ; when closing with 
 his antagonist, both lost their footing, and rolled over toge- 
 ther. In this extremity the brigadier recognized Captain 
 Kershaw, of the 13th light infantry, who at that moment 
 came up, and having made his situation known to him, he 
 was speedily relieved by the captain passing his sword 
 through the body of the frantic Afghan, who, however, 
 would not let go his hold until Sale cleft his skull from the 
 cro"Ti to the eyebrows. 
 
 When the town was carried entirely, the strong fortress 
 remained, and was expected to make a still more desperate 
 resistance ; but about five o'clock, a.m., or little more than 
 three hours after the gate had been blown open, the British 
 colours waved from the battlements of the citadel. Hyder 
 Khan (one of the sons of Dost Mohamed), the governor, 
 surrendered himself in the course of the morning, and was 
 placed under the care of Sir Alexander Burnes, who had so 
 recently figured at Cabul as the friend and guest of his 
 father. Meer Khan, the eldest, and commonly known as 
 "the fighting son" of Dost Mohamed, had come close upon 
 our camp early in the morning, with 5,000 cavalry. He heard 
 the firing, and only waited for daylight to discover how mat- 
 ters stood in the fortress. The dawn showed him the British 
 flag on the ramparts ; and he forthwith fled towards Cabul, 
 leaving aU his elephants and baggage behind him to be cap- 
 tured by our troops, or by the shah's contingent, who were 
 as quick in plundering as they were slow in fighting. 
 
 In the assault, about 170 of our people were wounded, but 
 only seventeen killed: about 1,000 Afghans were slain, 
 about 1,600 were taken prisoners, and the number of the 
 wounded was estimated as nearly equal to that of the cap- 
 tives. To talk of the "genius and skill" with which the 
 plan of the attack was conceived, is to be guilty of rhodomon- 
 tade and nonsense ; but the conduct of our soldiers, during 
 the storm, and, still more, after the storm had succeeded, 
 was rare, and in the highest degree admirable. No city 
 taken by assault ever suffered so little as Ghuznee, and no 
 men ever conducted themselves, under similar circum- 
 stances, so temperately and moderately as its captors. 
 
 With the close of the fighting, all violence ceased, and 
 
1839.] AKRIYAL AT CABUL. 543 
 
 not one female was exposed to insult or injury.*' The 
 fall of Grhuznee opened the way to Cabul, and opened more 
 roads than one. Colonel (now Sir Claude Martin) Wade 
 had assembled near Peshawer 1,000 of the Seikh contingent, 
 and more than 4,000 of the shah's levies. "With this force he 
 was to move upon Cabul, by Jellalabad. "Wade forced his 
 way through the Khyber Pass, the enemy flying from a fort 
 which was considered as the key of that pass. Jellalabad 
 was defended by Mohamed Akbar Khan, second son of Dost 
 Mohamed, and afterwards famous for the vengeance he took 
 upon the invaders. This chief had 2,500 men and fourteen 
 guns ; but on the fall of Grhuznee he was hastily recalled 
 for the defence of Cabul. This at once opened the way for 
 Colonel Wade's forces through the rest of the passes, and 
 placed Jellalabad in our hands. Wade was so close upon 
 Akbar Khan that he compelled him to abandon all his 
 artillery and camp equipage, which, together with horses, 
 bullocks, and 7,000 rounds of ball-cartridges, fell into our 
 hands. 
 
 On the 30th of July Sir John Keane, with the main 
 anny, marched from Grhuznee to Cabul. He crossed the 
 ridge of a mountain, said to be 9,000 feet above the level of 
 the sea, and went through another deep and narrow defile 
 without encountering any resistance. As Sir John Keane 
 drew nigh, Dost Mohamed quitted his throne and his 
 capital, and fled mth 600 horsemen to seek a refuge in the 
 wide country beyond the Oxus. 
 
 But nearly at the same time that this news was received 
 at our head-quarters, Sir John Keane learned the death of 
 Eunjeet Sing, the Lion of Lahore, an event which materially 
 and injuriously affected the triple alliance. Detaching a 
 very inadequate party of cavalry in pursuit of the fugitive 
 king, Sir John Keane and Shah Sujah marched leisurely on 
 to Cabul, under the walls of which they encamped on the 
 evening of the 6th of August. On the afternoon of the 
 next day. Shah Sujah, Sir John Keane, the general officers ' 
 of the army, Bumes, Mac Naghten, and other officers of the 
 
 * Buist. This writer adds " It may not be superfluous to add, that 
 long before this, the commissariat store of intoxicating liquor had been 
 exhausted, and Sir J. Keane commanded a temperance army. To the 
 want of liquor is ascribed by the medical men the unprecedented celerity 
 with which the injuries of our wounded were healed." 
 
544 EETITEK TO INDIA. [1840. 
 
 mission, or of tlie staff, made a pompous and triumphant 
 entrance into the capital. The people were respectful and 
 orderly, but cold; the chiefs were absent; there was no 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 Some of these vainglorious Englishmen, not satisfied 
 with riding in triumph, had put it into the restored shah's 
 head to create an order of knighthood, and to confer the 
 first badges upon themselves ! 
 
 While this foolery was in progress at Cabul, the Afghans 
 were murdering everj British officer or soldier that they 
 could surprise outside of the camp.* 
 
 Considering the work as done. Sir John Keane hurried 
 back to India, and from thence to England, to be raised to 
 the peerage by the title of Baron Keane of Ghuznee and 
 Cappoquin (with a pension of 2,000 a year), and to receive 
 the thanks of parliament. The shouts of triumph and ap- 
 plause were, however, mingled with the expression of many 
 doubts, and some severe criticism. Lord Ellenborough 
 declared the war to have been a folly, and said it remained 
 to be seen whether it might not prove a crime. Lord Auck- 
 land, as governor-general, also received his meed of approval : 
 he was raised in the peerage to the rank of an earl. 
 
 The Bombay column quitted Cabul on the 18th of Sep- 
 tember, the Bengal troops remained for nearly a month 
 longer, but by the 20th of October, all the forces, returning 
 for the present to India, had left Shah Sujah's capital. The 
 cold was severe in the mountain-passes, thick ice was found 
 upon the roads, the bodies of dead camels and horses lay 
 frozen all around, and, mthout having to encounter any 
 enemy, our retiring columns suffered very severely. 
 
 Seldom have troops been left in a more uncertain or more 
 hazardous predicament than the army which was left to 
 secure Shah Sujah on his throne. In the month of January 
 there was a fall of snow nearly five feet deep. The poor 
 sepoys suffered cruelly, and even the British soldiers, who 
 were only indifferently provided with clothes and blankets, 
 shivered on those mountains and table-lands. The Afghans 
 remained inactive until the return of spring ; but then the 
 Ohilzies and other powerful tribes began to unite their 
 cavalry, and to attack our outposts. At the same time the 
 people dwelling on the hills and in the glens, not only re- 
 
 * Dr. Kennedy, * Campaign of the Army of the Indus.' 
 
1840.] SrEEEXDEK OF DOST MOHAMED. 54:0 
 
 fused to pay any taxes or tribute to Shall Sujah, but also 
 refused to sell provisions to our commissariat. As the ice 
 and snow melted, and left the roads and mountain-paths 
 passable, a fierce war of posts commenced. This warfare 
 alone would have worn out our army. As the summer 
 advanced it assumed a bolder character. Dost Mohamed, 
 after a narrow escape from being betrayed and murdered by 
 the king, or ruler, of Bokhara, received assistance in his 
 extremity from the khan of Kokan, on the Persian border ; 
 and in company "with one of his sons, Afzul Khan, he pro- 
 ceeded to Afghanistan, to stir up the country to undertake 
 a holy war for the expulsion of the unbelieving English. 
 Some native Afghan troops, which Shah Sujah had raised, 
 began to desert to the Dost, who had collected a great 
 number of Usbeg Tartars. As the expelled ruler advanced 
 upon Cabul, several severe actions were fought, in which our 
 fine artillery practice and our grape and shrapnel gave us 
 the victory, and inflicted terrible losses on the enemy. At 
 last, driven from post to post. Dost Mohamed made up his 
 mind to surrender to Sir AYilliam Mac JSTaghten, or to Sir 
 Alexander Burnes, who were both left at Cabul, the first as 
 ambassador or envoy. On tlie evening of the 3rd of ISo- 
 vember, 1840, as Mac JS'aghten was returning from his 
 evening ride, and was within a few yards of his own resi- 
 dence in the Balla Hissar, or citadel of Cabul, a solitary 
 horseman galloped up to him, and told him that Dost 
 Mohamed had arrived, and sought his protection. The 
 words were scarcely said ere the chief himself appeared ; 
 and, alighting from his horse, he presented his sword to the 
 envoy. I'he Dost had quitted the field of battle* late the 
 preceding evening, and had ridden straight into Cabul, a 
 distance of sixty miles. On the 12th of jSTovember Dost 
 Mohamed was sent oft' for India under a strong escort. 
 He waited at Peshawer till joined by his family, which 
 consisted of nearly 700 persons, of whom about one half 
 were females. Pourteen of his sons surrendered, Akbar 
 Khan alone holding out against us to the end. The Dost 
 was allowed to visit Calcutta, where the governor-general 
 received him with much respect and courtesy. Three lacs 
 
 * The chief's last battle the battle of Purwan Durrah in which some 
 of our sepoy regiments had behaved like downright cowards, and in which 
 Dr. Lord, one of our numerous political agents in the country, Lieutenant 
 Broadfoot, and Cornet Crispin were killed and cut to pieces. 
 2 2f 
 
546 INSUEEECTIONS. [1841. 
 
 of rupees, or about 30,000 a year, were allotted to him ; 
 and lie took up his residence at Mussooree, on our north- 
 west frontier, where he remained till 1843. 
 
 The surrender of Dost Mohamed, and the activity of our 
 moveable columns under General Sale, Colonel Deunie, and 
 other active and intelligent ofEcers, brought the country all 
 round Cabul to a tranquil state. But the calm was decep- 
 tive ; it was but a lull in the storm ; and although this waa 
 clearly seen and frankly stated by many of our officers, our 
 infatuated envoy would not see it, and would not tak& 
 warning. 
 
 Before the Bombay column cleared out of the country 
 the celebrated fortress of Khelat was stormed and taken, 
 and Meerab Khan, who had paid so little respect to the 
 treaty which Burnes had concluded with him, and several 
 other Beloochee chiefs, were slain. This was a brilliant 
 operation, which will bear comparison with any exploit our 
 troops ever performed in India. 
 
 "While comparative tranquillity reigned in and around 
 Cabul, insurrections broke out among the fierce tribes that 
 inhabit the country to the east of the Bolan Pass. At the 
 same time some of the ameers of Scinde called their followers 
 to the field, united their bands, and threatened all our com- 
 munications between Afghanistan and our own provinces. 
 Several serious disasters were sustained by our troops, and 
 more and more enemies collected. 
 
 In May, 1841, Major Pottinger prognosticated the coming 
 storm, representing to the envoy the insufficiency of our 
 military force in some quarters, and the badness of their can- 
 tonments in nearly all places. The major was looked upon 
 as an alarmist. About the end of September the roads near 
 Cabul swarmed with predatory bands, and three Ghilzie 
 chiefs of note quitted Cabul, after plundering a rich caravan, 
 and took up a strong position in the defile of Khoord Cabul, 
 only ten miles from the capital. At the same time intelli- 
 gence was received that Dost Mohamed's ablest and fiercest 
 son, Akbar Khan, was collecting troops in various parts of 
 the country. General Sale cleared the pass of Khoord 
 Cabul, but not without hard fighting and considerable loss.* 
 
 * After restoring Shah Sujah to his throne, an agreement was entered 
 into with the Ghilzie chiefs, that a certain sum of money should be paid, 
 to them yearly out of the Cabul treasury, if they would keep the Khcord 
 Cabul Pass open, and offer no molestation to our troops on their passag 
 
1841.] MUEDER OF BUENES. 547 
 
 This was in the month of October, and all through this 
 month our officers were insulted in their cantonments at 
 Cabiil, and many attempts were made to assassinate them. 
 
 On the 2nd of November, at an early hour, intelligence 
 was brought to cantonments that a popular outbreak had 
 taken place in the city, and that a general attack had been 
 made on the houses of all British officers residing at Cabul. 
 The envoy Mac Naghten was in the cantonments, but 
 Burnes was in the city. At about 8 a.m., a hurried note 
 was received from Burnes, who stated that the minds of 
 the people had been excited by some evil reports, but 
 expressing a hope that he should succeed in quelling the 
 commotion. An hour after this, it was reported in the 
 cantonment that Burnes had been murdered, and that 
 Captain Johnson's treasury had been plundered. 
 
 riames were now seen to issue from that part of the city 
 where they dwelt, and an incessant report of fire-arms 
 seemed to roll through the town from end to end. It was 
 soon ascertained, that the rabble who first commenced the 
 attack did not exoeed 300 men, and that with Sir Alexander 
 were massacred his brother, Lieutenant Burnes, Lieutenant 
 "W. Broadfoot, and every man, woman, and child found on 
 the premises.* Our generals and superior officers, were all 
 so thunderstruck as to be incapable of adopting more than 
 the most puerile of defensive measures. Coward as he was, 
 Shah Sujah sent out one of his own sons, with a number of 
 his immediate Afghan retainers and two guns, to restore 
 order ; but no support was rendered by our troops. 
 
 between Cabul and Jellalabad. Little dependence could be placed on 
 such a bargain ; but it is said that the bargain was first broken by us or 
 by our ally, Shah Sujah, and that this provoking circumstance contributed 
 in a great measure to the disasters which followed. 
 
 * ' The Military Operations at Cabul, &c., with a Journal of Impri- 
 sonment in Afghanistan,' by Lieutenant Vincent Eyre, of the Bengal 
 artillery, late deputy-commissariat of ordnance at Cabul. 
 
 Speaking charitably of his errors, and making no allusion to a very 
 current report of gross and provoking misconduct, Lieutenant Eyre 
 says " No man, surely, in a highly responsible public situation espe- 
 cially in such a one as that held by the late Sir Alexander Burnes ought 
 ever to indulge in a state of blind security, or to neglect salutary warnings, 
 however small. It is indisputable that such warnings had been given to 
 him, especially by a respectable Afghan named Taj Mahomed, who, on 
 the very previous night, went in person to Sir A. Burnes to put him on 
 his guard, but returned disgusted by the incredulity with which his asser- 
 tions were received." 
 
 2n2 
 
54S COMMAND or TKE AEMT AT CAEUL. [1S41, 
 
 Sir AYilliam INIac Xagliten said that the storm \YOiild soon 
 blow over of itself. Every minute that was lost in inaction 
 raised tlie numbers and the audacity of the insurgents. The 
 chief command of our astounded and bewildered army 
 (bewildered much more by the inactivity and stupor of their 
 leaders than by the proceedings of the Afghans) was at this 
 time held by Major-Greneral Elphinstone, a most amiable 
 and at one time a gallant officer, but who had been suffering 
 a long and painful illness, which, aifecting his nerves, had 
 worn out his mind as much as his body. He was utterly 
 incapable of acting in this sudden emergency with the 
 promptitude and vigour necessary for the preservation of 
 bis troops, and the officers next in command under him 
 seem to have been without the same physical and unavoid- 
 able causes as incapable as himself, and to have shrunk 
 from all responsibility. The cantonment occupied by the 
 army for so many months was as bad as bad could be, and 
 the magazine of provisions was placed in the most exposed 
 and least defensible part of it, detached I'rom our works of 
 strength. All the calamities which befel our ill-starred 
 force might be traced more or less to the defects of our 
 position ; and whether we look to its situation or to its con- 
 struction, this cantonment at Cabul must ever be spoken of 
 as a disgrace to our military skill and judgment.* 
 
 On the 3rd of November, the day after the outbreak, 3,000 
 Ghilzies rushed through the Ivhoord Cabul Pass towards 
 the capital, and other numerous bands began to collect on 
 the liills. We cannot, and we need not, narrate what fol- 
 lowed : the fearful story, with all its horrible and humiliating 
 details, is fresh in the memory of every Englishman. Our 
 commanding officers continued in their imbecility until our 
 troops were infected with downright cowardice : not merely 
 the shiveringhalf-starved sepoys, but our British-born soldiers 
 cowered before a barbarous and stupid enemy whom they 
 had so often beaten. Discipline disappeared; but ne-^-er had 
 discipline been put to a severer test ! The brave soldier 
 may be expected to bear everything except the self-evident 
 imbecility and fatuity of his commanding officers. On the 
 4th of JN'ovember, our people ran away from the commissa- 
 
 * Lieutenant Vincent Eyre. " The cantonment had a low rampart and 
 a rarrow ditch ; its form was a parallelogram ; it had round flanking 
 bastions at each corner, but every one of these bastions was commanded 
 by some fort or hill." 
 
1841.] APvRIYAL OF AEBAK KUAN. 519 
 
 riat fort, and left all our stores, clothing, and provisions 
 to the eneni}^, except two days' supply of provisions in can- 
 tonments. On the 5th an attack was made to recover pos- 
 session of the commissariat fort ; but our officers again 
 behaved like fools and our men like cowards, and the enemy 
 remained in possession of the rich prize they had obtained. 
 The object of the enemy was to starve the army out of its 
 cantonment; and to this end the chiefs exerted all their 
 influence to prevent our troops being supplied from any 
 of the neighbouring forts. On the 9th, G-eneral Elphin- 
 stone's weak state of health rendered the presence of a 
 coadjutor absolutely necessary to relieve him from the com- 
 mand of the garrison ; and Brigadier Shelton, tlie second in 
 command, was, at the earnest request of Sir W. Mac 
 ]S'aghten, summoned in from the Balla Hissar, in the hope 
 that he would rouse the sinking confidence of the troops. 
 Shelton was scarcely in the cantonment ere a quarrel or a 
 wide difference of opinion arose between him and Mac 
 Naghtcn. The brigadier had from the first despaired of 
 being able to hold out the v;inter at Cabul, and strenuously 
 advocated an immediate retreat to Jellalabad. 
 
 On the 18th, Shelton made a tolerably spirited and suc- 
 cessful sally upon some of the Afghan tribes, that were now 
 occupying all the hills which surrounded and commanded 
 our cantonment, tlie said cantonment being a piece of low 
 swampy ground ; but the Afghans soon returned, and con- 
 tinued to annoy our troops with their unceasing fire of 
 musketry. Major Pottinger, badly wounded, his assistant, 
 Mr. Haughton, who had lost a hand, and had been gashed 
 on the neck, a sepoy of our Gorkha regiment, a moonshee, 
 and another native, arrived on the 15th, from a position 
 at Charikar ; and these were all that were left out of 100 
 men who had occupied the said post ; all tlie rest, men and 
 officers, had been butchered by the Afghans. 
 
 How provisions had been obtained we know not,* but 
 our army was still motionless in its cantonment on the 
 22nd of jSTovember, when the terrible Alibar Khan arrived 
 in Cabul, witli some hundreds of well-mounted warriors. 
 His arrival was immediately followed by the defection of 
 several chiefs, who had hitherto professed great friendship 
 
 * It appears that for some time provisions were obtained from the 
 contiguous village of Bsymaroo, the proprietor of which was largely 
 bribed by our envoy. 
 
550 IfEGOTIATIONS. [1841. 
 
 to the English. On the 23rd, Shelton sallied again in force, 
 in order to clear the way for our foraging parties, and was 
 driven back with severe loss, after having committed in this 
 one miserably disastrous affair, no fewer than sice capital 
 military errors. By this time our troops had lost all con- 
 fidence in their officers ; and they were starving with 
 hunger as well as with cold. On the 26th, a letter was 
 received by Mac Naghten from Osman Khan, who proposed 
 that the British should quietly evacuate the country, and 
 leave the Afghans to govern it according to their own 
 rules, and with a king of their own choice. General Elphin- 
 stone eagerly caught at this overture for retreating. On 
 the 27th, two deputies from the Afghan chiefs came into 
 our cantonment to propose the terms. These were, that 
 we should deliver up Shah Sujah and all his family, lay 
 down our arms, and make an unconditional surrender. 
 Mac Naghten replied, " that the terms were too dishonour- 
 able to be entertained for a moment." "AVell," said the 
 deputies, "we shall meet again in battle!" " We shaU, 
 at all events, meet at the day of judgment ! " replied our 
 doomed envoy. 
 
 On the 8th of December, Mac Naghten, in a public letter, 
 requested the general to state whether the only alternative 
 left was not to negotiate for our safe retreat out of the 
 country, on the most favourable terms possible ? the 
 desponding, dying Elphinstone, gave a fatal response in the 
 affirmative. On the 11th of December, Mac Naghten, 
 accompanied by Captains Lawrence, Mackenzie, and Trevor, 
 went out to meet certain great khans and heads of tribes. 
 Among these chiefs were some who had betrayed Dost 
 Mohamed and who had now betrayed Shah Sujah. The 
 terrible Akbar Khan, who had never submitted to the 
 English, was there ; and he sternly negatived every pro- 
 position that our envoy advanced, demanding little short of 
 an unconditional surrender. During this conference in the 
 open plain, a bullet whistled over the head of Sir A\^illiam 
 Mac Naghten ; but his hour was not yet come. At last it 
 was agreed, that the British should evacuate Afghanistan ; 
 that they should be permitted to return unmolested to 
 India, and supplies of every description be aflbrded them on 
 their road thither ; that Dost Mohamed Khan and his 
 family should be allowed to return to their country ; that 
 Shah Sujah and his family should have the option of 
 
1841.] MURDER OF MAC Is^AGHTE^s'. 551 
 
 remaining at Cabul, or proceeding ^Yith tlie Britisli troops, 
 that means of transport for the conveyance of our baggage, 
 stores, etc., should be furnished ; that no British force 
 should ever again be sent into Afghanistan, unless called for 
 bj the Afghan government; that perpetual friendship 
 should be established between the two nations, on the sure 
 foundation of mutual good ojfices, etc. 
 
 On the 14th of December was commenced the most dis- 
 astrous and appalling retreat that had ever been recorded 
 in authentic history. Making allowance for the difference 
 of numbers, the retreat of the French from Moscow was 
 less dreadful than this. In both cases, snow and ice, and 
 nakedness and famine, slew more than the sword. On the 
 20th of December, Sir "William Mac Naghten had an inter- 
 view with the chiefs, who now demanded that a portion of our 
 guns and ammunition should be given up, and that Briga- 
 dier Shelton should be put into their hands as a hostage. 
 Lieutenant Sturt, in whom the English spirit had not 
 become extinct, proposed to the general to break off the 
 treaty and march forthwith to Jellalabad, where Sale was 
 stoutly maintaining himself. But the general called a 
 council of war, and a council of war never fights. On 
 the 22nd of December, as our troops were preparing to 
 follow the van division, Akbar Khan sent to invite our 
 envoy to another conference. On the following day Mac 
 Naghten went to the place appointed, presented Akbar with 
 a. beautiful Arab horse, and was barbarously murdered under 
 the eyes of that khan and of other chiefs. It is even 
 said that Akbar himself did the foul deed, shooting his 
 \ictim through the body with a richly-mounted pistol which 
 Mac I^aghten had sent him only a few hours before. The 
 body was hacked to pieces by the armed fanatics, who car- 
 ried the head into the city, and triumphantly exhibited it 
 to Captain Conolly, one of the prisoners who had been 
 taken. Not an arm was raised to avenge Mac Naghten's 
 fate nothing could reanimate our troops, or the wretched 
 men who commanded them. All went on as if, with one 
 accord, to complete their disgrace and seal their doom all 
 except a few English hearts, who murmured and remon- 
 strated, but who had not moral courage sufficient to incur 
 the heavy and awful responsibility of putting their com- 
 manding officers under arrest, appealing to the troops, and 
 assuming the command themselves. There were more 
 
5o2 DESTIirCTIOX OF THE ARMY. [1842. 
 
 councils of Trar called, to end in more vaeillatinp: and mad- 
 ness ; it was agreed to leave behyid all oiu* guns except six ; 
 to give up all our treasure ; to give up married men, witl^ 
 their wives and families, as hostages ; to pay Osman Khan, 
 and some other treacherous villains, five lacs of rupees, in 
 bills drawn upon India, but negotiated on the spot by a 
 merchant of Cashmere and some Hindu bankers ; the said 
 Osman Khan engaging to escort the whole army in safety 
 to Peshawer. In vain did Major Pottinger raise his manly 
 voice against this useless debasement (and never were 
 English soldiers so debased before as to buy a way out 
 of an enemy's country!) the rest of the officers compos- 
 ing the council declared, one and all, that the bargain must 
 be struck. And, accordingly, the bills were given, and 
 English ladies were delivered over as hostages, if not at 
 this moment, a little later. 
 
 On the 6th of January, 1842, our head-quarters and the 
 rest of our army cleared out of the cantonments at Cabul, 
 to march in the depth of winter through a country of per- 
 haps unparalleled difficulty. The strength of our whole 
 force was at this time estimated at about 4,500 fighting 
 men ; the camp-followers, at a moderate computation, 
 amounted to about 12,000 men, women, and children. At 
 the moment the rear-guard cleared out of the cantonments, 
 the Afghans began to plunder the baggage, and to follow 
 and fire upon our soldiers ; and these operations can scarcely 
 be said to have ceased until there was nothing left to plun- 
 der or to kill. We will not follow this demoralized and 
 degraded army through the horrors of the passes of Khoord 
 Cabul, Tezeen, and Grundamuck. Greneral Elphinstone, 
 almost at the point of death, gave himself up to one of the 
 khans. The ladies and wounded were given up ; Dr. Brydon, 
 who escaped by a miracle, was the only officer that reached 
 the garrison of Jellalabad in safety, and a mere handful of 
 sepoys and camp-followers entered the fortress, which Sale 
 liad held, in spite of Greneral Elphinstone' s orders to liini to 
 evacuate. Counting camp-followers, women, and children, 
 more than 26,000 human beings had perished on the retreats 
 A few hundreds mostly native Indians had been carried 
 away captive, to be made slaves, or to be kept for the sake of 
 ransoms. 
 
 Omv protege Shah Sujah, though abandoned and left to 
 his own resources, was not only able to maintain himself in 
 
1842.] GE^EEALS KOTT AXD SALE. 553 
 
 tlie Balla Hissar, but also to acquire friends and allies. The 
 Afghan chiefs, ever divided by jealousies, factions, and feuds, 
 beo^an to intrigue against one another as soon as the English 
 were gone, and some of these sent secret assistance, whilst 
 others sent openly to the shah in the citadel. 
 
 In the city of Candahar Gleneral Xott gallantly maintained 
 himself; and, instead of waitmg for the enemy behind the 
 mud wall and ditch of the place, he sallied, on the 12th of 
 January, with five and a half regiments of infantry, 1,000 
 horse, and sixteen pieces of artillery, attacked the enemy, 
 about 5,000 strong, who were in a formidable position, and 
 completely defeated and routed them. Grhuznee, famed for 
 its gate, and the powder-bags that had blown it open, was 
 held by Colonel Palmer, with one native regiment and some 
 artillery. The veteran Sale added to his well-earned repu- 
 tation by his defence of Jellalabad, on the retention of which 
 nearly everything now depended.* The Afghans were com- 
 pletely balked in their plans by our refusal to vacate the place. 
 
 Finding that Sale would not yield to threatening messages., 
 Akbar Khan sent an army against him. By the 22nd of 
 January the place was surrounded by about 8,000 or 9,000 
 men, including 2,500 good cavalry. It was commanded for 
 some time by Akbar Khan himself.f Fortunately Sale had 
 provisions enough for three or four months, and his foraging 
 parties were so vfell conducted that they gathered grass for 
 their horses and cattle in spite of the enemy, who neither 
 knew how to blockade, nor how to besiege a place. The 
 courage of the garrison was further kept up by intelligence 
 that a force under Colonel Wild was about to attempt 
 marching to the relief of Jellalabad, and that General Pollock, 
 \vith. a fresh army from India, was crossing the Punjaub. 
 Colonel Wild could not get through the terrible Khyber 
 Pass, either by force of arms or by force of money ; but 
 Pollock kept steadily advancing. J A long time must, how- 
 
 * Soon after clearing the Khoord Cabul Pass, on the 12th of October, 
 he had fought on, for eighteen days, as far as Gundamuck, and had reached 
 Jellalabad on the 12th of November, when Generals Elphinsrone and 
 Shelton, through their indecision, were sacrificing the army in the Cabul 
 cantonments. 
 
 f MS. of a young officer of the Bengal establishment. 
 
 J All the hopes of our people at Jellalabad were fixed upon General 
 Pollock ; and every one there seems to have believed that he would 
 retrieve the disgraces he had suffered. 
 
 *' The address of General Pollock to his troops," says one who was 
 
554 JELLALAEAD. [1842. 
 
 ever elapse before Pollock could complete a marcli of 500 or 
 600 miles, and in the interim Sale and his garrison must 
 trust to their own resources, to their own artillery, mus- 
 kets, and bayonets, and their own stout hearts. As the 
 siege or blockade commenced, the old mud walls of Jellalabad 
 Trere rent by a tremendous earthquake. All the parapets 
 'which Sale had built up with so much labour were shaken 
 down, several of his bastions were injured, a considerable 
 breach was made in the rampart of a curtain in the 
 Peshawer face, the Cabul gate of the town was reduced to a 
 shapeless mass of ruins, and about one-third of the town 
 itself was demolished. Other shocks of the earthquake came 
 in rapid succession. In the MS. journal of an intelligent 
 young officer, which is now before us, we see, for some time, 
 two or three earthquakes noted nearly every day or night. 
 General Sale himself says, in one of his despatches, that the 
 city was kept in constant alarm, and that in little more than 
 one month there were 100 distinct shocks. Some of these 
 were very violent. The Afghans, however, never had suffi- 
 cient confidence to attempt a real assault on the crazy old 
 place, and Sale frequently sent out small detachments, which 
 marched through and through the ill-connected Afghan 
 lines. 
 
 Nott still held out in Candahar, and was ready, on receiv- 
 ing some supplies and reinforcements, to co-operate with 
 Pollock and Sale in an advance upon Cabul.* The brave 
 
 with Sale, and was at the moment looking with eager eyes for the relief, 
 "" has excited the praise and admiration of every one who has read it. 
 Here we all hope to see better days and better doings than we have wit- 
 nessed under our former commanding officers." MS. Journal of a 
 Young Officer. The date of the entry is the 14th of April. 
 
 * " It is on record," says Nott, " that I informed the Indian govern- 
 ment that I could hold the country (Candahar and Lower Afghanistan) 
 for any time ; it is on record that I informed Lord Auckland, as far back 
 as December, 1841, that I could, with permission, re-occupy Cabul with 
 the force under my command : there was nothing to prevent it but 
 the unaccountable panic which prevailed at the seat of government." 
 Letter from General Nott to General J. R, Lumley, adjutant-general of 
 the army ; dated Lucknow, 4th April, 1843. 
 
 The Indian government, however, continued to despond. In a letter 
 from the governor-general in council to the secret committee at home, 
 dated February the 19th, 1842 (nine days before the arrival of Lord 
 Ellenborough at Calcutta), it is written : " On the 31st of January we 
 expressly informed Major-General Pollock that Jellalabad was not a 
 place which we desired to retain at all hazards, and that, after securiiig 
 Sir R. Sale's brigade there, and giving every practicable relief to parties 
 
1842.] EETIEEMENT OP LOED AUCKLAND. 555 
 
 men were all eager to retrieve the honour of our arms, and 
 to rescue the English ladies and all the other prisoners from 
 the hands of the barbarians. General Sale had a wife and 
 daughter in captivity ; it may, therefore, be conceived with 
 what feeling he heard that the Indian government he was 
 bound to obey, intended to recall all our forces, to eva- 
 cuate every part of Afghanistan, and to trust to negotiations 
 and money for the liberation of the prisoners, leaving our 
 disgrace unremedied our prestige destroyed. It is now no 
 secret that an order to this effect was issued by Lord Auck- 
 land, who had been dragged into the war by the vanity and 
 presumption of rash men, and who was now listening to the 
 counsels of desponding and timid men. In the mean time, 
 the government which had prociu'ed the appointment of his 
 lordship had been displaced, and succeeded (on the 30th of 
 August, 1841), by the second administration of Sir Eobert 
 Peel. It was impossible that Lord Auckland should long 
 retain his place : Lord EUenborough, who had been pre- 
 sident of the Board of Control, and who strongly denomiced 
 the impohcy of the war, was appointed, on the 23rd of 
 December, 1841, to succeed him. 
 
 from Cabul, we would wish him, rather than run extreme risks at Jel- 
 lalabad, to arrange for withdrawal from it, and the assemblage of all his 
 force at or near Peshawer." This letter is signed ' Auckland W. W. 
 Bird W. Casement.' H. T. Prinsep. 
 
556 ADMINISTEATIOX OF LOUD ELLEXBOROUGII. riS42. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 LoED Elleis^borougii arrived in India on the 2Sth of 
 February, 1842. His earliest attention was demanded by 
 the state of affairs on the Indus, where the ameers of 
 Scinde continued in a doubtful attitude, and by our troops 
 and captives in Afghanistan. Those captives were putting 
 up earnest, but at times almost hopeless, prayers for their 
 liberation a liberation which even the women of the party 
 seemed to have thought was not to be obtained by negotia- 
 tion and ransom, but by hard fighting. 
 
 In quitting India, Lord Auckland had left the country in 
 confusion and dismay. Some new failure? and disasters 
 contributed to depress the spirits of Lord Ellenborough and 
 his council. Grhuznee was recaptured by the Afghans : the 
 poor sepoys left there were all frost-bitten and rendered 
 spiritless and unfit for service ; provisions were not to be 
 obtained ; relief was despaired of ; and on the 6th of March 
 Colonel Palmer evacuated the place, in pursuance of a capi- 
 tulation with some of the Afghan chiefs. The diminished 
 force had scarcely marched out of the citadel ere it was 
 attacked by the savage, fanatic Ghazees. On one spot an 
 English ofhcer, his wife, their servants, and thirty sepoys 
 were massacred. JSTative women and children, and sepoys 
 as helpless as they their powder being all consumed were 
 butchered by the Grhazee knives, or were knocked down in 
 heaps by discharges of artillery. Colonel Palmer was put to 
 the torture ; and then he and his nine surviving British 
 officers were thrown into a small and filthy dungeon. Xearly 
 at the same time, G-eneral England, who was taking stores 
 and reinforcements to Candahar, came upon the enemy in ^n 
 unexpected position, and met with a reverse ; and this, 
 though trifling in its consequences, and easy to be repaired^ 
 contributed to renew the panic of the Indian government. 
 
1842.] GENEEAL yOTT. 557 
 
 General Pollock was ordered to be ready to retreat, and 
 JS'ott received orders to retreat simultaneously with liim. 
 
 But for the courage and decision of Sale and that first- 
 rate Indian officer, General Nott, there would have been a 
 renewal of retreat long before this time. AVhen other men 
 were absolutely craven-hearted, ]^ott was full of resolution 
 and of hope. AYhen the whole extent of our disasters at 
 Cabul and in the passes became known to him at Candahar, 
 he ^^Tote to Lord Auckland beseeching him not to be dis- 
 heartened for a moment, and cheerfully undertaking to 
 march from Candahar to Cabul, as soon as the roads should 
 be passable. During six months lie had reiterated his advice 
 and his offers ; in spite of repeated orders to retreat, he still 
 maintained that there was no honour, or even safety, in any 
 course but the bold one. He was indignant at the panic 
 which prevailed at Calcutta and almost everywhere else. He 
 exclaimed : " Stupid blunders caused disasters at Cabul is 
 that a reason for the despair of a mighty empire ? I do 
 greatly wonder at such deep folly." 
 
 At a later period the veteran wrote : " Had I not re- 
 mained sternly determined, there would have been no advance 
 on Ghuznee and Cabul, and we should have left Afghan- 
 istan in disgrace, being laughed at by the whole world, and 
 all India would have been up in arms. I was obliged more 
 than once to save their honour and their lives in spite 
 of themselves. My sepoys always acted nobly, and I could 
 
 have done anything with them But w^hen among 
 
 our own countrymen all was panic and infatuation, from 
 Lord Auckland dovni to the drum-boy, what could have been 
 expected but disaster and disgrace ? When I endeavoured 
 to uphold the honour of my country, and to save it from 
 disgrace, I was told mark this : it is on official record I 
 was told : ' Yoiu* conduct has been injudicious, and shows 
 that you are unfit for any command.' "* 
 
 But very soon after his arrival in India, Lord EUenborough 
 learned to appreciate Nott, and his lordship was the first 
 in power that ever did so. 
 
 In a happy moment the governor-general in council pro- 
 nounced the word " Forward ; " and from that moment the 
 future began to brighten our disgraces to be remedied. 
 
 * Extracts from Sir W. Nott's papers, as published in the " Quarterly 
 Review," No. clvi. October, 1846. 
 
558 GEJfEEAL POLLOCK. [1842, 
 
 We speak not of vengeance for the past : this was not a 
 war of retaliation and revenge ; it was a war of retrieval a 
 war of HberatioD. 
 
 In the meanwhile Sale had continued to hold out manfully 
 behind the shattered walls of Jellalabad. His sorties had 
 been still more frequent and successful, costing Akbar Khan 
 a great loss in killed and wounded. On the morning of the 
 7th of April, Sale defeated the khan in the open field, took 
 two Afghan standards, four of the guns which had been lost 
 by oui' Cabul army, and nearly all Akbar' s ordnance, stores, 
 tents, &c. jSText to Sale himself the heroes of this day were 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Dennie, Colonel Monteith, Captains 
 Broadfoot, Eenwick, Pattison, Oldfield, and Havelock, and 
 Lieutenant Mayne. Unhappily, the gallant Dennie was 
 killed. But notwithstanding this victory, the situation of 
 the brigade was still very precarious, for their provisions 
 were almost all consumed. 
 
 At last, on .the 16th of April, General Pollock and his 
 force arrived at Jellalabad under a joyful salute of seventeen 
 guns.* Pollock had soundly beaten the Afghans in the 
 Khyber Pass, and above it ; and before he reached Jellalabad 
 the beleaguering army of Akbar Khan was dissolved. 
 
 As soon as it was known that Greneral Pollock intended 
 to advance, the people of Cabul began to desert that city in 
 great numbers. Many of the khans, either struck away for 
 their own mountains, or agreed that some one or two of the 
 English prisoners should be released in order to open 
 friendly negotiations with the victorious general. Just at 
 this crisis Major- General Elphinstone breathed his last, 
 "a happy release for him," says a fellow-prisoner, "from 
 suffering of mind and body."t 
 
 But the forward movement upon Cabul had not yet been 
 determined upon by Lord Ellenborough, and after that 
 determination was come to, much time was required for col- 
 lecting supplies of provisions and means of transport. Thus, 
 after his junction with Sale, Pollock halted more than four 
 months at Jellalabad, during which time the troops were 
 much afflicted by dysentery and other sicknesses, arising 
 
 * " General Pollock," says our young officer, '* is very much liked in 
 camp, as being up to his work, and not caring how the men dress, so long 
 as ihey Jiffht." MS. Journal. 
 
 t Lieutenant Vincent Eyre, * Journal of Imprisonment in Afghanistan/ 
 
 &c. 
 
1842.] ASSASSINATION OF SHAH SUJAH. 559 
 
 chiefly from bad and scanty food, inadequate clothing, and 
 the want of tents. 
 
 By this time several of the Afghan chiefs were waging 
 ferocious war upon one another in the neighbourhood of 
 Cabul. The Shah Sujah was treacherously assassinated hy 
 one Sujah Dowlah, " a liandsome, quiet-looking man," who- 
 now endeavoured to persuade the English prisoners that the- 
 shah had played us false, and that he had performed a 
 praiseworthy act in slaying him. But, by degrees, many 
 of these chiefs became wonderfuly anxious to prove that 
 they had always been the friends of the English, and that it 
 was the late shah who made the insurrection in Cabul, and 
 called upon the mountain tribes to destroy our army on its 
 retreat through the passes.* Shah Sujah's youngest son,. 
 Putty Jung, was proclaimed king by one party ; while the 
 Barukzies formed another party, and opposed him. The 
 civil or clan warfare was now carried into the very heart of 
 the city of Cabul ; and Eutty Jung, who hoped to retain 
 the treasure, if not the throne of his father the murdered 
 shah, was closely besieged in the Balla Hissar. On the 
 6th of June a mine was sprung under one of the towers of 
 the Balla Hissar ; but the storming party was driven back 
 with loss. On the following day, however, Eutty Jungy 
 finding his people disinclined to support him any longer, 
 made terms with Akbar Khan and the other chiefs ; giving 
 up a tower in the Balla Hissar to each of them, and retain- 
 ing for himself possession of the royal residence. By this 
 strange compact the citadel of Cabid was now divided be- 
 tween four rival tribes, the Dooranees, the Barukzies, the 
 Ghilzies, and the Kuzzilbashes. 
 
 * Strange as it may appear, it is positively asserted by various parties, 
 that Shah Sujah promoted the insurrection in the city, from feelings of 
 personal enmity to Burnes. 
 
 " Captain ConoUy had obtained convincing proof that Shah Sujah 
 originated the rebellion with a view to get rid of Burnes, whom he 
 detested, and of several chiefs, whom he hoped to see fall a sacrifice to 
 our vengeance ; little anticipating the ruinous result to himself and to us. 
 Poor Burnes had made but few friends among the chiefs, who now never 
 mention his name but in terms of the bitterest hatred and scorn. The- 
 king considered him as a personal enemy, and dreaded his probable suc- 
 cession to the post of envoy on the departure of Sir W. Mac Naghten."" 
 Eyre. 
 
 See also a despatch from Lord EUenborough to General Sir Jasper 
 Nicholls. His lordship is, however, of opinion that Shah Sujah rather 
 adopted than originated the insurrection against our troops. 
 
5C0 ADYA>'CE TOWAEDS CABrL. [1842. 
 
 Four days before the explosion of tlie mine, news was 
 brouglit to Cabiil that General jSTott had gained a great 
 victory under the walls of Candahar, and had killed 2,000 
 of the Afghans. 
 
 About the middle of Jul}^, Generals Pollock and Nott 
 received positive instructions to make the grand forward 
 movement to advance on Cabul, as soon as they could get 
 ready. On the 15th of August jSTott left Candahar, and 
 put himself in motion for Ghuznee, mth the entire convic- 
 tion that " one thousand sepoys, properly manar/ed, will 
 always beat ten thousand Afghans." lie was at the head 
 of about 7,000 men. Generals Pollock and Sale marched 
 from Jellalabad on the 20th of August. Akbar Khan de- 
 clared, with an expression of savage determination in his 
 countenance, that so surely as our army advanced, he would 
 take all his English prisoners into Toorkistan, and make 
 presents of the ladies to diilerent chiefs of that wild country. 
 iSultan Jan started to meet JN'ott before he should reach 
 Ghuznee ; he fancied he was going to certain victory, but 
 lie sustained a complete and bloody defeat. After an 
 ^'illustrious march," Nott reached Ghuznee: he found that 
 place deserted ; there was not a man, a Avoman, nor child in 
 it. The Afghans had all fled from the town, after fighting 
 among themselves, and unroofing and destroying the houses 
 for the sake of the timber. " I ordered the fortifications 
 and citadel of Ghuznee to be destroyed," said JSTott. " It 
 had been the scene of treachery, mutilation, torture, starv^a- 
 tion, and cruel murder to our unresisting countrymen."* 
 
 General Pollock was equally successful in his advance, 
 and both armies were satisfactorily convinced that our sol- 
 tdiers, both native and European, only required competent 
 eommauders to be invincible. There was some hard fighting 
 at the JugduUuk Pass and at Tezeen ; but our loss w-as in- 
 considerable, and our columns pressed forward until they 
 reached the capital. 
 
 The Afghans expected that JN'ott and Pollock would be 
 at Cabul early in September. On the 25th of August 
 Akbar Khan kept his threat by hurrying oft* his prisoners 
 towards Toorkistan. Let us follow their steps. On the 
 3rd of September the unhappy party reached Bameean, 
 every indignity having been heaped upon them by the way. 
 
 * Letter to Major-General J. R. Luraley, adjutant- general of the 
 array, dated Lucknow, April 4th, 1843. 
 
1842.] THE ENGLISH PEISONEES. 561 
 
 There tlier 'were halted under an old fort, until fresh orders 
 should be received from the terrible Akbar. On the 11th, 
 the Ivhan who had charge of them, and who was " a man 
 that would do anj'thing for money," signed an agreement 
 with five English officers, who promised to give him 20,000 
 rupees, and to insure him 1,000 rupees per month. The 
 khan then hoisted the flag of defiance on the walls of the 
 fort, teUiug the prisoners that they had no longer anything 
 to fear that they should not be carried into Toorkistan. 
 Akbar' s orders to him had been to hurry them on their 
 journey, and to butcher all the sick, and all those for whom 
 there was no conveyance. Several neighbouring chiefs, 
 knowing how matters were going on at Cabul, and hoping 
 to obtain some English money, came over to the fort, and 
 tendered their allegiance to Major Pottinger. Some two or 
 three of them swore on the Koran to be faithful to the 
 major and his companions ; who resolved, in case Akbar 
 should send troops against them, to hold out until the 
 arrival of assistance, even though they should be reduced 
 to eat the rats and mice, of which they had a grand stock 
 in the old fort.* 
 
 On the 15th of September a letter was received at the 
 fort, stating that all Cabul had rien against Akbar ; that our 
 army was close at hand ; that Akbar had fled to the Toba 
 mountains ; and that other chiefs, who dreaded alike the 
 vengeance of the English soldiers and the fury of the people 
 of Cabul, had gone off in various directions, with only a 
 few followers. Upon this Major Pottinger, no longer a 
 prisoner, but acting as a viceroy, and making grants of land 
 and assigning revenues to the hill chiefs, to keep those bar- 
 barians in good humour, determined to quit the old fort, 
 and return with the whole party along the road to Cabul. 
 Attended by a number of chiefs, they set out from the fort 
 on the 16th, hoping to meet some English troops on the 
 road, yet at the same time fearing that they might encounter 
 some formidable band of Akbar's desperate and vindictive 
 people. As they encamped for the first evening they re- 
 ceived a letter, stating that Pollock's force, after fighting 
 from midday to midnight, had eventually forced the Khoord 
 Cabul Pass, and had charged the enemy as far as the hills 
 on the north side of the city of Cabul; that JVott had 
 attacked and pursued them in another direction ; that the 
 * Lady Sale, ' Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan.' 
 
 2o 
 
562 EECOYEET OF [1842. 
 
 Kuzzilbashes and adherents of the late Shah Sujah had 
 made themselves completely masters of the city ; and that 
 Akbar Khan, Sultan Jan, Ahmed Khan, and other hostile 
 khans, who had all been defeated, were nowhere to be heard 
 of. This was pleasant news ; but at the same time our 
 returning prisoners were alarmed by the report that 2,000 
 horse were following them up to recapture them, and ta 
 carry them into the deserts beyond the Oxus. However their 
 last fears were soon removed : at two o'clock in the morning 
 of the 17th they were roused from their slumber by th& 
 arrival of a horseman with a letter from Sir Eichmond 
 Shakespear, who was coming with 600 Kuzzilbashes to meet 
 them. The party set off early, and at midday reached some 
 deserted forts at the foot of a mountain-pass. They were 
 sitting under the walls of one of these forts, sheltering 
 themselves from the sun, when, at three o'clock, Sir Rich- 
 mond arrived, and was received with heartfelt pleasure. 
 "jSTor," says one of the party, "could even the most 
 thoughtless among us fail to recognize and acknowledge, in 
 all that had befallen us, the distinguishing grace and pro- 
 tecting providence of a forbearing and merciful Grod. We 
 now, for the first time, learned that Gi-eneral Pollock had 
 reached Cabul on the 15th, where one of his first acts had 
 been to hasten the departure of the Kuzzilbashes to our 
 aid, by a donation of 10,000 rupees."* But the party had 
 still a long march and a difiicult country between them and 
 Cabul, and were not M-ithout their apprehensions that Akbar 
 might make some desperate effort to recover his lost prey. 
 Sir R. Shakespear forwarded an earnest request to General 
 Pollock that more troops might instantly be sent out ta 
 their support, as the pass of Suffed Khak, through which 
 they must march, was reported to be occupied by a band of 
 marauders. At the same time it was determined that the 
 party should move forward by forced marches, for which 
 every facility was afforded by the Kuzzilbash chiefs, sup- 
 plying them with fresh horses. On the 20th they met an 
 English officer, who gave them the welcome intelligence 
 that General Sale's brigade was only a few miles distant on 
 the road to meet them.. 
 
 " All doubt was now at an end ; we were once more 
 under the safeguard of British troops. General Sale was 
 there in person ; and his happiness at regaining his long- 
 * Lieutenant Eyre, * Journal.' 
 
1842.] THE PEISONERS. 563 
 
 lost wife and daughter may be imagined."* It was a glori- 
 ous rescue ; but, alas ! that the number rescued should be 
 so small. Major- General Shelton, of her majesty's 44th foot, 
 stands at the head of the list. The total number of all who 
 were released and recovered by Nott and Pollock's brilliant 
 advance to Cabul, and by Sale's forward movement from 
 that place, was only 122. Of this number nine were ladies, 
 and three the wives of non-commissioned officers or privates ; 
 there were twenty-two children and thirty-four officers, 
 and the rest, with the exception of two or three regimental 
 clerks, were British non-commissioned officers or privates. 
 On the 21st the happy party marched with Sale's bri- 
 gade to Killa-Kazee, a village close to Cabul. At 2 p.m. 
 on the same day they started for Greneral Pollock's 
 camp, on the plain east of Cabul. Near the tomb of the 
 Emperor Baber they passed Greneral Nott's camp. Thence 
 their road lay through the city: the streets were almost 
 empty, and an awful silence prevailed. They went by the spot 
 where Burnes's house had stood ; the house was now a heap 
 of rubbish, and its pretty garden a desolate waste. The 
 party entered General Pollock's camp at sunset. Again 
 the artillery uttered its boisterous notes of welcome, and 
 old friends crowded around with hearty congratulations. 
 Por the present their cup of joy was full. But when the 
 first rapture was over, rest and reflection, and the scenes 
 which surrounded them, must have brought to their recol- 
 lection the thousands that had perished, and the many 
 friends whose bones lay bleaching on the mountain-tops or 
 in the dreadful passes. 
 
 Some of the first sad occupations of our troops on reach- 
 ing Cabul had been to collect the bones of their slaughtered 
 countrymen and fellow-soldiers, and to give them interment. 
 In some places the skeletons lay in heaps. They were nearly 
 all headless, the Afghans having carried off" most of the 
 skulls as trophies. Horrible, agonizing efforts were made 
 by some of our officers and men to recognize, in shattered 
 bones and skulls, the mortal remains of some dear friend 
 and comrade. On the spot where her majesty's 44th regi- 
 ment had made their last stand, more than 200 skeletons 
 were found lying close together, t 
 
 Yictory now accompanied the British standard wherever 
 
 * Ejre. t MS. * Journal of a Young Officer.' 
 
 2o2 
 
5G4i EETTJEN TO INDIA. [18J:2. 
 
 it Avas raised. One of the most confident predictions of 
 those Avho had pleaded for the continuance of the Com- 
 pany's commercial charter and monopoly of the China 
 trade had been verified ; from the moment that that trade 
 had been throwTi open, there had been nothing but dissen- 
 sion and confusion at Canton, and the quarrel that 
 ensued had led to war and to the invasion of the Celestial 
 Empire by a British fleet and army. The victories obtained in 
 the rivers and on the plains of China were rapidly rumoured 
 throughout India, and produced a salutary impression among 
 the mountains of Afghanistan. They warned all our enemies 
 that our enterprise, our strength, and resources were undi- 
 minished. On the 21st of September, Lord Ellenborough, 
 being then at Simla, in the Himalaya mountains, issued an 
 encouraging proclamation, in which he stated that lie had 
 that very day received the reports of three victories : one, 
 obtained on the 30th of August, by Major-Greneral Nott, 
 over 12,000 Afghans, thirty-eight miles to the south-west of 
 G-huznee ; one, on the 8th of September, by Major-G-eneral 
 Pollock, over the troops of Mohamed Akbar Khan and the 
 Ghilzie chiefs at Jugdulluk ; and one, on the 16th of June, 
 by the expedition on the coast of China, within the mouth, 
 of the river Yang-tse-Kiang. 
 
 We had, however, had quite enough of Afghan connec- 
 tions and interferences ; there was no longer a man that 
 could be deluded by a vision like that of Burnes. On the 
 1st of October, Lord Ellenborough issued a proclamation 
 from Simla, the spot where Lord Auckland had declared the 
 war, stating that the disasters in Afghanistan having been 
 avenged upon every scene of past misfortune, the British 
 army would be withdrawn to the Sutledge. And, on the 
 12th of October, after destroying the fortifications, the 
 Grrand Bazaar, two mosques, and other buildings at Cabul, 
 the British troops evacuated it, and marched oif in three divi- 
 sions for Jellalabad, where they arrived in the course of the 
 22nd and the two following days. 
 
 Erom Jellalabad they continued their long march to 
 Eerozepoor, where, as Lord Ellenborough expressed it, they 
 were " within our native boundaries." The governor- 
 general was at Eerozepoor to receive and welcome them. 
 Eeviews, dinners, and balls ensued. In proposing the health 
 of General Sale and the brave garrison of Jellalabad, Lord 
 Ellenborough said, that it was they who had saved the name 
 and fame of the British empire in India. At a grand 
 
1842.] THE AMEEES OF SCIXDE. 565 
 
 review on the 31st of December, 24,000 soldiers and 102 
 guns ^vere mustered on this one spot.* 
 
 The sAYord was now sheathed ; but not for a long season. 
 The ameers of Scinde had behaved treacherously towards us 
 while our troops were engaged and while suffering their im- 
 speakable disasters in Afghanistan. After our second return 
 from Cabul, being deluded as to the circumstances under 
 which we had retired, these proud chiefs, instead of showing 
 a disposition to abide by their treaty and court our friend- 
 ship, assumed a defiant, hostile attitude. They conceived 
 that we had been much weakened, if not beaten.f 
 
 Our Indian government, under Lord Aucldand, discovered 
 that the ameers had leagued themselves with the Seikh chief 
 of Mooltan, and with other powerful leaders, and that they 
 were gradually forming an extensive combination against us. 
 Lord Ellenborough preferred breaking their strength now to 
 waiting for a future collision, when they might choose their 
 own time, and possibly take us by surprise. 
 
 On his lordship's first arrival in the East, our Indian 
 empire was indisputably in danger, and it was the new 
 governor-general's mission to put it in a situation of secu- 
 rity ; to rebuke the pride and insolence of the barbarians 
 who had been victorious, and of the barbarians who hoped to 
 be so. The obligation of security was a necessity, paramount 
 to all other considerations. As this was not to be obtained 
 by treaty as events had been allowed to come to that pass 
 that our treaties were laughed at there remained nothing 
 but the ultima ratio, a stern recourse to arms. 
 
 " The Scindian war," says its historian, " was no isolated 
 event. It vras the tail of the Afghan storm." It was not 
 entered upon precipitately. The governor-general sent a 
 warning letter to the ameers ; and it was not until four 
 montlis after sending the letter that he gave the following 
 instructions to Sir Charles Napier : " Should any ameer or 
 cliief, with whom we have a treaty of alliance and friendship, 
 have evinced hostile designs against us, during the late 
 
 * MS. 'Journal of a Young Officer.* Lady Sale's and Lieutenant Eyre's 
 Journals. Another work on this part of our Indian History, which may 
 be read with advantage, is ' Diary of a March through Afghanistan and 
 Scinde,' by the Rev. J. N. Allen. Some excellent notions of the scenery 
 and architecture may be obtained from ' Views in Afghanistan, &c., from 
 Sketches taken during the Campaign,' by Sir Keith A. Jackson, Bart. 
 
 f Letters of Lord Ellenborough, in ' Correspondence relative to Scinde.' 
 Presented to both houses of parliament by command of her maiesty, 
 1S43. 
 
566 SIE CHARLES NAPIEE. [1843. 
 
 events, which may have induced them to doubt the conti- 
 nuance of our power, it is the present intention of the 
 governor-general to inflict upon the treachery of such ally 
 and friend so signal a punishment as shall effectually deter 
 others from similar conduct ; but the governor-general 
 would not proceed in this course without the most complete 
 and convincing evidence of guilt in the person accused." 
 
 "When aU were found guilty, the punishment must reach 
 aU. The ameers, faithless abroad, were tyrannical at home ; 
 they had not the affection of the people to rely upon. 
 Theirs was indeed "a government hated by its subjects, 
 despotic, hostile alike to the interests of the English and of 
 its own people ; a government of low intrigue, and so con- 
 stituted that it must in a few years have fallen to pieces by 
 the vice of its construction."* 
 
 The required proofs of the treachery and hostility of the 
 ameers were soon obtained, though by a most rigid process. 
 The evidence which convinced Sir Charles Napier would 
 have convinced any jury of sensible men would have 
 brought dow^l sentence of guilty, not only in any court in 
 Europe, but in any oriental court. When war was immi- 
 nent. Sir Charles, like an experienced soldier, applied him- 
 self to the organization and discipline of his troops, who 
 were for the most part inexperienced. He drew them out 
 frequently and accustomed them to move in masses ; he 
 introduced several improvements ; he exhorted them to a 
 subordination of which too many of them had been allowed 
 to lose sight, and recommended a quiet and considerate con- 
 duct towards the people of Scinde. 
 
 The fighting veteran was in no hurry to begin : 
 " l^othing," he wrote to the governor-general, " is lost by 
 delay. We cannot be too cautious in securing firm moral 
 ground on which to rest the defence of whatever events 
 may arise. The ameers grow weaker, delay exhausts their 
 treasury, and then they cheat their soldiers, who, of course, 
 leave them. This is also the season of fever on the banks 
 of the Indus. Were hostilities to commence now, I should 
 lose many men, and have a large hospital." 
 
 He was most careful of the health of his people, feeling 
 that this was one of the most important duties of every 
 commander-in-chief. " To move on Hyderabad," he con- 
 tinued, " I must go by the river or by the desert. To 
 supply the sick by the "last would be difiicult, if not impos- 
 * Parliamentary Paper. Letter to Lord Ellenborough. 
 
1843.] BATTLE OF MEEANEE. 567 
 
 sible : to go by tlie river would augment the hospital. 
 The Indus is falling, and when it is at the lowest, the fevers 
 will cease. Meanwhile I have a sickly camp, and I should 
 have regretted if the ameers had called me out before : now 
 they are welome." He was too wise to trust to so uncer- 
 tain and interrupted a navigation as that of the Indus he 
 saw that the line of war, like that of commerce, was rather 
 across the river, than up it or down it. " If I am forced to 
 take the field," said he, " I will cross the Indus, and march 
 upon Hyderabad by land; for there are objections to 
 dropping down the river. The water is low ; boats go with 
 difficulty when lightly laden ; I cannot float more than a 
 thousand men with guns and stores, and the vessels would 
 ven then be overladen, and ground perhaps for days on the 
 mud within reach of matchlocks. I^othing can be gained 
 by rapidity." But when a forward movement became im- 
 mediately necessary. Sir Charles made it with the rapidity 
 of lightning. This aged and often- wounded soldier moved 
 with all the alacrity of youth. 
 
 In February, 1843, he wrote to Major Outram, who was 
 still negotiating : " This delay wiU not do. The governor- 
 general's orders to disperse the armed bands belonging to 
 the ameers of Upper Scinde are positive. I have now no 
 time to lose ; my own troops must soon disperse, from the 
 heat ; I will not lose the cold weather." 
 
 The Indus was now crossed, and Sir Charles Napier threw 
 himself between the northern and southern ameers. The 
 forces of the Hyderabad ameers made a ferocious attack on 
 the British residency outside their city. On moving away 
 from the bank of the Indus, Sir Charles found that a great 
 force of the enemy was gathering in his rear, while the rest 
 kept their post at Meeanee, in his front. But he had read 
 the duke of AVellington's observations on Colonel Monson's 
 disastrous retreat before the Mahrattas, and he had drawn 
 from it this conclusion never to give way before barbarians. 
 He said, " Let there be sixty or a hundred thousand, I will 
 fight." He therefore rapidly advanced; and on the 17th 
 of February was fought the great battle of Meeanee. Our 
 army was now reduced to 2,600 of all arms, including offi- 
 cers, fit for duty in the field. The enemy's positions were 
 formidable : they had a natural ravine in their front ; they 
 had more than 30,000 infantry, with fifteen guns, supported 
 by 5,000 cavalry. Their wings rested on large woods or 
 hunting-grounds, which extended on each side of the 
 
568 BATTLE OF MEEA^EE. [1843. 
 
 plain in front for a considerable way, so as to flank the 
 British lines on both sides when it should advance. These 
 woods were very dense ; yet Sir Charles Napier and his 
 little force fell impetuously upon the enemy by the front. 
 The fighting was terrible, and as hard as fighting could be. 
 The dead level of the plain was swept by the Beloochee 
 cannon and matchlocks ; and when our troops got close up, 
 after the ravine was crossed, our men had to ascend a high 
 sloping bank. " The Beloochees, having their matchlocks 
 laid ready in rest along the summit, waited until the assail- 
 ants were within fifteen yards ere their volley was discharged ; 
 the rapid pace of the British, and the steepness of the slope 
 deceived their aim, and the result was not considerable ; the 
 next moment the 22nd were on the top of the bank, thinkiug 
 to bear do^vn all before them, but they staggered back in 
 amazement at the forest of swords waving in their front. 
 Thick as standing corn, and gorgeous as a field of flowers, 
 stood the Beloochees in their many-coloured garments and 
 turbans ; they filled the broad deep bed of the ravine, they 
 clustered on both banks, and covered the plain beyond. 
 Gruarding their heads with their large dark shields, they 
 shook their sharp swords, beaming in the sun, their shouts 
 rolling like a peal of thunder, as with frantic gestures they 
 dashed forward, with demoniac strength and ferocity, full 
 against the front of the 22nd. But with shouts as loud, 
 and shrieks as wild and fierce as theirs, and hearts as big 
 and arms as strong, the Irish soldiers met them with the 
 queen of weapons the musket, and sent their foremost 
 
 masses rolling back in blood Now the Beloochees 
 
 closed their dense masses, and again the shouts of the 
 rolling fire of musketry, and the dreadful rush of their 
 swordsmen, were heard and seen along the whole line ; 
 and such a fight ensued as has seldom been known or told 
 of in the records of war. These wild warriors continually 
 advanced, sword and shield in hand, striving in all the 
 fierceness of their valour to break into the opposing ranks ; 
 no fire of small-arms, no thrust of bayonets, no sweeping 
 discharges of grape from the guns, which were planted in 
 one fearful mass on the right, could drive the gallant 
 soldiers back ; they gave their breasts to be shot, they 
 leaped upon the guns by twenties at a time : their dead 
 went down the steep slope by hundreds : but the gaps in 
 their masses were continually fiUed up from the rear ; tho 
 
1S43.] BATTLE OF MEEAliEE. 5G9 
 
 surrivors of the front rank still pressed forward with 
 unabated fury, and the bayonet and the sword clashed in 
 full and frequent conflict."* 
 
 When nearly all the European officers had been killed or 
 wounded, and when the sepoys, wanting leaders, had several 
 times slowly receded, a charge made on the enemy's right by 
 our entire, but small, body of horse, under the command of 
 Colonel Pattle, gave to Sir Charles all the glory of victory. 
 They had kept their ground for more than three hours, but 
 now the Beloochees began to retreat in heavy masses, still 
 keeping well together with their broad shields slung over their 
 backs, and their heads half-turned towards their pursuers. 
 
 "The victors followed closel}^ pouring in volley after 
 volley, until tired of slaughtering ; yet those stern, impla- 
 cable warriors preserved their habitual swinging stride, and 
 would not quicken it to a vun, though death was at their 
 heels." t 
 
 Kever had more personal courage been displayed by our 
 officers and men. The greater part of the battle was a 
 hand-to-hand fight. "The noble soldier Pennefather," as 
 Sir Charles i^apier called him, fell on the top of the bank, to 
 appearance mortally wounded ; and his place was instantly 
 taken by Major Pool. Major Teesdale, animating his 
 sepoys, rode desperately over the ridge into the midst of 
 the Beloochees, and was instantly killed by shot and sabre. 
 Major Jackson followed the heroic example of Teesdale, and 
 met the same fate. Two brave havildars kept close to them 
 in advance of their regiment, and like^' their leaders, they 
 were also killed, after they had slain several of the fiercest 
 of the enemy. Lieutenant M'Murdogh, of the general's staff, 
 rode, Uke Teesdale and Jackson, into the very heart of the 
 Beloochee mass ; his horse was killed under him, yet he rose 
 instantly, and meeting Jehan Mohabad, one of the most 
 warlike of the chiefs, slew him in the midst of his elan. 
 Then, while engaged with several in front, one came behind 
 and struck at him, but a serjeant of the 22nd, killed this 
 enemy so instantly, that his blow fell harmless. MOIur- 
 dogh turned and did the same service for his preserver, 
 cleaving the head of a Beloochee, who was aiming at his 
 back. Captain Jacob and Lieutenant Pitzgerald performed 
 similar exploits. 
 
 * Major- General W. F. P. Napier, ' Conquest of Scinde,' ^cc. 
 t Major-General W. F. P. Napier. 
 
570 STJEEENDEE OF THE AMEEES. [1843. 
 
 Six European officers and sixty Serjeants and privates 
 were killed, and fourteen officers and about 200 men 
 wounded. As the sepoy grenadiers had been but slightly 
 engaged, this loss was nearly a sixth part of our fighting force. 
 The loss of the Beloochees was enormous ; a careful compu- 
 tation gave it as 6,000 ; 1,000 bodies were heaped in the 
 ravine alone. 
 
 On the following morning, at the break of day, Sir Charles 
 Napier sent to tell the ameers that he would immediately 
 storm Hyderabad, if they did not surrender. Six of these 
 sovereign princes presently entered his camp on horseback, 
 and offered themselves as prisoners. They yielded their 
 fortress, and laid their rich swords and other arms at 
 the British general's feet. " Their misfortunes," said 
 8ir Charles, "were of their own creation, but, as they 
 were great, I gave them back their swords." The ameers 
 were cowards, but the conqueror, both in his public 
 despatches and in his private letters, gave full honour 
 and praise to the brave Beloochees. A few words must be 
 said of the merits of the ameers as rulers and sovereigns. 
 They governed by the sword, and by no other law. The 
 Beloochees were their troops; the poor Scindians and 
 Hindus their subjects and victims. Any Beloochee might kill 
 a Scindian or Hindu with impunity. There was no security 
 of property to the industrious part of the community. 
 Money was extorted from Hindu and other merchants by 
 torture and mutilation, even as it was drawn from the poor 
 Jews in England by King John. The ameers also restricted 
 commerce, and hated the presence of strangers, who might 
 draw unfavourable comparisons between their jule and that of 
 neighbouring princes and powers. With a teeming soil, and 
 a people willing to work, they had turned Scinde into the 
 most wretched, poverty-stricken country in all Asia. In 
 order to form their shikargahs or hunting-grounds, they 
 had laid waste, in less than sixty years, a fourth part of the 
 most fertile land of Scinde. The process of "William the 
 Conqueror, in forming the New Eorest in Hampshire, was 
 gentle and diminutive, compared vdth their proceedings 
 along the banks of the Indus. The only trade they really 
 encouraged was that trade in human beings which all 
 Christendom has reprobated ; the ameers dealt largely in 
 the slave-trade, and so did all their feudal chiefs, both as im- 
 porters and exporters. Infanticide was systematized among 
 
1843.] ANNEXATION" 03? SCINDE. 571 
 
 tliem ; tlie ameers and sirdars killed all their illegitimate 
 children, and very commonly their female legitimate children, 
 when they thought they had too many girls in their family. 
 
 It took Sir Charles Napier another victory, that of Dubba, 
 near Hyderabad, gained on the 24th of March, 1843, to 
 annihilate the power of the ameers. That victory gained, 
 he had to organize the country and clear it of the bands 
 of robbers and murderers who infested it. But some of 
 these bands, in the south of the Delta, were very numerous 
 and very bold, and were not to be overtaken but hj the most 
 rapid movements, nor subdued and scattered without more 
 hard fighting. Deriah Khan, chief of the Jackranees, Toork 
 Ali, and other robber chiefs, were severally as formidable as 
 Doondiah Waugh, the King of the Two "Worlds, who had 
 given Greneral Wellesley so much trouble after the fall of 
 Seringapatam. 
 
 Immediately after the battle of Meeanee, the governor- 
 general, in a proclamation dated from the palace of Agra, on 
 the 5th of March, 1843, announced that Scinde had become 
 part of our eastern dominions ; and on the 13th of March, 
 he appointed Major-General Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B., 
 governor of the province he had conquered ; directing in this 
 second proclamation that all the acts of parliament for the 
 abolition of slavery, and for the suppression of the slave- 
 trade, should have full force and effect in every part of Scinde ; 
 that the navigation of the Indus should be free to all nations ; 
 and that aU duties of transit in every part of Scinde should 
 be immediately and totally abohshed. 
 
 The Beloochees, whose occupation was gone, kept sullenly 
 aloof; but their sword was broken, and it was not appre- 
 hended that they could soon wield it again. The Scindian 
 population everywhere expressed their satisfaction at the 
 change of masters. 
 
 It was the duke of "Wellington who moved in the House 
 of Lords the vote of thanks to Lord EUenborough, and the 
 officers and men who had finished with honour the Afghan 
 war, which Lord x\uckland had left in a dishonoured and 
 seemingly hopeless condition. His grace, in his own con- 
 cise manner, showed the state of the country shortly before 
 the outbreak of the insurrection in Cabul, and detailed the 
 unfortunate operations subsequently to that outbreak the 
 loss of the commissariat fort, the continued attacks on the 
 cantonments, and the effects of harassing duty and insuffi- 
 
572 STATE OF GWALIOE. [ISIS. 
 
 cient food upon tlie spirits and health of the garrison. 
 "It must always happen," said the Grreat Captain, "that 
 soldiers badly fed become unhealthy, and lose their spirite 
 and their energy. The natural result of such a condition 
 of the army was the breaking up of general subordination 
 and obedience to orders. In fact, the discipline of the 
 army was gone ; the animals were famishing as well as the 
 men ; the soldiers were in almost a state of mutiny, and 
 the followers of the army were in a condition of complete 
 disorder. Never were men in a worse state than those 
 men were in, before, and for more than a month after, the 
 attack upon Bumes's house." 
 
 The duke highly commended the prompt decision of 
 Lord Ellenborough, the wisdom of his instructions, and 
 the gallant execution of them by G-eneral Nott and other 
 officers. General J^ott had succeeded in rescuing many 
 British subjects from captivity and slavery. Prom the 
 period, said liis grace, at which the governor-general landed 
 in India and gave his first orders, more was done to remedy 
 the misfortunes which had taken place than the most san- 
 guine minds could have anticipated. 
 
 This eulogium, pronounced in our highest assembly by 
 the greatest man of his age, ought to compensate tlie noble 
 subject of it for the detraction which was for a brief space 
 of time levelled against him. 
 
 The conquest of Scinde did not terminate the warlike 
 operations of Lord Ellenborough' s most active and brilliant 
 administration. The Mahrattas of Grwalior had long been 
 giving us great trouble, and required a vigilant and expensive 
 attention on the part of the Indian government. On the 
 decease of the late Maharajah Junkojee Eao Scindia, the 
 British government acknowledged as his successor the 
 Maharajah Tyajee Eao Scindia, who was nearest in blood 
 to the late maharajah, and whose widow was approved by 
 the chiefs. The widow was appointed regent during the 
 minority of the new maharajah, but she very wisely trans- 
 ferred the dignity to Mama Sahib, with the concurrence of 
 the chiefs. The British government communicated to the 
 durbar of Gwalior its entire approval of this arrangement ; 
 and the British resident, in the presence of the assembled 
 chiefs, explained to the regent that he was recognized as 
 the responsible head of the state ; and as such would re- 
 ceive the support of the British government. Yet, after 
 
1S43.] STATE or GWALIOE. 5/3 
 
 a sliort time," the regent, Mama Sahib, was violentl}^ com- 
 pelled to quit the G\Yaiior state, in despite of the remon- 
 strances of the British resident. Men inimical to our 
 government, and to the tranquillity of India, were thrust 
 into office by the ^Yidow of the late maharajah. Our resi- 
 dent was instructed to withdraw from Gwalior. The Dada 
 Khan T\'alla, though opposed by many of the chiefs, vir- 
 tually usurped the sovereign authority in the Grwalior state ; 
 which the British government was bound to maintain in 
 the house of Scindia. The British government demanded 
 that this Dada should be expelled, and delivered up to their 
 charge, as a necessary preliminary to the re-establishment 
 of the customary relations with Gwalior. After a long 
 delay, the widow and her faction yielded this point ; but, 
 presently making a return to intrigue and cabal, the widow 
 set up men who were still more turbulent. The country 
 was rent to pieces by insurrections, plots, wide-spreading 
 conspiracies, and assassinations. The British government 
 could neither permit the existence of an nnfriendly govern- 
 ment in Grwalior, nor that those territories should be 
 without a government capable of coercing its own subjects, 
 and of maintaining everywhere the relations of good neigh- 
 bourhood with the subjects of the British government and 
 its allies. 
 
 By the 25th of December, the British army had entered 
 the country, not as an enemy, but as a friend to the maha- 
 rajah. The governor-general stated, by proclamation, that 
 he had no object but that of restoring good government 
 and tranquillity; and he warned the evil advisers of the 
 perverse widow, that they would be held responsible for any 
 resistance which might be offered to the measures deemed 
 necessary for the maharajah's just authority, and for the 
 secui'ity of his person and rights.* 
 
 Lord Ellenborough had accompanied the troops, who 
 were under the command of Sir Hugh Gough. These 
 troops had moved from Agra early in December, and had 
 crossed the Chumbul river on the 23rd of that month. 
 At the same time another division, under Major- General 
 Grey, advanced upon Gwalior from Bundelkund. On the 
 29th of Decem.ber the main division crossed the Kohuree 
 river. Tliey found the Mahratta forces drawn up in 
 
 * Lord Ellenborough's proclamation, dated Camp Hingona, Dec. 25th, 
 1843. 
 
574 BATTLES OF MAHAEAJPOOR A^'D PUls^NIAE. [1843. 
 
 front of the village of Maliarajpoor, in a very strong posi- 
 tion, wliich they had carefully intrenched. The British 
 and native troops were about 14,000 strong, with forty 
 pieces of artillery ; the Mahrattas mustered 18,000 men, 
 including 3,000 cavalry with 100 guns. The action com- 
 menced by the gallant advance of Major-Greneral Littler' s 
 column upon the enemy in front. The Mahrattas received 
 the shock without flinching, their guns doing severe execu- 
 tion as our attacking column advanced. But the British 
 soldiers rushed on. Her majesty's 39th foot, well sup- 
 ported by the 56th native infantry, soon drove the enemy 
 from their guns, bayoneting the gunners at their posts. 
 The Mahrattas rallied in the village; and here the most 
 sanguinary conflict ensued ; the Grwalior troops, after dis- 
 charging their matchlocks, fought sword in hand with the 
 most determined courage. But General Valiant's brigade 
 took Maharajpoor in reverse ; twenty-eight guns were cap- 
 tured at once, and after they had fought with frantic 
 desperation, the Mahrattas being beaten at all points, and 
 having lost their guns, and from 3,000 to 4,000 men in 
 kiUed and wounded, dispersed and fled. But the loss on 
 our side was very severe : we had 106 killed, 684 wounded, 
 and seven missing, seven ofiicers were either killed on the 
 field, or subsequently died of their wounds. Her majesty's 
 40th regiment lost two successive commanding officers. 
 Major Stopford and Captain Coddrington, who fell at the 
 very muzzles of the Mahratta guns.* 
 
 On the same day another brilliant victory was obtained. 
 On the 28th of December, when Major-General Grrey and 
 his column moved from Bundelkund, and reached Punniar, 
 about twelve miles from Grwalior, they found that a sepa- 
 rate force was in that vicinity to stop their progress upon 
 the capital. On the morrow morning from 10,000 to 12,000 
 Mahrattas showed themselves in a formidable position on 
 some heights near a fortified village. They were presently 
 attacked, and driven from height to height by Major- 
 General Grey's troops, who forgot the fatigues of their 
 long march so soon as the fighting began. 
 
 The consequence of these two victories was the prompt 
 
 submission of the durbar to Lord Ellenborough's demands, 
 
 and the unopposed entrance of the British into the capital. 
 
 Colonel Stubbs was appointed governor of the fort of 
 
 * Sir Hugh Gough's despatch. 
 
1844.] EECALL or LOED ELLENBOEOUGH. 575 
 
 Grwalior, which commands the city ; the Mahratta troops 
 were dishanded, and British troops several regiments of 
 infantry and two of cavalry were to be maintained in the 
 country at the cost of the Grwalior government. That go- 
 vernment was also to pay forthwith the expenses of the 
 campaign. On the 4th of January, 1844 so magically 
 rapid were these operations the governor-general, writing 
 in the Grwalior residency, announced that this war was 
 finished. He deeply lamented the severe loss in killed and 
 wounded ; but this loss had been sustained in a great and 
 necessary service, and the victories of Maharajpoor and 
 Punniar, while they shed new glory upon the British army, 
 had restored the authority of the young prince, and had 
 given new security to the British empire in India. In the 
 same proclamation Lord Ellenborough cordially congratu- 
 lated the commander-in-chief. Sir Hugh Gough, upon his 
 able combinations, by which two victories had been ob- 
 tained on the same day, and the two wings of the army^ 
 proceeding from different points, had been united under 
 the walls of Grwalior. 
 
 These stormy events were followed by a perfect calm. 
 Peace, internal and external, was favourable to the finances 
 of the country, which had, of course, suffered a severe drain 
 ever since the commencement of the Afghan war. There 
 was everj^ prospect that the finances would soon improve. 
 
 Lord Ellenborough' s popularity with the army was uni- 
 versal and immense ; but he was regarded with very different 
 feelings by many in the ci\il service, and particularly by 
 that class of men whom General Nott designated as " busy 
 politicals." Unfortunately, disagreements or misunder- 
 standings arose between the governor-general and the Court 
 of Directors at home, and that court, having by their 
 charter the power so to do, recalled his lordship towards the 
 end of April, 1844, without the consent and much against 
 the wishes of her majesty's government. Lord Brougham 
 observed in the House of Peers, that it was inconceivable 
 how such an anomalous law should be allowed to continue in 
 force ; that it was incomprehensible how the Board of Con- 
 trol part and parcel of the imperial government should 
 have the power of controlling every other act of the Court 
 of Directors in their administration of Indian affairs, and 
 yet that the most important of all acts that upon which 
 the safety of our Indian empire might depend the con- 
 
576 EECALL OF LORD ELLENBOEOTJGH. [1S44. 
 
 tinuance or tlie removal of the governor-general, should be 
 left solely to the Court of Directors. 
 
 Yet, so stood the Company's charter, and the recall re- 
 mamed as legal and good. The displeasure of the duke of 
 AYelliugton, the discontentment of many at home, and of the 
 entire army in India, were moderated by the immediate 
 appointment of the excellent Sir Henry Hardinge, the most 
 fitting person to fill the high station so suddenly vacated. 
 
 At a farewell entertainment given to him by the military 
 at Calcutta, Lord Ellenborough said, " The only regret 1 
 feel at leaving India is, that of being separated from the army. 
 The most agreeable, the most interesting period of my life, 
 has been that which I have passed here in cantonments and 
 in camps."* 
 
 * For some interesting information and sound judgment on Lord Ellen- 
 borough's Indian Administration, see * Recollections of Four Years' 
 Service in the East with Her Majesty's 40th Regiment,' by Captain 
 J. Bladen Neill. 
 
1j844.] sir h. haedi^'ge governoe-geneeal. 577 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Little need be said of tlie previous services, military 
 and political, or of tlie character of a personage so universally 
 known and esteemed as Sir Henry Hardinge. Like Sir 
 Charles Napier, the conqueror of Scinde, Sir Henry had 
 fought heroically at Coruiia and in many other memorable 
 battles. He was at Sir John Moore's side when that brave 
 but ill-fated officer received his death- wound : dismounting, 
 he raised Moore from the ground, and tried in vain to stop 
 the eifusion of blood with his sash, and with tears in his 
 eyes he helped his beloved general to the rear. He was 
 as gentle-hearted as he was brave ; he was a Christian hero. 
 There was nowhere a better soldier nor a truer man. 
 A candid political opponent had described his temper as 
 warm but generous, kindling at the least imputation, but 
 never " allowing the sun to go down upon his wrath." 
 Other adversaries had represented him as " really a kindly 
 and generous man, warm in friendship, placable and scru- 
 pulous in hostility; plain, sincere, straightforward, just, 
 and considerate;" and they gave him credit for "under- 
 standing what he undertakes, and imdertaking nothing but 
 what he understands." The estimate made by his political 
 and his personal friends of his noble character and eminent 
 abilities was of course much higher. In parliament and in 
 office he had obtained many boons, and various improved, 
 liberal regulations for the British soldier ; and he had justly 
 earned the title of " The Soldier's Friend." In civil matters 
 his reputation stood equally high : both in England and in 
 Ireland he had proved himseli* an excellent man of busi- 
 ness, an administrator, and a statesman.* 
 
 It was summer, but the tremendous heat of the Eed 
 
 * ' Lord Hardinge's Administration.' An able article in the * Calcutta 
 Review,' written by a distinguished officer, who has been long in India, 
 and is still serving in that country. 
 
 ' 2p 
 
578 CIVIL IMPBOVEMENTS, ETC. [1844. 
 
 Sea, at tliat season, did not prevent Sir Henry from 
 minutely inspecting the works in progress at Aden (where 
 the Company had found it expedient to make a military 
 settlement), and di'awing up a memorandum in correction 
 of the errors of the Bombay engineers, and in proof of the 
 uselessness of the extravagant expenditure then going on 
 upon the rock. Subsequently, in India, full informa- 
 tion was called for, and the governor-general recorded, in 
 another very able paper, that works to an extent sufficient 
 for 1,200 men in peace, and 1,500 in war, with propor- 
 tionate artillery, would make good the post against all 
 probable comers. It is in similar adaptations of ways and 
 means that the officers in every department of the govern- 
 ment of India have found Lord Hardinge's strength to lie ; 
 his practical intellect sees and seizes at once upon the strong 
 and weak points of a question ; and, above all, a military 
 fallacy stands no chance with him. The Aden papers 
 have generally transpired, and are justly considered as 
 among the very ablest that have emanated from Lord 
 Hardmge's pen.* 
 
 Sir Henry reached Calcutta on the 23rd of July, 1844, 
 and was received as he merited. He entered heart and 
 soul into the pacific policy which had been strongly recom- 
 mended to him by the Court of Directors ; and into every 
 means of advancing the prosperity, education, and enlight- 
 enment of the people of India. He attended the Hindu 
 college and the Mahometan college in Calcutta; he dis- 
 tributed the prizes, he encouraged the pupils, and honoured 
 the professors. His unaffected but stirring language con- 
 vinced every one of the ardent sincerity of the speaker. 
 "Without falling into the somewhat common error of at- 
 tempting to do too much at once and interfering too much, 
 he paid all possible attention to the welfare of the natives,, 
 and to the improvement of their physical as well as moral 
 condition. He considerably reduced the price of foreign 
 salt, which was a government monopoly. This measure was 
 regarded by many as a bold one, since it was expected to 
 reduce the revenue to the extent of twelve lacs of rupees ; 
 and this, too, at a time of great pecuniary pressure, at the 
 close of a five years' war, and the opening of a new adminis- 
 tration. But the governor-general conceived that there was 
 as much of wisdom as of mercy in all such reductions of 
 * Calcutta Review. 
 
1844.] EEFOEMS TS THE AEMY. o79 
 
 duties ; for that by them smuggling would be starved, and 
 the revenue idtimately augmented. 
 
 He at once recommended the construction of railroads in 
 different parts of India, and showed that the valuable pro- 
 ducts of natvu*e were, in a great measure, deprived of a 
 profitable market by the want of cheap and expeditious 
 means of transport. He called the attention of the natives 
 who were best educated to the exciting and wondrous 
 facts of steam, and the magic power conferred on man by 
 the discovery of the electro-magnetic telegraph. 
 
 He endeavoured as much as possible to put an end to the 
 jealousy and rancour which had been so mischievously 
 excited between the military in general and the civil ser- 
 vants of the Company. "Well versed in military finance, 
 the boons which he conferred, with the sanction of the 
 Court of Directors, upon the European as well as the native 
 portion of the army, were many and substantial. On his 
 recommendation an increase to the establishment of Euro- 
 pean ofiicers in the Company's army was sanctioned, and 
 their eligibility for the honour of aide-de-camp to her ma- 
 jesty had been granted whilst he was secretary at war. To 
 promote the comfort of the European soldier in quarters, he, 
 as head of the government, was ever ready. In the field he 
 ordered that the soldier should be relieved from the expense 
 of transporting his baggage. 
 
 Eor the native soldier he granted an increase of pension 
 for wounds ; he also gave him an allowance to defray the 
 expense of building his hut on the change of quarters. 
 He facilitated the pleas of native soldiers in courts of jus- 
 tice, and placed the troops serving in Scinde and Arracan 
 upon the same footing, and thereby removed the cause of 
 much discontent, which had sho^Ti itself in regiments 
 ordered to serve in Scinde. 
 
 Although he was ever anxious to do justice to the claims 
 of the native army, he did not neglect its discipline. He re- 
 imposed the power of inflicting corporal punishment, which 
 power, although it had never been legally abolished, had, by 
 an order of Lord William Bentinck, been in abeyance since 
 1835, though the European soldier was still subject to this 
 punishment. This act, perhaps, required more courage than 
 any other in Lord Hardinge's long and arduous public 
 career. Other governors-general had acknowledged the 
 inexpediency of Lord Wilham Bentinck' s order, but had 
 2p2 
 
580 TROUBLES AMONG [1839-44. 
 
 slirunk from the responsibility of revoking it; and, al- 
 though all military men lamented the increase of insub- 
 ordination, and advocated, with very few exceptions, the 
 repeal of Lord "William's order, the adjutant-general of 
 Bengal was one of the few who were of opinion that the 
 re-introduction of corporal punishment would not create a 
 mutiny. It was under these circumstances that Sir H. 
 Hardiinge cancelled Lord AVilliam Bentinck's order. The 
 returns of the armies of the three presidencies prove, that 
 the punishment is now so rarely enforced, as to be almost 
 a dead letter ; while at the same time the discipline of the 
 army is sustained, insubordination suppressed, and the 
 number of soldiers sentenced to labour in irons, which had 
 daring the ten years that Lord William's order was in 
 force, amounted to 10,000, is materially diminished. 
 
 Sir Henry Hardinge would have worn "peace" as his 
 badge and motto ; yet he had been only a few months in 
 the country when he found that he could no more be at 
 peace than Lord EUenborough had been. The web which 
 we have woven over Hindustan is so extensive, and reaches 
 into so many angles and corners, that it is a work of the 
 greatest difficulty to watch and protect every part of it ; 
 yet no part can be touched without making the whole 
 tremble in the breeze. The chances of hostilities are thus 
 multitudinous. The chairman of the Court of Directors, in 
 the act of recommending the most pacific policy, had told 
 the governor-general that our dependants and allies must 
 be protected ; that the native states which still retained 
 independence must be covered by the shield of British 
 protection; that the supremacy of our power must be 
 maintained by force of arms. Sir Henry Hardinge was 
 therefore under the solemn obligation of girding on the 
 sword whenever it should become necessary. Shame, im- 
 peachment, utter ruin, would fall upon any governor- 
 general of India who failed so to do. But, in the present 
 case, the hostile attack was threatened and soon made, not 
 upon an ally, a protected state, or an independent state, 
 but upon the territory of the Company itself not upon an 
 angle or corner of the complicated, \\-ide-spreading web, 
 but upon its heart and centre. 
 
 Ever since the death of Eunjeet Singh, the Lion of La- 
 hore, the Sikhs, the country, and people, had been going 
 through a succession of political convulsions and paroxysms. 
 
1839-44!.] THE SIKHS. 581 
 
 Tlie reign of order and law had altogether ceased, as at 
 Grwalior. Crimes, assassinations, wholesale massacres, had 
 been almost daily events in difierent parts of the Pnnjaub. 
 These convulsions could not but affect all the neighbouring 
 countries; and, however disorganized, the Sikhs were 
 excessively powerful in the possession of a numerous, well- 
 disciplined army, a tremendous artillery, excellent artillery- 
 men, and skilful European officers. 
 
 The Lion of Lahore died on the 30th of June, 1839. 
 His immediate successor was his eldest son, Khurruk Singh, 
 who possessed none of his father's qualifications for rule. 
 His first act was very unpopular ; he removed the vizier or 
 prime minister of his father, Dhyan Singh a man of expe* 
 rience and moderation and raised a favourite of his own 
 to that high appointment. The dismissed vizier lost his 
 habitual moderation ; he entered the durbar, and slew the 
 new primiC minister before his master's eyes. The treasurer 
 and some others shared the same fate. After these trage- 
 dies Khurruk Singh shut himself up among his women, rarely 
 appearing in durbar. His intellect, never strong, became 
 impaired, and the management of public affairs fell into the 
 hands of his son Nounehal Singh, who had always shown an 
 antipathy to the British. After the mere semblance of a 
 reign which lasted little more than twelve months, Khur- 
 ruk Singh was reported to have died of a broken heart. 
 Nounehal Singh, the favourite of the Sikhs, and the darling 
 grandson of the old lion, Eunjeet Singh, would have been 
 called to the musnud for he resembled the Lion in features 
 and disposition; he was popular with the army, being 
 brave, and having been a soldier from his boyhood ; and he 
 was believed, also, to possess the qualities of caution, dis- 
 cretion, and forethought but, whether by accident or 
 design we know not, Nounehal Singh, on returning from his 
 father's funeral, was killed by a stone falling on his head 
 from one of the gateways of Lahore. Dhyan Singh called 
 up to Lahore Sheer Singh, who had been treated as a prince 
 of the blood, although he had never been acknowledged by 
 Eunjeet Singh as his real son. Sheer Singh was to succeed to 
 the musnud ; and he, too, was extremely popular with the 
 army. But the mother of the late Nounehal Singh was 
 determined to frustrate the intention of the formidable 
 vizier. And this woman, being aided by some of the most 
 powerful sirdars in the Punjaub, soon expelled Sheer Singh 
 
^82 IS^UMEROUS EEYOLUTIOXS [1839-44. 
 
 from Lahore. Then Dhyan Singh, the ex-vizier, to whom 
 she refused employment, set himself to overthrow her go- 
 vernment, persuading the sirdai's and soldiers that it was 
 shameful to submit to the rule of a female, and that they 
 must have a man of energy and talent to govern them, and 
 keep together the conquests which the Lion of Lahore had 
 made. Sheer Singh was presently recalled from his retire- 
 ment. The ranee, or mother of Nounehal Singh, ordered the 
 gates of Lahore to be shut ; but the gatekeepers joined the 
 standard of Sheer Singh ; and Greneral Ventura, one of the 
 skilful Frenchmen who had disciplined the Punjaub army, 
 acknowledged him as king. The widow was left helpless 
 and nearly deserted ; and in 1841, Sheer Singh was seated 
 on the throne of Lahore. He intrusted the management 
 of affairs to Dhyan Singh, E-unjeet's favourite vizier ; and he 
 gave himself up solely to hunting and drinking, and other 
 pleasures and debaucheries. He became a complete 
 drunkard. The vizier was speedily dissatisfied with the 
 prince he had elevated to the musnud. Intriguers and 
 plotters stepped in between the prince and the minister. In 
 a fit of drunkenness. Sheer Singh, the maharajah, put his 
 signature to an order for the execution of Dhyan Singh, the 
 grand vizier ; and the vizier being duly warned of this pro- 
 ceeding, signed a death-warrant for the maharajah. The 
 sober man was quicker than the drunken one : Sheer Singh 
 was shot in the heart by an English rifle, and had only time 
 to exclaim, "What have you done, villain?" His head was 
 ' separated from his body, and joyfully exhibited to the revolu- 
 tionists. Pertaub Singh, the son of the murdered maharajah, 
 "was despatched by another assassin while he was at his 
 prayers. But the assassins could not agree with the vizier, 
 Dhyan Singh, who had signed Sheer Singh's death-warrant, 
 and so they shot him in the back, and he fell dead also. The 
 report of the vizier's death quickly spread through the city 
 of Lahore, and Misr Lai Singh, who afterwards made himself 
 conspicuous in the war with the British, was despatched to 
 bring into the fort Heera Singh, son of the murdered vizier. 
 This young rajah knew that the death of Sheer Singh had been 
 determined on, but he little suspected that his own father 
 would so soon share the same fate. He had purposely 
 absented himself from the palace that morning, and had 
 gone to the house of General Avitabile, another of the 
 European officers who had formed the Punjaub army and artd- 
 
1839-44.] i2f LAHORE. 583 
 
 lery ; and he was there found haranguuag the troops, and 
 telling them not to mind the death of the maharajah. Upon 
 learning his father's death, Heera Singh ascended to the ter- 
 race or flat roof of Avitabile's house, and was for a short 
 time very disconsolate, and very much terrified. He then 
 despatched a message to the several sirdars who were in 
 Lahore, requesting their immediate attendance. The chiefs 
 soon arrived, when the young rajah unbuckled his sword, 
 laid it before them, and bared his neck. " The sword," said 
 he, " has this day deprived my father of life. I am left 
 alone and fatherless, and I now throw myself upon your pro- 
 tection. Kill me, or give me your support ! " This appeal 
 had the desired effect. Heera Sing next addressed the com- 
 mon soldiers, promising every man of them an advance of 
 three rupees a month if they would obey him. The soldiers 
 received the"^ proposition with loud cheers. In the mean 
 time Ajeet Singh, whose followers had assassinated the 
 maharajah, and who had, with his own hand, shot the vizier 
 Dhyan Singh, had caused Dhuleep Singh to be proclaimed 
 maharajah, and himself vizier, by beat of drum. But the 
 son of the slain vizier put himself rapidly in motion ; and 
 both Ventura and Avitabile espoused his cause, and backed 
 him with their well-served guns. During the night of this 
 same bloody day, Heera Singh reached the Delhi gate of 
 Lahore, followed by the sirdars and numerous troops. The 
 gate, apparently, was blown open by the artillery, and then 
 commenced a street fight in which heavy guns were used 
 on both sides, and a great slaughter committed. But on 
 the following morning victory declared for Heera Singh; 
 Leena Singh, who had murdered at his prayers the son of 
 the late maharajah, was mortally wounded ; Ajeet Singh, 
 who had shot the late vizier, being driven out of the fort, 
 was attempting to escape over a wall by means of a rope, 
 when he was clutched by a soldier. He took off his golden 
 bracelets and threw them at the man, imploring him to spare 
 his life ; but the soldier cut off his head and hurried with it, 
 as with the most acceptable of presents, to Heera Singh. 
 The sight of the ghastly head of his father's murderer only 
 quickened the rage of the young rajah. Every man that 
 could not escape out of the fort and out of the city was 
 butchered. The city was given up to plunder. The ranee's 
 house was ransacked. The merchants in the city and the 
 helpless shopkeepers fled, leaving everything to the infu- 
 
584 CAUSES OF OUE AVAR [1844. 
 
 riated Sikhs, wlio coiiiinitted all kinds of outrages, cutting off 
 the noses of the poor women in the streets. Homble cruel- 
 ties were perpetrated upon the connections and adherents 
 of Ajeet Singh. Heera Singh set up no claim to the throne 
 of Lahore ; so soon as the fighting was over, he went and 
 kissed the young Maharajah Dhuleep Singh's feet, in token of 
 submission ; but Heera Singh became vizier or prime minister, 
 as his miu"dered father had been before him.* This settle- 
 ment was effected in 1843, while the British were in the field 
 against Grwalior. It is confidently asserted that the Sikhs at 
 this period intended to invade the British territories, and were 
 only warned therefrom by the signal overthrow of the Ma- 
 rhattas on the fields of Maharajpoor and Punniar, whereby 
 the British army serving in the Grwalior territory was set 
 at liberty to resist aggression from the nortli-west. Heera 
 Singh, as grand vizier, found ver}^ great difficulty in keeping 
 the soldiers steady to his interests, for the treasuiy was 
 exhausted, and the troops expected a continuance of the 
 guerdons which he had promised in his extreme peril. To 
 keep matters quiet, he murdered his own uncle, a powerful 
 sirdar, and a favourite with the army. He was murdered 
 himself shortly afterwards, together with his cunning Hindu 
 pundit or tutor. 
 
 The young Maharajah Dhuleep Singh was not much above 
 four years old. He was chosen because there was no 
 other lineal descendant of the great Eunjeet left alive, if we 
 except the children of Sheer Singh, whose eldest son, Pertaub 
 Singh, had been murdered on the same morning as his father. 
 On the death of Heera Singh, the mother of the young maha- 
 rajah appointed her brother Juwaheer Singh to the office of 
 vizier. But the soldiers, not liking his rule, murdered 
 Juwaheer before the eyes of the infant maharajah and his 
 mother ! Grhoolab Singh, the brother of Dhyan Singh, old 
 Runjeet's ex-vizier, refused to take upon himself the perilous 
 ofiice of vizier, which now seemed sure to lead to a bloody 
 grave, except upon conditions which were not acceded to. 
 The country, therefore, remained -v^-ithout a vizier, without 
 a government! The "Punches" of the army became, in 
 reality, the masters and mis-rulers of the Punjaub, and 
 everything was decided by their passions, caprices, or sup- 
 
 * * History of the Sikhs, containing an Account of the War between 
 the Sikhs and the British in 1845-6/ by \V. L. Macgregor, M.D., S'lr- 
 geon to the Hon. Company's 1st European light infantry. 
 
1844.] WITH THE SIKHS. 585 
 
 posed personal interests. These " Punches" were not such 
 pleasant humorists as our street drolls, or as the London 
 Charivari Punch, or as the great Neapolitan Policinella, the 
 prince, if not the father, of all Punches. They had no drol- 
 lery in them ; they were seldom seen to smile ; and of late 
 they had been as rarely seen without the red hand. They 
 had been accustomed, under Eunjeet Singh, to invasions and 
 conquests, and to the profits derivable therefrom. They 
 were elated by many years of success ; they formed an 
 immense force numerically; they possessed what seemed 
 inexhaustible military stores ; they knew themselves to be 
 strong of arm and steady in battle ; and they had confi- 
 dence in the military skill and science of their French and 
 Italian commanders. They wanted emplo^nnent, and they 
 fancied they could best seek it beyond the Sutledge, within 
 the Company's territories. The maharajah was in the 
 nursery ; his mother and guardian was helpless ; and even 
 the more prudent and pacific of the sirdars were whirled 
 along by the war torrent, for the will of the soldiery, the dic- 
 tation of the Punches, was not to be resisted without the 
 risk of being murdered. An army was therefore ordered 
 to assemble by the verv individual the widowed mother of 
 the maharajah whose vrishes were against the armament, 
 and the sirdars were obliged to join it. The very cautious 
 Ghoolab Singh, who had refused the post of \"izier, and who 
 was surrounded by a very strong and devoted party of 
 his own, did, indeed, venture to demand the reason of the 
 Sikhs breaking treaty \s-ith the British. He asked them 
 what cause of offence the British had given them ? To these 
 questions no satisfactory reply could be given. Ghoolab 
 Singh anticipated that the Sikhs must fail in their daring 
 invasions, and retired from Lahore ; but instead of openly 
 opposing their views, which would have drav^Ti an attack 
 upon himself, he promised his support, agreed to send up 
 supplies to Lahore, and even promised to join the Khalsa 
 troops. Even could Ghoolab Singh have believed that the 
 Sikhs would be successful, it was evidently his interest to 
 await the result of the struggle, knowing well, as he did, 
 that, whatever result might Ibllow, his position would be a 
 safe one. " If, as he really thought, the Sikh army would 
 be destroyed by their powerful opponent, then he could 
 safely step in as a mediator between the British and the 
 Sikhs, and while obtaining the credit of restoring peace, he 
 
586 siE n. haedinge's [1845. 
 
 would insure independence for liimself. The rajah had a 
 difficult part to play, and the repeated demands of the 
 Sikh army that lie would join it, obliged him to leave 
 Jummoo, and proceed to Lahore ; but he had determined to 
 keep clear of the struggle until the onset should show how 
 he was to act. 
 
 '' Had Ghoolab Singh succeeded Juwaheer Singh as prime 
 minister, he would have used his best endeavours to prevent 
 a collision between the Sikhs and the British ; but he did 
 not forget that a brother and nephew who had held that 
 responsible post had both fallen victims to the sword, and a 
 similar fate might befall him. Trom every consideration, 
 therefore, the rajah believed that a rupture with the British 
 would most effectually accomplish his ambitious views ; and 
 he was resolved to act with great caution, and avoid mixing 
 himself up in the quarrel. Even when he reached Lahore, 
 after the war had begun, and he was requested by the 
 ranee and the Punches of the army to join the latter, he 
 availed himself of the excuse of wishing to act independ- 
 ently at the head of his own troops in any work she might 
 assign to him."* 
 
 All that was passing at Lahore could not be unknown to 
 Sir Henry Hardinge ; but as his predecessor had been cen- 
 sured for precipitancy, the present governor-general was 
 determined not to bring out his array until the last 
 moment, or until the moment when there could be no pos- 
 sible mistake as to the intentions of the lawless soldiery, 
 whose will was the only law in the country beyond the 
 Sutledge. 
 
 He, however, was by no means satisfied with the state of 
 preparation, to meet and repel an invasion from the Sikhs, 
 which he found on his arrival in India ; and before he had 
 been three months in the country he had several large corps 
 marching from the farthest confines of the Bengal presi- 
 dency towards the north-west frontier, but so quietly was 
 every post reinforced that even in our provinces the ope- 
 rations passed unnoticed ; and when the war did break out, 
 the governor-general was censured by the uninformed for 
 being unprepared. 
 
 The following table of the force on the frontier, as Sir H. 
 Hardinge found it on his arrival in India, in July, 1844, 
 
 * Dr. Macgregor's * History of the Sikhs.' 
 
At Loodiana 
 At Umballa 
 
 1845.] PEEPAEATIONS. 587 
 
 and when the war broke out in December, 1845, is a com- 
 plete refutation of the charge of want of preparation : 
 
 Men. Guns. 
 
 A^-p fJuly, 1844, 4,596 12 
 
 AtFerozpoor {December, 1845; 10,472 - 24 
 
 /July, 1844, 3,030 12 
 
 [December, 1845, 7,235 12 
 
 /July, 1844, 4,113 24 
 
 L December, 1845, 12,972 32 
 
 The force at the hill stations was the same at both periods, 
 1,800 men. Thus, in the first line from Umballa to the 
 Sutledge, about 150 miles, there were, when Sir H. Hardinge 
 landed in India, only 13,539 men and 48 guns. "When the 
 war broke out, there were 32,479 men and 68 guns. Increase, 
 18,940 men and 20 guns ! The force at Meerut had also 
 been augmented from 5,873 men and 18 guns, to 9,844 men 
 and 26 guns ; which force, being 250 miles to the rear, was 
 not considered available to repel invasion, but as a support 
 to that in advance of UmbaUa. The force in the first line 
 also comprised seven regiments of European infantry out of 
 the eleven at that time serving within the Bengal presi- 
 dency. The battle of Ferozshuhr took place eight days 
 after the Sikhs crossed the Sutledge ; and if, out of the 
 32,479 at, and north of Umballa, in December, 1845, 
 17,727 rank and file only could be brought into action after 
 a junction with the Loodiana and Perozpoor forces, what 
 sort of an army could have been brought into the field had 
 Sir H. Hardinge left the force on the frontier as he found 
 it, consisting as it did of 13,538 men ? 
 
 On the 2nd of December, 1845, Sir Henry arrived at 
 Umballa. From this point we may take up his own words, 
 as contained in a despatch to the Secret Committee at the 
 India-House : 
 
 " I had moved with my camp on the 6th of December 
 from Umballa towards Loodiana, peaceably making my 
 progress by the route I had announced, with the intention 
 of visiting the Sikh protected states, according to the usual 
 custom of my predecessors. In common with the most 
 experienced officers of the Indian government, I was not of 
 opinion that the Sikh army would cross the Sutledge with 
 its infantry and artiUery. I considered it probable that some 
 act of aggi'ession would be committed by parties of plun- 
 derers, for the purpose ofcompelling the British government 
 
588 SIR n. haedinge's despatch [1845. 
 
 to interfere, to which course the Sikh chiefs knew I was 
 most averse ; but I concurred with the commander-in- 
 chief, and the chief secretary- to the government, as well as 
 my political agent. Major Broadfoot, that offensive opera- 
 tions, on a large scale, would not be resorted to. Exclusive 
 of the political reasons which induced me to carry my for- 
 bearance as far as it was possible, I was confident, from the 
 opinions given by the commander-in-chief and Major- 
 General Sir John Littler, in command of the forces at 
 Ferozpoor, that that post would resist any attack from the 
 Sikh army as long as its provisions lasted ; and that I could 
 at any time relieve it, under the ordinary circumstances of 
 an Asiatic army making an irruption into our territories, 
 provided it had not the means of laying siege to the fort 
 and the intrenched camp. Up to this period no act of 
 aggression had been committed by the Sikh army. The 
 Lahore government had as good a right to reinforce their 
 bank of the river Sutledge, as we had to reinforce our 
 posts on that river. The Sikh army had, in 1843 and 1844, 
 moved down upon the river from Lahore, and after remain- 
 ing there encamped a few weeks, had returned to the capital. 
 These reasons, and, above all, my extreme anxiety to avoid 
 hostilities, induced me not to make any hasty movement with 
 our army, which, when the two armies came into each other's 
 presence, might bring about a collision. The army had, 
 however, been ordered to be in readiness to move at the 
 shortest notice ; and on the 7th and 8th of December, when 
 I heard from Lahore that preparations were making on a 
 large scale for artillery, stores, and all the munitions of war, I 
 wrote to the commander-in-chief, directing his excellency, 
 on the 11th to move up the force from UmbaUa, from 
 Meerut, and some other stations in the rear. Up to this 
 time no infantry or artillery had been reported to have left 
 Lahore, nor had a single Sikh soldier crossed the Sutledge. 
 Nevertheless, I considered it prudent no longer to delay the 
 forward movement of our troops, having given to the Lahore 
 government the most ample time for a reply to our remon- 
 strance. On the 9th, at night, Captain Nicholson, the 
 assistant political agent at Ferozpoor, reported that a por- 
 tion of the Sikh army had approached within three miles of 
 the river. On the other hand, the information received by 
 Major Broadfoot on that day from Lahore, was not of a 
 character to make it probable that any Sikh movement on 
 
1845.] TO THE SECRET COMMITTEE. 589 
 
 a large scale was meditated. On the lOth no intelligence 
 was received from Lahore confirmatory of Captain Nichol- 
 son's report, and the usual opinion continued to prevail 
 that the Sikh army would not cross the Sutledge. The 
 troops, however, moved on the 10th, 11th, and 12th, in pur- 
 suance of the orders given on the 7th and 8th ; and the 
 whole of the forces destined to move up to the Sutledge were 
 in full march on the 12th. I did not consider the force 
 moving up from Umballa to be sufficient to force its way 
 to relieve Ferozpoor, if a large Sikh army, with a nume- 
 rous and well-served park of artillery, should attempt to 
 intercept it in its approach to Ferozpoor, as, in such case, 
 it could with difficulty receive any aid from that garrison. 
 Being some days' march in advance of the commander-in- 
 chief, I rode over to Loodiana ; and having inspected the 
 fort, the cantonments, and the troops, it appeared to me 
 most advisable that the whole of this force should be moved 
 up with the Umballa force, restricting the defence of Loo- 
 diana to the fort, which could be securely garrisoned by the 
 more infirm soldiers of the regiments at that post, unless 
 attacked by heavy artillery, which was a very improbable 
 contingency. The risk to be incurred of leaving the town 
 and the cantonments liable to be plundered was maturely 
 considered, and I had no hesitation in incurring that risk to 
 insure the strength and sufficiency of the force which might 
 separately be brought into action with the whole of the 
 Sikh army. I therefore ordered Brigadier "Wheeler to be 
 prepared to march at the shortest notice. The Umballa 
 force, in march, was 7,500 men and thirty-six guns ; the 
 Loodiana force amounted to 5,000 men and twelve guns. 
 
 " The commander-in-chief concurred in these views ; and 
 this fine body of men, by a rapid march on Busseean, an 
 important point, where the roads leading from L^mballa and 
 Kurnaul meet, formed the advanced column of the army, 
 and secured the supplies which had been laid in at Busseean. 
 Up to the morning of the 12th, the information from Lahore 
 had not materially varied ; but by the reports received on 
 that day, the general aspect of affairs appeared more warlike. 
 Still no Sikh aggression had been committed, and no artil- 
 lery had moved down to the river. 
 
 " On the 13th, I first received precise information that the 
 Sikh army had crossed the Sutledge, and was concentrating 
 in great force on the left bank of the river." 
 
590 SIB H. haedinoe's admieable [1845. 
 
 On that same day, the 13th, Sir Henry issued the follow- 
 ing proclamation : 
 
 " The British government has ever been on terms of 
 friendship with that of the Pimjaub. 
 
 " In the year 1809, a treaty of amity and concord was con- 
 cluded between the British government and the late Maha- 
 rajahliunjeet Singh, the conditions of which have always been 
 faithfully observed by the British government, and were 
 scrupulously fulfilled by the late maharajah. 
 
 " The same friendly relations have been maintained with 
 the successors of Maharajah Eunjeet Singh by the British 
 government iip to the present time. 
 
 " Since the death of the late Maharajah Sheer Singh, the 
 disorganized state of the Lahore government has made it 
 incumbent on the governor-general in council to adopt pre- 
 cautionary measures for the protection of the British fron- 
 tier ; the nature of these measures, and the cause of their 
 adoption, were at the time fully explained to the Lahore 
 durbar. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the disorganized state of the Lahore 
 government during the last two years, and many most 
 unfriendly proceedings on the part of the durbar, the gover- 
 nor-general in council has continued to evince his desire to 
 maintain the relations of amity and concord which had so 
 long existed between the two states, for the mutual inte- 
 rests and happiness of both. He has shown on every 
 occasion the utmost forbearance, from consideration to the 
 helpless state of the infant Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, whom 
 the British government had recognized as the successor to 
 the late Maharajah Sheer Singh. 
 
 " The governor-general in council sincerely desired to see 
 a strong Sikh government re-established in the Punjaub, 
 able to control its army and to protect its subjects. He had 
 not, up to the present moment, abandoned the hope of see- 
 ing that important object effected by the patriotic efforts of 
 the Sikhs and people of that country. 
 
 " The Sikh army recently marched from Lahore towards 
 the British frontier, as it was alleged by the orders of the 
 durbar, for the purpose of invading the British territory, 
 
 "The governor-general's agent, by the direction . of the 
 governor-general, demanded an explanation of this move- 
 ment, and no reply being returned within a reasonable time, 
 the demand was repeated. The governor-general, unwilling 
 
1845.] PEOCLAMATIOIf TO THE SIKHS. 591 
 
 to believe in the hostile intentions of the Sikh government, 
 to which no provocation had been given, refrained from 
 taking any measures which might have a tendency to 
 embarrass the government of the maharajah, or to induce 
 collision between the two states. 
 
 " When no reply was given to the repeated demand for 
 explanation, and while active military preparations were con- 
 tinued at Lahore, the governor-general considered it neces- 
 sary to order the advance of troops towards the frontier, to 
 reinforce the frontier posts, 
 
 " The Sikh army has now, without a shadow of provoca- 
 tion, invaded the British territories. 
 
 " The governor-general must therefore take measures for 
 effectually protecting the British provinces, for vindicating 
 the authority of the British government, and for punishing 
 the violators of treaties and the disturbers of public peace. 
 
 " The governor-general hereby declares the possessions of 
 Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, on the left, or British banks of the 
 Sutledge, confiscated and annexed to the British territories. 
 
 " The governor-general will respect the existing rights of 
 all jagheerdars, zemindars, and tenants in the said posses- 
 sions, who, by the course they now pursue, e^dnce their 
 fidelity to the British government. 
 
 " The governor-generai hereby calls upon all the chiefs 
 and sirdars in the protected territories to co-operate cor- 
 dially with the British government for the punishment of 
 the common enemy, and for the maintenance of order in 
 these states. Those of the chiefs who show alacrity and 
 fidelity in the discharge of this duty, which they owe to the 
 protecting power, will find their interests promoted thereby ; 
 and those who take a contrary course will be treated as 
 enemies to the British government, and will be punished 
 accordingly. 
 
 " Tlie inhabitants of all the territories on the left bank of 
 the Sutledge are hereby directed to abide peaceably in their 
 respective villages, where they will receive efficient protec- 
 tion by the British government. All parties of men found 
 in armed bands, who can give no satisfactory account of 
 their proceedings, will be treated as disturbers of the public 
 peace. 
 
 " All subjects of the British government, and those who 
 possess estates on both sides of the river Sutledge, who, by 
 their faithful adherence to the British govemment may be 
 
592 THE SIKHS CEOSS THE SUTLEDGE. [1845. 
 
 liable to sustain loss, shall be indemnified and secured in all 
 their just rights and privileges. 
 
 " On the other hand, all subjects of the British govern- 
 ment who shall continue in the service of the Lahore state, 
 and who disobey this proclamation by not immediately 
 returning to their allegiance, will be liable to have their pro- 
 perty on this side of the Sutlcdge confiscated, and declared to 
 be aliens and enemies of the British government." 
 
 The distance between the head-quarters of the British 
 army at Umballa and Perozpoor, was three times as great 
 as that between Ferozpoor and Lahore, the former being 
 150 miles, the latter only fifty miles. Sir Henry Hardinge 
 in the despatch already quoted, has explained his reasons for 
 not ordering the Umballa force to take the field, sooner than 
 it did ; he, however, had ordered, so early as the 20th Novem- 
 ber, that the force should be held in readiness to move, and 
 it actually did march on the 11th of December, before the 
 Sikh army had commenced crossing the Sutledge, which it 
 did about six or seven fniles from Ferozpoor on the 12th 
 December, but the passage of the artillery was not com- 
 pleted till the 16th December. As the art of war consists 
 in concentrating the greatest number of men at the right 
 place at the right time, the crisis when the Sikhs did 
 cross, demanded the utmost exertion on the part of the 
 governor-general and commander-in-chief; and the celerity 
 with which the troops moved towards Ferozpoor, was most 
 admirable. 
 
 The governor-general, as stated in his despatch, being 
 between Umballa and Loodiana, on the 13th of December, 
 when the news arrived of the Sikhs having crossed, he 
 ordered Brigadier "Wheeler to march with 4,500 men, and 
 twenty-one guns, early on the 14th from Loodiana to 
 Busseean, which place had been filled with provisions, by 
 arrangements made through Major Broadfoot with the native 
 chiefs, and upon which provisions the British army depended 
 in its advance to Ferozpoor. By the afternoon of the 
 14th, Brigadier "Wheeler was in front of Busseean. The 
 main column under the commander-in-chief from Umballa, 
 did not reach Busseean until the 16th. Had it not been for 
 the force under Brigadier AVheeler, the cavahy of the Sikhs 
 having crossed on the 12th, they might have marched the 
 13th and 14th, and have reached Busseean the evening of the 
 14th. Had the provisions in Busseean been destroyed, the 
 
1845.] BATTLE OF MOODKEE. 593 
 
 advance of the main column on Perozpoor would have been 
 delayed at least a week or ten days, during which time the 
 10,472 men at Ferozpoor would have to withstand the 
 whole of the Sikh army, and the safety of that post might 
 liave been compromised ; as it was, the Sikhs had not com- 
 pleted the passage of their heavy guns until the 16th, and by 
 the 17th the advance of the force under the commander-in- 
 chief began to tell upon them, for on the 17th the main body, 
 consisting according to the Sikh accounts of 25,000 regulars 
 and eighty-eight guns, under Lai Singh, took possession of 
 the wells around the village of Ferozshuhr, whilst Tej 
 Singh with 23,000 men and sixty-seven guns remained 
 opposite to Ferozpoor. 
 
 The only road by which an army can march from Busseean 
 to Ferozpoor (on account of the scarcity of water) passes 
 through Moodkee, and is about twenty miles, Ferozshuhr 
 being mid-way. 
 
 The Sikhs commenced on the 17th December to throw 
 up intrenchments around the wells at Ferozshuhr, in order 
 to stop the advance of the column under the commander- 
 in-chief, knowing that the commander-in-chief must carry 
 these works before he could relieve Ferozpoor. 
 
 By one o'clock on the 18th, the governor-general and 
 commander-in-chief reached Moodkee, from which village a 
 few Sikh cavalry retired, as the British column advanced ; 
 the troops had just taken up their encamping-ground, and 
 were commencing to cook, after a fatiguing march of twenty- 
 two miles, when news was brought by one of the scouts, to 
 Major Broadfoot, the political agent, that the enemy was 
 only three miles distant. The Sikh account is, that not 
 knowing the strength of the column under the commander- 
 in-chief, and thinking it was only the advance-guard of the 
 British army, 12,000 of them, chiefly cavalry, and twenty- 
 two guns, under the command of Lai Singh, left the camp 
 at Ferozshuhr early on the 18th, and had taken up their 
 position before the arrival of the British army at Moodkee. 
 This must have been the case, for when the British troops 
 halted at Moodkee, there was no indication of any large 
 body of men moving in the neighbourhood, and a force of 
 12,000 men, especially cavalry, could not move in that 
 country without raising a column of dust, which would be 
 seen at the distance of miles. 
 
 The alarm being sounded, the British troops hastily got 
 2 Q 
 
594 BATTLE OF MOODKEE. [1845. 
 
 under arms and moved to their positions ; Sir Hugh Grough 
 says : " I innnediateiy pushed forward the horse- artillery 
 and caTahy, directing the infantry, accompanied by the 
 field batteries, to move forward in support. "We had not 
 proceeded beyond two miles when we found the enemy in 
 position. 
 
 "To resist their attack, and to cover the formation of the 
 infantry, I advanced the cavalry, under Brigadiers White, 
 Grough^ and Mactier, rapidly to the front, in columns of 
 squadrons, and occupied the plain. They were speedily 
 followed by the five troops of horse-artillery under Briga- 
 dier Brooke, who took up a forward position, having the 
 cavalry then on his flanks. 
 
 " The country is a dead flat, covered at short intervals 
 with a low, but in some places thick jhow jungle, and 
 dotted with sandy hillocks. The enemy screened their 
 infantry and artillerj^ behind this jungle and such undula- 
 tions as the ground afibrded; and, whilst our twelve 
 battalions formed from echellon of brigade into line, opened 
 a very severe cannonade upon our advancing troops, which 
 was vigorously replied to by the battery of horse-artillery 
 under Brigadier Brooke, which was soon joined by the two 
 light field batteries. The rapid and well-directed fire of 
 our artillery appeared soon to paralyze that of the enemy ; 
 and, as it was necessary to complete our infantry disposi- 
 tions without advancing the artillery too near to the jungle, 
 I directed the cavalry under Brigadiers White and Gough 
 to make a flank movement on the enemy's left, with a view 
 of threatening and turning that flank, if possible. With 
 praiseworthy gallantry, the 3rd light dragoons, with the 
 second brigade of cavalry, consisting of the body-guard and 
 5th light cavalry, with a portion of the 4th lancers, turned 
 the left of the Sikh army, and, sw^eeping along the whole 
 rear of its infantry and guns, silenced for a time the latter, 
 and put their numerous cavalry to flight. Whilst this 
 movement was taking place on the enemy's left, I directed 
 the remainder of the 4th lancers, the 9 th irregular cavalr}^ 
 under Brigadier Mactier, with a light field battery, to 
 threaten their right. 
 
 "This manoeuvre was also successful. Had not the 
 infantry and guns of the enemy been screened by the 
 jungle, these brilliant charges of the cavalry would have 
 been productive of greater effect. 
 
1845.] TLiaHT or the sikhs. 595 
 
 " When the infantry advanced to tlie attack, Brigadier 
 Brooke rapidly pushed on his horse-artillery close to the 
 jungle, and the cainionade was resinned on both sides. 
 The infantry, under Major- Generals Sir Harry Smith, G-il- 
 bert, and Sir John M'Caskill, attacked in echellon of lines 
 the enemy's infantry, ahnost invisible amongst wood and 
 the approaching darkness of night. The opposition of the 
 enemy was such as might have been expected from troops 
 who had everything at stake, and who had long vaunted of 
 being irresistible. Their ample and extended line, from 
 their great superiority of numbers, far outflanked ours ; 
 but this was counteracted by the flank movements of our 
 cavahy. The attack of the infantry now commenced, and 
 the roll of fire from this powerful arm soon convinced 
 the Sikh army that they had met with a foe they little 
 expected ; and their whole force was driven from position 
 after position with gi'eat slaughter, and the loss of seven- 
 teen pieces of artillery, some of them of heavy calibre ; 
 our infantry using that never-failing weapon, the bayonet, 
 whenever the enemy stood. Night only saved them from 
 worse disaster, for this stout conflict was maintained during 
 an hour and a half of dim starlight, amidst a cloud of dust 
 from the sandy plain, which yet more obscured every object." 
 
 The British force engaged consisted of 3,850 Europeans 
 and 8,500 natives, making a total of 12,350 rank and file, 
 and forty-two gims. Sixteen ofiicers were killed and 200 
 men. Forty-eight oflacers wounded and 609 men, of whom 
 153 died subsequently of their wounds, or were disabled. 
 Amongst tliose who fell was the hero of Jellalabad, Sir 
 B-obert Sale ; he had his left thigh shattered by grape- 
 shot, and the wound proved mortal. Had there been more 
 daylight, the rout of the enemy would have been more 
 complete ; as it Avas, seventeen of their guns out of twenty 
 were captured, and their loss in killed and wounded was very 
 severe. Lai Singh, the commander, was among the wounded, 
 and narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. 
 
 The Sikhs fled rapidly to their camp at Ferozshuhr, 
 and the British troops returned to theirs at Moodkee about 
 midnight. 
 
 On the 19th of December, two heavy guns reached 
 
 Moodkee, escorted by her majesty's 29th, the 1st European 
 
 light infantry, and two regiments of native infantry.* 
 
 * The 11th and 41st. 
 
 2 q2 
 
596 ADVAKCE OF THE EEITISH. [1845. 
 
 Every possible care had been taken of these troops in their 
 rapid advance by the governor-general and commander-in- 
 chief. Elephants were despatched to Churruk, seven-and- 
 twenty miles from Moodkee, to carry those who might be 
 unable to walk. When near Moodkee, and almost over- 
 come by fatigue and the terrible desert thirst, water was 
 distributed to them, which had been brought out on ele- 
 phants from head-quarters. Being thus refreshed, the men 
 marched vigorously into Moodkee, where the governor- 
 general's band welcomed them with a joyous burst of 
 music. This reinforcement did not reach camp till nine 
 or ten o'clock at night, and it was determined, in order to 
 give them rest, that the army should halt on the 20th. 
 During this halt of two days the wounded and sick were 
 eared for, and secured in the mud fort at Moodkee. It was 
 now that Sir H. Hardinge magnanimously offered his services 
 to Sir Hugh Grough. He was appointed second in command 
 of the army, and all officers were directed to obey any orders 
 emanating from him, which they were not bound to do so 
 long as he (although the head of the government) exercised 
 only a civil authority. 
 
 Expresses were sent to Sir John Littler at Eerozpoor, 
 apprising him of the victory at Moodkee, and directing 
 him on the 21st to march with as large a force as he could, 
 and effect a junction with the army under the commander- 
 in-chief. Arrangements were also made for leaving the 
 wounded and the baggage at Moodkee when the army 
 marched, a regiment and a half being told off to protect 
 them. This decision was a wise one. Had the British 
 army on the night of the 21st been embarrassed with a 
 column of baggage, great would have been the suffering of 
 the wounded, and great would have been the plunder, by 
 our own camp-followers, of the baggage. Whereas the fort 
 at Moodkee, defended by a regiment and a half, was 
 safe for a time against the enemy's cavalry and loose plun- 
 derers, which alone could penetrate the rear of our army. 
 Early on the morning of the 21st Sir John Littler, leaving 
 5,000 men to hold his position and watch Tej Singh, moved 
 off quietly by his right, with 5,500 men and twenty-one 
 guns, to join the commander-in-chief. The force from 
 Moodkee marched at three o'clock in the morning in two 
 open columns of companies, left in front ; the araiy had 
 therefore only to wheel into line to be in position. The 
 
J845.] THE SIKHS INTEENCHED. 597 
 
 march for the head-quarter column was a distressing one, 
 on account of the heat and dust and the scarcity of water, 
 but was of no great length, certainly not more than twelve 
 miles ; and the columns arrived opposite the Sikh camp at 
 half-past eleven, a.m. The junction with the force from 
 Ferozpoor was effected at a few minutes before one near 
 the village of Misriwala. Skirmishers were then thrown 
 forward, and some considerable time elapsed before the 
 attack was made. 
 
 The whole country is a dead flat, and studded with trees 
 and jungle, except in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
 "villages. What with dust and trees the movements of 
 troops became very difficult to direct. 
 
 The British force now concentrated comprised 5,674 
 Europeans and 12,053 natives, making a total of 17,727 
 rank and file, and sLxty-five guns. According to the Sikhs' 
 account, their force at Terozshuhr consisted of 25,000 
 regular troops and eighty-eight guns, exclusive of the 
 Jazedarees and irregular soldiers, making their force in 
 camp upwards of 35,000. Besides this force Tej Singh, 
 with 23,000 regulars and sixty-seven guns, was only ten 
 miles distant. Had it been possible for the commander- 
 in-chief to have delayed the attack on the Sikh camp till 
 the next day, which it was not, on account of the want of 
 water, it would not have been expedient to have done so ; 
 the British force would not have been augmented by one 
 man, whilst Tej Singh, who was opposite Perozpoor, only 
 ten miles distant, would have been able to bring 23,000 
 additional regular troops and sixty-seven guns to the assist- 
 ance of the enemy. 
 
 The Sikh intrenchment was in the form of a paralle- 
 logram, of about a mile in length, and half a mile in 
 breadth, including within its area the strong village of 
 Ferozshuhr, the shorter sides looking towards the Sutledge 
 and Moodkee, and the long one towards Ferozpoor and 
 the open country.* But the Sikhs were fuUy prepared to 
 place their guns in position on whatever side the attack 
 should be made. They were thoroughly acquainted with 
 the country ; and knowing by what roads their enemy could 
 advance, they readily prepared for their reception. Thus it 
 mattered not much whether our approach was made on the 
 
 * The Commander-in- Chiefs Despatch. 
 
598 BATTLE OF rEEOZSIIUHK. [1845. 
 
 longer or shorter side, though the preparations on the side 
 fronting Ferozpoor showed that it was considered by the 
 Sikhs as the proper front of their position. 
 
 " The ground in front, like that at Moodkee, was jun- 
 gly ; the three divisions of the British, under the command 
 of Major- General Grilbert, Sir John Littler, and Brigadier 
 "Wallace, were placed in line, with the whole of their artillery 
 in their centre, except three troops of horse-artillery, one 
 on either flank, and one in support. The reserve was under 
 Sir Harry Smith, and with the cavalry formed the second 
 line."* The artillery w^ere ordered to the front, and after 
 a reasonable time had been allowed for the mortar practice, 
 which it was speedily seen would never silence Lai Singh's 
 guns, our artillery opened their fire to ascertain the posi- 
 tion of the batteries, and the Sikhs then responded. 
 Our artillery then made a nearer advance, protected by the 
 w^hole of our infantry. AYhen several hundred yards 
 nearer, our guns were unlimbered, and several rounds of 
 shot fired ; this was repeated until they approached within 
 tliree hundred yards of the batteries. Then, seeing that 
 these Sikh guns could not be silenced, the infantry ad- 
 vanced amidst a murderous shower of shot and grape, and 
 captured them with matchless gallantry.f 
 
 In the advance, Greneral Littler' s division, marching direct 
 on the village, edged away to the left, and caused an open- 
 ing in the line between its right and Brigadier Wallace's 
 division. Littler' s division, led with the greatest valour by 
 its general, when close up to the enemy's batteries, which 
 fired volleys of grape, was compelled to retire ; the left brigade 
 of the reserve, under Sir Harry Smith, was ordered forward 
 to fill up the opening, and advanced on the village with 
 great energy. Wallace's and Grilbert' s divisions forming 
 the right and centre, were completely successful, but when 
 all the batteries of the Sikhs seemed to be within our 
 grasp, the night set in (and there is no twilight in India), 
 the dry forage in the camp was on fire, the loose powder 
 exploded in all directions, and it was impossible under 
 these circumstances to retain the occupation of the enemy's 
 batteries, which had been so gallantly won. All military 
 order and discipline must have been lost, and the troops 
 were directed to form about 150 yards from the enemy's 
 
 * The Commander-in-Chiefs Despatch. f Ibid. 
 
1845.] BATTLE OF FEEOZSIIUHE. 599 
 
 camp, lying down in contiguous columns at quarter-distance. 
 Sir Harry Smith's di^^ision pushed on to the village and 
 maintained itself there till about 10 o'clock at night, when, 
 not knowing the position of the troops on his right, he 
 retii'ed. Sir Jolm Littler's division having advanced against 
 the strongest part of the work, suffered severely, especially 
 her majesty's 62nd regiment, having seventeen officers 
 killed and wounded, out of twenty-three. Having done 
 everytliing that men could do, they were obliged to retii^e. 
 
 Just before dark, the gallant 3rd dragoons, who were on 
 the extreme right, were ordered to charge; never for a 
 moment considering the propriety of such an order, which 
 was given by a staft-officer, now no more, they dashed head- 
 long into the Sikh camp, carrying terror into the Sikh 
 ranks, but at the same time losing ten officers and 120 
 valuable men out of about 400. 
 
 About twelve o'clock at night, the Sikhs, finding that Sir 
 Harry Smith had been forced to retire from the village, and 
 that their batteries were not occupied, brought some guns 
 to bear upon our column, the fire from which was very 
 destructive. The governor-general moimted his horse and 
 called to the 80th regiment, which was at the head of the 
 column, " My lads, we shall have no sleep until we take 
 those guns." The regiment deployed immediately, advanced, 
 supported by the 1st Bengal Europeans, and drove a large 
 body of Sikhs from three guns, which they spiked. The 
 regiment then retired and took up its position again at 
 the head of the column as steadily as if on a parade, much 
 to the admiration of the governor-general and commander- 
 in-chief, the former of whom exclaimed, as they passed him, 
 " Plucky dogs, plucky dogs, we cannot fail to win with 
 such men as these." Tor the rest of the night our column 
 was left comparatively unmolested, but it cannot be denied, 
 that its position was one of danger great danger. Darkness 
 had covered our ranks while the scarcely thinned foe, driven 
 from his foremost intrenchments, had still a formidable 
 artillery remaining intact ; and where were our battalions ? 
 Both Sir John Littler and Sir Harry Smith had been com- 
 pelled to retire, and in the darkness the direction was not 
 known to the governor-general or commander-in-chief. 
 They were left, with not more than 8,000 men, within 150 
 yards of an enemy's camp, whose strength they had no 
 means of ascertaining. It could not be known whether 
 
600 BATTLE OF rEEOZSlIUHK. [1845. 
 
 Tej Singh, had during tlie action or during the night, 
 marched up to reinforce Lai Singh. The noisy tramping 
 of men, the fire of musketry and artillery, was continued 
 by the Sikhs during the night, and in the morning the 
 expectation most probable was, that the British army 
 would have to encounter the svhole concentrated force of 
 the enemy. 
 
 In this state of things, the commander-in-chief and the 
 governor-general determined to hold their ground, to wait 
 patiently till the morning dawned, then to attack the 
 enemy's batteries, if they still held them, by taking them in 
 reverse, to make one united effort by a simultaneous attack, 
 to beat them, or to die honourably in the field. The gallant 
 commander-in-chief, kind-hearted, heroically brave, quite 
 agreed with the governor-general. If ever confidence was 
 inspired to troops by the conduct of their leaders, it was by 
 Sir Henry Hardinge and Sir Hugh Gough on that occasion. 
 They knew that the struggle would be severe, but cheered 
 all around them with the certainty of success. The whole of 
 Sir Henry Hardinge' s personal staff having been put liors ie 
 combat, except his son Captain A. Hardinge, Avho, however, 
 had had his horse killed under him, Captain West of the 
 commander-in-chief's staff officiated as his aide-de-camp. 
 
 By daylight the British troops had deployed into 
 line, and all arrangements for renewing the attack being 
 made, the commander-in-chief put himself in front of the 
 right of the line ; Sir Henry Hardinge did the same on the 
 left, and keeping thirty yards in front of the line to pre- 
 vent the troops from firing, they advanced against the 
 Sikh batteries ; the troops being told not to fire, of they 
 would kill the governor-general. 
 
 The commander-in-chief also led the right in front of his 
 men, and the line advanced at a steady pace scarcely firing a 
 shot. The opposition was slight, most of the guns being 
 taken in reverse, and wheeling round past the village of 
 Eerozshuhr, the British line swept down the whole left and 
 rear of the enemy's position, halting when they had cleared 
 the works at the opposite extremity. The two chiefs 
 now rode down the line, and the regimental colours dropped, 
 and saluted the governor-general, and the men cheered 
 as they passed. The two chiefs must at that moment have 
 felt a proud satisfaction and some recompense for the pre- 
 vious hours of anxiety, but these feelings were of short 
 duration, for we had scarcely secured the enemy's guns^. 
 
^^845.] GLOEIOUS YICTORT. 601 
 
 seventy-four in number, before Tej Singh appeared in view^ 
 showing the policy of making the attack at the earliest 
 moment that returning light enabled the commander-in- 
 chief to do so. 
 
 Littler's and Smith's divisions had now rejoined the 
 commander-in-chief and the enemy was daunted by his 
 defeat, the beaten force retiring on their countrymen 
 coming up, brought dismay into their ranlvs. "Within a 
 mile and a half of their captured camp they halted, fired 
 several hundred rounds from their zumbooruks, or camel- 
 swivels, and after several demonstrations and a distant 
 cannonade, withdrew about three o'clock. 
 
 The first roll of the tide of invasion had now been 
 resisted, and the beaten enemy scarcely halted until he had 
 placed the Sutledge between him and his victorious opponent. 
 
 The commander-in-chief was too weak in cavalry to 
 follow up the enemy, having had at the commencement of 
 the action only 2,600, and some by this time had gone into 
 Ferozpoor, and those who remained on the field having 
 been nearly forty-eight hours \^ithout food or water, were 
 completely exhausted. 
 
 The artillery also had consumed a very large proportion 
 of their round shot, in the attack of the enemy, under 
 these circumstances men and horses being completely worn 
 out, it was most judicious to be satisfied with the great 
 victory gained, and forcing Tej Singh to retire on the 
 Sutledge. Such hard-contested fields cannot be gained with- 
 out loss ; ours amongst the Europeans was severe, having 
 488 killed, and 1,103 wounded. The total loss was 694 
 killed and 1,721 wounded, of whom 595 died subsequently, 
 or were disabled. Every exertion was now made to alleviate 
 the sufferings of the wounded, and by noon on the 23rd, 
 they were all in quarters at Eerozpoor, and quilts and 
 cots were furnished in abundance. In fact, it was almost 
 incredible how the commissariat and executive departments 
 could supply so much comfort in such a short space of 
 time. The woiuided owe much to the unwearied efforts of 
 Captain "W. B. Thomson and Lieutenant Groodwyn (who 
 responded to every call), for their comparatively snug con- 
 dition on the 23rd and 24th, and it was a gratifying sight 
 to the governor-general, when he visited them, to find so 
 much comfort where he anticipated so little. He gene- 
 rously gave strict orders, that everything required should 
 be supplied, and without the usual formality of an indent. 
 
602 SIR n. HAEDINGE AND THE WOUNDED. [1845. 
 
 Sir Henry Hardinge visited all the wounded men and 
 officers, and had a cheerful word for all. If a poor man 
 had lost an arm, the governor-general consoled him by 
 pointing to his own empty sleeve, and assuring him he 
 would soon be all right. If a soldier had had a leg shot away 
 or shattered, he reminded him that one of his sons, who 
 was with him, and who went into battle at his side, had long 
 had only one foot. The men were delighted at the urbanity 
 and kindness shown towards them by the governor of India, 
 and for a time forgot their own sufferings in the admira- 
 tion which his kindness elicited.* Sir Henry visited the 
 poor sufferers again and again, and watched over their wel- 
 fare with a solicitude that could not have been surpassed 
 if they had been his own children. During the terrible 
 night he had spent in the Sikh camp, he had shared the 
 privations of the soldiers, and had suffered pangs unknown 
 to them, for the fate of his whole army, the fate perhaps 
 of all India, was hanging on a thread. The commander-in- 
 chief. Sir Hugh Grough, whose arduous military duties did 
 not allow him to visit the wounded until some days later, 
 did everything in his power to cheer the men, praising their 
 undaunted bravery in one of the hardest battles ever fought 
 in India. He spoke to aU and listened to all, and did his 
 utmost to gratify their every wish. 
 
 Major Somerset, military secretary to the governor- 
 general, on the morning of the 22nd, was borne to the rear 
 mortally wounded, " while conducting himself with the 
 hereditary courage of his race." f Major Broadfoot, poli- 
 tical agent, also fell ; "he was brave as he was able in every 
 branch of the political and military service." J Major 
 Broadfoot was the last of three brave brothers, who held 
 appointments in the Company's army and fell in battle. 
 Captain P. Nicholson, assistant political agent from Feroz- 
 poor, was also killed in the action of the 21st. AVith the 
 exception of Captain Mills, who took the command of a 
 troop of horse- artillery, all the political agents were either 
 killed or wounded in this fierce struggle. Among the other 
 truly distinguished officers who perished were Colonel Wal- 
 lace, Captain Thomas Box, " a soldier every inch of him," 
 Captain D'Arcy Todd, Major Baldwin, a peninsular officer, 
 and Lieutenants PoUard and Bernard. Pollard had been 
 wounded at Moodkee ; but no persuasion could prevent his 
 
 * Dr. Macgregor's ' History of the Sikhs,' &c. 
 
 + Sir Henry Hardinge's Despatch. J Ibid. 
 
1845.] THE 62nd justified. 603 
 
 again joining his gallant regiment, her majesty's 31st. 
 Among those who shared the dangers of this battle were 
 Prince Waldemar of Prussia, and his staff. Counts Grueben 
 and Oriolo, and Dr. Hoffmeister ; the last officer was unfor- 
 tunately killed by a grape-shot. Prince AValdemar left the 
 field on the morning of the 22nd, at the request of the 
 governor-general, who was unwilling that a foreign prince 
 should be further subjected to the risk of losing his life. 
 The issue of the battle was not then decided ; but fortu- 
 nately the prince returned to Perozepoor, and had the 
 satisfaction of knowing, that though the British had a fierce 
 foe to contend with, victory had decided for them.* 
 
 Pine phrases would be thrown away upon conduct and 
 heroism such as were displayed at Perozpoor. The plain 
 professional despatches of Sir Henry Hardinge and Sir Hugh 
 Grough form the best eulogium. All behaved nobly. Un- 
 fortuately, in the hurry of the moment. Sir John Littler, in 
 his despatch, used the words " panic-struck" as applicable 
 to her majesty's 62nd regiment, and attributed some irreso- 
 lution on the part of the native regiments in his division to 
 the example of the 62nd. The charges were groundless. 
 Before the 62nd fell back, it had seven officers killed and ten 
 wounded, seventy-six rank and file killed and 154 wounded. 
 The regiment was numerically weak ; its loss was greater 
 than that of any other European regiment present. Both 
 the governor-general and commander-in-chief did all they 
 could to remove the injurious impression ; and at home, in 
 the House of Lords, the duke of AVellington stood manfully 
 forward to vindicate the fame of the heroic band, and apply 
 balm to their wounded pride. 
 
 Great pains were taken by the Sikh army to con- 
 ceal from the durbar the extent of their discomfiture ; but 
 much anxiety and irresolution were believed to prevail at 
 Lahore.f They believed that our army would follow up its 
 advantages by crossing the river immediately and marching 
 on the capital ; but this was a movement not to be thought of 
 without a powerful battering train, more European troops, 
 and especially more cavalry. It was now vrisely resolved to 
 wait for the battering train, moving upwards with the 16th 
 lancers, the 9th lancers, and her majesty's 10th and 53rd 
 regiments of foot, which, with the 43rd and 59th regiments 
 
 * Dr. Macgregor. 
 
 t Note from the Governor-General to the Secret Committee of the 
 East-India Company, dated January 1, 1846. 
 
604- BATTLE OF ALIWAL. [1846. 
 
 of native infantry, had composed the Meerut force under Sir 
 John Grey. 
 
 Upon this seeming indecision of the British, the Sikhs 
 resolved to make another effort to maintain their position 
 on the left bank of the Sutledge ; and for this purjDose, they 
 began to construct a new bridge of boats, not very far from 
 the spot where they crossed the river after ha-vong been 
 driven from Perozshuhr. Our army of the Sutledge was sta- 
 tioned somewhat from the river, and no opposition was 
 oftered by them. The bridge of boats was soon constructed, 
 and a tefe-de-pont thrown up in front of it with much mili- 
 tary skill, in a position very favourable to defence. The 
 opposite banks were high, and the river, where the bridge was 
 laid, made a slight curve inwards ; so as to throw the oppo- 
 site banks sufficiently forward to afford protection to both 
 flanks of the advanced position from heavy artillery placed 
 in battery. Above the bridge, and not far from it, was a good 
 ford, which facilitated the communication with the forces 
 on the opposite bank. Advantage had also been taken of the 
 paucity of our troops at Loodiana, to effect a passage for a 
 force of about 10,000 men of all arms, in the neighbourhood 
 of that town. No attack was made either on the town or 
 cantonment of Loodiana ; the object of this force appeared 
 to be rather to intrench itself near the place at which it 
 crossed, -in order to obstruct our progress and to cut off the 
 passage of supplies en route to Ferozpoor, and to intercept 
 the communication between the posts. As soon as the 
 Meerut force joined the commander-in-chief's camp, imme- 
 diate measures were taken to reinforce the Loodiana post 
 and the station at Busseean ; some native infantry, some 
 light cavalry, and some guns, were sent thither, and the 
 sick, the women, and the children were removed thence to 
 Umballa. Meanwhile, Sir Harry Smith had been detached 
 to reduce Dhunnkote, and keep open the communication for 
 supplies and ammunition from our rear. Sir Harry was 
 now reinforced, and having soon with him 7,000 men and 
 twenty-four guns, it was confidently believed that he could 
 at one and the same time relieve Loodiana and protect the 
 whole of our rear. Dhurmkote was evacuated at Sir Harry's 
 approach. In marching from Jugraon to Loodiana, Sir 
 Harry lost a good deal of his baggage, and sustained some 
 heavy fusilades, which he did not wait to return. His troops 
 were much harassed when l^e reached Loodiana. His pre- 
 
w 
 
 6!] BATTLE OF ALIWAL. 605 
 
 sence put an end to the consternation whicli was becoming 
 general in that part of the country. The Sirdar Eunjoor 
 Singh had strongly intrenched himself at Aliwal, about eight 
 miles to the westward of Loodiana ; he had 15,000 men and 
 fifty-six guns, and, on the evening of the 26th of January, 
 he received a reinforcement of twelve guns and 4,000 regular 
 troops. Sir Harry Smith most gallantly attacked the Sikhs 
 on the 28th of January, with not more than 10,000 men in 
 all. The right of the Sikh force rested on Bundree, and 
 their left on Aliwal, they had advanced a short distance from 
 their intrenched camp and cannonaded the British for half 
 an hour, until our brave fellows stormed the village of 
 Aliwal the key of their position. The whole of the British 
 line then began to advance. Her majesty's 16th lancers 
 charged in the most gallant style, but the Sikhs lay down 
 on the ground, and the lancers could not well reach them, 
 while they either fired their muskets at the 16th, or cut despe- 
 rately at men and horses with their keen swords. This dis- 
 tinguished cavalry regiment had upwards of 100 men killed 
 and wounded. The great mass of Sikh infantry could be 
 broken only by our artillery. One Sikh cannon after another 
 was captured. So ably were the orders of attack conducted, 
 each column and line arriving at its point of attack to the 
 very moment, that the enemy were soon driven headlong 
 back over the river ; and all the Sikh guns were captured 
 or destroyed. Only one gun was carried by the Sikhs to 
 the opposite bank, and there it was spiked by Lieutenant 
 Holmes, of the irregular cavalry, and Grunner Scott, of the 
 horse-artillery, who forded the river in pursuit. The victory 
 was complete, and the confusion among the Sikhs great. 
 Camp carriages, munitions of war, aU things that Eunjoor 
 Singh had brought with him, were captured. These were 
 indeed "glorious operations;" this was indeed a "com- 
 plete and decisive victory." * It cost us in aU 151 killed and 
 413 wounded. 
 
 There was now for a short time a perfect lull in the cam- 
 paign. The Sikhs at Sobroan went on strengthening their 
 position, and adding to their guns on their tete-de-jjont ; 
 and Sir Hugh Grough waited for his artillery and reinforce- 
 ments. Erom the 14th of January till the beginning of 
 
 * Despatches of the Governor-General, Sir Harry Smith, and Sir 
 Hugh Gough. Macgregor's ' History of the Sikhs.' 
 
606 GREAT BATTLE [1846. 
 
 Pebruaiy, the enemy were industriously employed in build- 
 ing their defences, under the direction, it is said, of a 
 Spanish engineer. The army under Sir Charles Napier, 
 which had been assembled at Sukkur, by order of the gover- 
 nor-general, consisting of 16,000 men, was moving up the left 
 bank of the Sutledge, towards Ferozpoor, and would have 
 proved, had the war lasted, a most valuable reinforcement to 
 the army of the Sutledge. It had by this time reached Bha- 
 wulpoor opposite Mooltan, and as the nawab of that place 
 had intimated to the British government his intention of 
 remaining neuter and of taking no part in the war, the 
 governor-general feeling that the blow must be struck 
 and the contest decided at Lahore, requested Sir Charles 
 Napier to come on with his staff in advance of his army, 
 and to join him without delay, being desirous of having 
 the assistance of that distinguished officer in the pending 
 struggle. Sir Charles Napier did not, unfortunately, arrive 
 in time to participate in the glories of Sobraon, but came up 
 with the army at Lahore. 
 
 On the 9th of February, the heavy guns from Delhi 
 reached the commander-in-chief's camp ; on the 8th, Sir 
 Harry Smith had rejoined head-quarters from Aliwal. 
 
 After the battle of Ferozshuhr, the governor-general 
 had taken up his quarters at Eerozpoor, occasionally riding 
 to the commander-in-chief's camp, which was now twenty- 
 four miles distant from Ferozpoor, to confer with his 
 excellency. In one of these rides, the governor-general's 
 horse fell, and so severely contused the governor-general's 
 thigh that he was obliged to be taken in his carriage to the 
 field on the morning of the 10th. 
 
 The enemy's works were very strong, and although on 
 the first intelligence of the battle of Aliwal, and at sight of 
 the numerous bodies which floated from the neighbourhood 
 of that battle-field down to the bridge of boats at Sobraon, 
 the Sikhs seemed much shaken and disheartened, they now 
 appeared to be as confident as ever of being able to defy us in 
 their intrenched position, and to prevent our passage of the 
 river. The soldiers were chiefly those who had been trained 
 by the Trench and Italian officers. They had strong walls, 
 only to be surmounted by scaling-ladders, which afibrded a 
 secure protection for triple lines of musketry. In all they 
 were 34,000 men, with seventy pieces of artillery; their 
 position was united by a good bridge to a reser\^e of 20,000 
 
1846.] OF soBEAOis^ 607 
 
 on the opposite bank, on which was a considerable camp and 
 some artillery commanding and flanking the field-works on 
 the side of the British.* 
 
 The force under Sir Hugh Gough consisted of 6,533 Euro- 
 peans and 9,691 natives, making a total of 16,224 rank and 
 file, and ninety-nine guns. Sir Hugh ordered this force tO' 
 march at half-past three o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, 
 the 10th of February, when his men would be fresh, and 
 there would be a certainty of many hours of daylight. To- 
 pass another night like that which had been spent within 
 the enemy's camp at Ferozshuhr, was by all means to be 
 avoided. The troops began to move out of camp at the 
 very moment appointed, and they marched in silence to their 
 destination. Sir Hugh was now much stronger in cavalry, 
 and very strong in artillery. He at once put his battering 
 and disposable artillery in position in an extended semicircle, 
 embracing within its fire the works of the Sikhs. It 
 had been intended that the cannonade should have com- 
 menced at daybreak, but so heavy a mist hung over the 
 plain and river, that it became necessary to wait. It was half- 
 past six before the whole of our artillery fire was developed. 
 " Nothing could be conceived grander than the effect of the 
 batteries when they opened, as the cannonade passed along 
 from the Sutledge to Little Sobraon, in one continued roar 
 of guns and mortars ; while, ever and anon, the rocket, 
 like a spirit of fire, winged its rapid flight high above the 
 batteries in its progress towards the Sikh intrenchment. 
 "Well might the commander-in-chief call the opening of the 
 cannonade ' most spirited and well directed.' The Sikh 
 guns responded with shot and shells, but neither appeared 
 to do much execution ; the latter were seen bursting in 
 mid-air ere they reached the British batteries ; while some 
 of the shot passed over Rhodawala, and struck the ground 
 in front of General Gilbert's division. It now became a 
 grand artillery concert, and the infantry divisions and bri- 
 gades looked on with a certain degree of interest, somewhat 
 aUied, however, to vexation, lest the artillery should have 
 the whole work to themselves ! The commander-in-chief, 
 however, was determined to give full play to an arm which 
 he did not possess to an efficient extent in other hard- 
 fought battles. It was reported, that the guns were to play 
 
 * Commander-in-Chief's Despatch. 
 
608 BATTLE OF [1846. 
 
 for four hours at least ; but there is some reason to believe, 
 that the rapid firing had nearly exhausted the ammunition 
 before half that time had elapsed ; and it was once more 
 to be proved, that the British infantry were not to remain 
 mute spectators of a battle. ' Notwithstanding,' wrote the 
 commander-in-chief, ' the formidable calibre of our guns, 
 mortars, and howitzers, and the admirable way in which they 
 were served, and aided by a rocket battery, it would have 
 been visionary to expect that they could have silenced the 
 fire of seventy pieces, behind well-constructed batteries of 
 earth, planks, and fascines, or dislodge troops, covered 
 either by redoubt or epaulments, or within a treble line of 
 trenches.' "* 
 
 Compared with Ferozshuhr, the worka at Sobraon were 
 regular fortifications, in the construction of whicli no labour 
 had been spared. The utmost ingenuity of the Sikhs and 
 their European advisers had been exerted to render this, 
 their last stronghold, impregnable. A French ofiicer is said 
 to have assured Tej Singh that it was utterly impossible 
 for the British to make good their entrance. The British 
 were now about to try with the musket and the bayonet. 
 "At nine o'clock, Brigadier Stacey's brigade, supported on 
 'either flank by Captains Horford's and Fordyce's batteries, 
 and Lieutenant- Colonel Lane's troop of horse- artillery, 
 moved to the attack in admirable order. The infantry and 
 guns aided each other correlatively. The former marched 
 steadily on in line, which they halted only to correct when 
 necessary; the latter took up successive positions at the 
 gallop, until at length they were within three hundred 
 yards of the heavy batteries of the Sikhs. But notwith- 
 standing the regularity and coolness, and the scientific 
 character of this assaiilt, which Brigadier "Wilkinson well 
 supported, so hot was the fire of cannon, musketry, and 
 zumbooruks,t kept up by the Khalsa troops, that it seemed 
 for some moments impossible that the intrenchment could 
 be won under it." X There was a temporary check or pause, 
 " but soon persevering gallantry triumphed, and the whole 
 army had the satisfaction to see the gallant Brigadier 
 Stacey's soldiers driving the Sikhs in confusion before 
 them within the area of their encampment." Every im- 
 
 * Dr. Macgregor's * History of the Sikhs.' 
 
 f Guns mounted on camels, and carrying a pound shot. 
 
 J The Commander-in-Chief's Despatches. Ibid. 
 
k46 
 
 .] SOBRAO>". 609 
 
 pediment was cleared, the intrencliments were passed, and 
 our matchless infantry stood erect and compact within the 
 Sikh camp. " Her Majesty's 10th, 53rd, and 80th regi- 
 ments, with the 3:3rd, 43rd,* 59th, and 63rd native infantry, 
 moving at a firm and steady pace, never fired a shot till 
 they had passed the barriers opposed to them a forbearance 
 much to he commended, and most worthy of constant imitation, 
 to whicli may he attrihuted tlie success of their first effort, 
 and the small loss they sustained. This attack was crowned 
 with all the success it deserved, and, led by its gallant 
 commander, Major-G-eneral Sir Robert Dick, obtained the 
 admiration of the army, which witnessed its disciplined 
 valour. When checked by the formidable obstacles and 
 superior numbers to which the attacking division was op- 
 posed, the second division, under Major- Greneral Grilbert, 
 afibrded the most opportune assistance by rapidly advan- 
 cing to the attack of the enemy's batteries, entering their 
 fortified position after a severe struggle, and sweeping 
 through the interior of the camp. This division inflicted 
 a very severe loss on the retreating enemy."* "We hap- 
 pened to be with a portion of Gilbert's division," says 
 Doctor M'Grregor, " when the order arrived from the 
 governor-general, and the troops immediately advanced. 
 Onward they went ; but, if intended to support Stacey on 
 the right of the enemy's position, they missed the object, 
 for they imfortunately came in front of the centre and 
 strongest portion of the encampment,, unsupported either 
 by artillery or cavalry. Her Majesty's 29th and the .1st 
 European light infantry, with undaunted bravery rushed 
 forward, crossed a dry nullah, and found themselves exposed 
 to one of the hottest fires of musketry that can possibly 
 be imagined ; and what rendered it still more galling was, 
 that the Sikhs were themselves concealed behind high 
 walls, over which the European soldiers could not climb. 
 To remain under such a fire without the power of return- 
 ing it with any effect would have been madness the men 
 would have been annihilated. Thrice did her Majesty's 
 29th regiment charge the works, and thrice were they 
 obliged to retire, each time followed by the Sikhs, who 
 spared none, and cut to pieces the wounded. Similar v/as 
 the fate of the 1st European light infantry, who, in retiring, 
 
 * General order by the Governor- General of India, dated Camp, 
 Kessoora, February 14th, 184G. 
 
 2ii 
 
610 BATTLE or [1846. 
 
 had their ranks thinned bj musketry, and their wounded 
 men and officers cut up by the savage Sikhs. To the 
 latter, the nullah presented an admirable defence, for the 
 slope was towards them, while the Europeans on the high 
 bank were completely exposed. At length the second divi- 
 sion, which at Terozshuhr had driven the Sikhs before 
 them, capturing their guns at the point of the bayonet, 
 and entering their encampment, were led to the right of 
 the intreuchment at Sobraon."* This second division was 
 emulated by the first division under Sir Harry Smith, 
 which dashed against the enemy's left. Yet was it not 
 until some of the 3rd dragoons, under Major-G-eneral Sir 
 Joseph Thackwell, had moved forward and ridden through 
 the openings of the intrenchments in single file, and re- 
 formed as they passed them ; and galloped over and cut 
 down the obstinate defenders of batteries and field-works ; 
 and the weight of three entire divisions of infantry, with 
 every field artillery gun which could be sent to their aid ; 
 it was not until all this had been cast into the scale, that 
 victory finally declared for the British. The fire of the 
 Sikhs slackened, then ceased nearly altogether; and the 
 victors, pressing them on every side, swept them in masses 
 aver the bridge of boats, and into the Sutledge, which a sud- 
 den rise of seven inches had rendered scarcely fordable. 
 In their efforts to reach the right bank through the deep- 
 ened water, they suffered a terrible carnage from our horse- 
 artillery. Hundreds fell imder this cannonade; hundreds 
 upon hundreds were drowned in attempting the perilous 
 passage. This awful slaughter would have excited compas- 
 sion, had they not, in the earlier part of the action, sullied 
 their bravery by slaughtering and mangling every wounded 
 soldier whom the fortune of war left at their mercy. 
 "The enemy's shattered forces," says the governor-general, 
 " were driven into the river, with a loss which far exceeded 
 that which the most experienced officers had ever witnessed. 
 Thus terminated, in the brief space of two hours, this most 
 remarkable conflict, in which the military combinations of 
 the commander-in-chief were fully and ably carried into 
 effect. The enemy's select regiments of regular infantry 
 have been dispersed, and a large proportion destroyed, with 
 the loss, since the campaign began, of 220 pieces of artil- 
 lery taken in action." f 
 
 * History of the Sikhs.' f General order. 
 
1846.] SOBRAON. 611 
 
 "Within the intrencliments above sixtj-seven guns were 
 captured, together with upwards of 200 camel-swivels 
 and numerous standards. Before the hour of noon this 
 great battle was over. It might, indeed, be well termed 
 a glorious fight, and complete in its results. The battles of 
 Moodkee, Ferozshuhi', and Aliwal, had weakened the power 
 of the Sikhs, but the battle of Sobraon had completely- 
 broken it. It was, of course, bought at a dear price. 
 Her Majesty's 29th regiment alone exhibited a loss in 
 killed and woimded of thirteen ofiicers, eight Serjeants, and 
 157 rank and file. The loss of the 1st European light 
 infantry was still heavier. Her Majesty's 31st, which had 
 fought most nobly at Moodkee, Ferozshuhr, and Aliwal, had 
 seven officers and 147 rank and file killed and wounded 
 at Sobraon. Her Majesty's 50th, or Queen's Own, had 
 twelve officers and 227 rank and file killed and wounded. 
 Her Majesty's 10th foot lost three officers, three Serjeants, 
 and 127 rank and file. These regiments suffered the most ; 
 but other regiments suffered severely. The total loss was 
 320 killed, 2,063 wounded. The brave Sir Eobert Dick, 
 who led the attack on the intrenchments, received a 
 mortal wound after he had entered them ; " thus fell, most 
 gloriously, at the moment of victory, this veteran officer, 
 displaying the same energy and intrepidity as when, 
 thirty-five years ago in Spain, he was the distinguished 
 leader of the 42nd Highlanders." Brigadier Charles Cyril 
 Taylor, who commanded the third brigade of the second 
 division, also fell. Brigadier MacLaren was borne off* the 
 field mortally wounded, while leading the fourth brigade of 
 the centre di\dsion against the strongest part of the intrench- 
 ments. AVhen put into his bed, he said he must cross the 
 Sutledge with the gallant European light infantry, even 
 though he were carried in a dooly. Major- General Grilbert 
 was slightly wounded; and the gallant veteran Colonel 
 liyan, of the 50th, was severely wounded. 
 
 Fearful had been the loss of the Sikhs. Five days after 
 the action, and when the walls of the intrenchment had 
 been nearly levelled with the ground, the sand-bank in the 
 middle of the river was completely covered with their dead 
 bodies, and the ground within their encampment thickly 
 strewed with carcases of men and horses. With the per- 
 mission of the commander-in-chief, Sir Hugh Gough, they 
 returned to carry off" their dead ; but the task was found 
 2b 2 
 
612 TEKMINATION OF [1846. 
 
 too irksome, and many hundreds, not swept away by the 
 river, were left as food for the jackal, the wild dog, and the 
 vulture. 
 
 Scarcely was the action over when the governor-general 
 despatched his military secretary, Lieutenant-Colonel Wood, 
 with the tidings of victory to Sir John Grey, who was 
 stationed half-way between Ferozpoor and Sobraon with 
 two regiments of cavalry, three of infantry, and a field 
 battery. Having directed Sir .fohn Grey to move with 
 his force immediately to the ghaut opposite Ferozpoor, 
 the military secretary proceeded to Ferozpoor, which he 
 reached in an hour and twenty minutes, the distance from 
 the field of action being twenty-four miles. He carried 
 orders to Sir John Littler (who had been warned the day 
 before to be ready) to march with every available man to 
 the ghaut, and before daylight the next morning six regi- 
 ments of native infantry and six guns had, by means of six 
 country boats, crossed the Sutledge, at a point nearer to 
 the capital than where the debris of the Sikh army was 
 stationed. On the following day the bridge of boats was 
 nearly completed by the able and indefatigable Major 
 Abbott, of the engineers. Had the British then followed 
 up the Sikhs, they might have made their way without 
 resistance to Lahore, and have there renewed the conflict ; 
 but such was not the intention of our commanders, and the 
 capital of the Punjaub was destined to be occupied by the 
 British without any repetition of the life-consuming strug- 
 gles which had occurred on the left bank of the Sutledge. 
 H pressed, they would have fought hard in their despair ; 
 but the vaunted power of the Sikhs was in reality de- 
 stroyed. Sham Singh, Dhubal Singh, Hera Singh, Kishen 
 Singh, Mobaruck Ali, Newaz Khan, all their bravest sirdars 
 and leaders, had perished. The discomfited warriors who 
 survived, being left to themselves, began to disperse. 
 Our army quietly crossed the river, and took undisputed 
 possession of Kussoor, which in former times had twice 
 defied the power of Runjeet Singh. On the 14th of Feb- 
 ruary the governor-general announced by proclamation, 
 dated from Kussoor, that the British army had crossed the 
 Sutledge, and entered the Punjaub, "in accordance with 
 the intentions expressed in the proclamation of the 13th 
 December last, as having been forced upon him for the 
 purpose of 'efiectually protecting the British provinces 
 
1846.] THE PUNJAUB WAR. 613 
 
 and vindicating the authority of the British government, 
 and punishing the violators of treaties and the disturbers 
 of the public peace.' " Military operations against the 
 government and army of the Lahore state had not been 
 undertaken by tlie government of India from any desire of 
 territorial aggrandizement. 
 
 The ranee, or mother of the maharajah, forthwith sent 
 emissaries to the governor-general; and Grhoolab Singh, 
 whose wily policy we have explained, and who was now 
 determined to carry it through, at whatever sacrifice, on 
 the part of the Sikhs, became the mediator between the 
 fallen state of Lahore and our victorious army. He pro- 
 ceeded with all expedition towards Kussoor, to endeavour, 
 if possible, to arrest the progress of our troops ; but his 
 intentions and hopes were frustrated, for the governor- 
 general indignantly refused to enter into any separate 
 compact with him, or to listen to any arrangement which 
 would prevent him from sealing any treaty that might be 
 made under the walls of Lahore. Having failed in pre- 
 venting the advance of the British, Grhoolab Singh changed 
 his tactics, and determined on bringing the young maha- 
 rajah, Dhuleep Singh, into the governor-general's camp. 
 The parties met at LuUeeana. Out of respect for the late 
 !Runjeet Singh, and the tender years of his grandson. Sir 
 Henry Hardinge, after Dhuleep Singh had made his sub- 
 mission, treated him with high honours, and \^'ith the 
 utmost kindness. He repeated to the prince his earnest 
 wish that a wise and tranquil government should exist in 
 the Punjaub under the descendants of the late Eunjeet, 
 who had preserved a strict alliance with the British for a 
 period of thirty years. 
 
 The heads of a treaty were soon slvetched and agreed to. 
 The government of Lahore was to pay, as an indemnity for 
 tlie expense of the war, a crore and a half of rupees, or about 
 one million five hundred thousand pounds sterling.* AU 
 the guns we had taken were to be retained, and all those 
 which the Sikhs had ever pointed against the British were 
 to be given up. The troops and their turbulent leaders were 
 to be disbanded for ever. 
 
 Thus ended the first Punjaub war. The British army at 
 Lahore amounted only to 24,115 men of all arms, of which 
 
 * The Jullundur doab, the district between the Beas and Sutledge, was 
 confiscated and proclaimed British territory. 
 
614 SIB HENRY HARD Inge's [1847. 
 
 4,424 only were European inftmtry, and with, the exception 
 of 1,466 in progress from Scinde, there was not another 
 effective European infjintry soldier within 1,000 miles of 
 Lahore. With such a force annexation of the Punjaub was 
 impossible. The campaign had lasted sixty days. It cost, 
 including the donation of a year's batta to the troops, about 
 two millions sterling, the Lahore durbar and Grhoolab Singh 
 paid an indemnity of a million and a half, and the revenue 
 of the territory which the British government confiscated 
 amounted, after all expenses, to about half a million annually. 
 In a pecuniary point of view, therefore, this was the cheap- 
 est war that was ever waged, as well as the shortest. The 
 Sikh army was reduced from 100,000 men and 370 field 
 guns, to about 30,000 and fifty field guns, 256 of their best 
 guns having been captured by the British army. The most 
 lucrative part of their territory, the JuUundur, had been con- 
 fiscated to the British, and their hill states given to Grhoolab 
 Singh, curtailing the Sikhs of more than one-third of their 
 territory and nearly one-third of their resources. In this 
 state, the treaty having been signed on the 8th of March, 
 the governor-general would have left them ; but a few days 
 before the British army was to march, the chief sirdars 
 waited on the governor-general, and requested him to leave 
 a garrison at Lahore, to protect them from their own law- 
 less countrymen ; at the same time stating, that if he did 
 not do so, they would retire with the British army. The 
 governor-general, feeling that it was the duty of the para- 
 mount power of India, as well as an act of humanity, to 
 assist them in the reconstruction of a government, consented 
 to garrison Lahore for one year, and Sir J. Littler was left 
 with 10,000 men, not without many forebodings on the part 
 of the military men of high rank, that a second Cabul dis- 
 aster was sure to be the fate of this garrison. So convinced, 
 however, the governor-general appears to have been that it 
 was his duty to comply with the request of the sirdars, that, 
 notwithstanding these forebodings, he consented. 
 
 At the expiration of the year the' council of sirdars for 
 the administration of the government again came forward 
 and solicited the governor-general to allow the British gar- 
 rison to continue the occupation of Lahore, which led to the 
 treaty of Bhyrowal. 
 
 Our army had advanced to Kanwa Kutchwa on the 19th 
 of February, the governor-general having first issued (from 
 
1847.] TEEATY OF PEACE. 615 
 
 Lulleeana on the' 18th) to the chiefs, merchants, traders, 
 ryots, and other inhabitants of Lahore and TJmritsir, a pro- 
 clamation, assuring them that the maharajah and durbar had 
 acquiesced in all the terms proposed to them, as a means of 
 re-establishing friendly relations ; that they, the chiefs, 
 merchants, traders, peasants, &c., had nothing to fear from 
 the British army ; and that they might, in all confidence, 
 pursue their ordinary occupations. On the morning of the 
 20th, the whole army marched to Lahore a distance of 
 fourteen miles and encamped on the parade-ground, about 
 two and a half miles from the city gate ; and, in the after- 
 noon of that same day, the young maharajah, Dhuleep Singh, 
 was restored to the palace of the rulers of Lahore, in charge 
 of the chief secretary of our government, escorted by British 
 officers and troops in their best attire. On alighting from 
 his elephant, a salute of twenty-one guns was fired by the 
 horse-artillery. The secretary of government, and the 
 officers, took leave of the maharajah at the palace gate, and 
 then returned to the camp. On the 22nd, in fulfUraent of 
 one of Sir Henry Hardinge's conditions. Sir Hugh Grough, 
 with a brigade, took formal and peaceful possession of the 
 Padshahee-Musjid and Huzooree-Bagh, which formed part 
 f the citadel of Lahore. Supplies of all sorts were willingly 
 rought to this brigade as well as to the camp ; and the 
 observance of a strict discipline by all our troops entirely 
 removed the apprehensions and doubts of the people.* 
 
 On the 8th of March, the following treaty was signed 
 in the state-tent of the governor-general : 
 
 " Article I. There shall be perpetual peace and friendship between 
 the British government on the one part, and Maharajedi Dhuleep Singh, 
 bis heirs and successors, on the other. 
 
 " Article II. The maharajah of Lahore renounces for himself, his 
 heirs and successors, all claim to, or connection with, the territories lying 
 to the south of the river Sutledge, and engages never to have any concern 
 with those territories or the inhabitants thereof. 
 
 " Article III, The maharajah cedes to the Honourable Company, 
 in perpetual sovereignty, all his forts, territories, and rights, in the Doab, 
 or country, hill and plain, situated between the rivers Beas and Sutledge. 
 
 " Article IV, The British government having demanded from the 
 Lahore state, as indemnification for the expenses of the war, in addition 
 to the cession of territory described in Article III,, payment of one and 
 a half crore of rupees ; and the Lahore government, being unable to pay 
 the whole of this sum at this time, ought to give security satisfactory to 
 the British government for its eventual payment, the maharajah cedes to 
 
 * Despatches of the Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief. 
 
616 SIE HENRY haedinge's [1847. 
 
 the Honourable Company, in perpetual sovereignty, as equivalent for one 
 crore of rupees, all his forts, territories, rights, and interests, in the 
 hill countries which are situated between the rivers Beas and Indus, in- 
 cluding the provinces of Cashmere and Hazarah. 
 
 " Article V. The maharajah will pay to the British government 
 the sum of fifty lakhs of rupees on or before the ratification of this treaty. 
 
 " Article VI. The maharajah engages to disband the mutinous 
 troops of the Lahore army, taking from them their arms ; and his highness 
 agrees to re-organize the regular or Aeen regiments of infantry, upon 
 the system, and according to the regulations, as to pay and allowances, 
 observed in the time of the late Maharajah Runjeet Singh. The maha- 
 rajah further engages to pay up allowances to the soldiers that are dis- 
 charged, under provision* of this article. 
 
 " Article VII. The regular army of the Lahore state shall hence- 
 forth be limited to twenty-five battalions of infantry , consisting of 800 
 bayonets each, with 12,000 cavalry ; this number at no time to be ex- 
 ceeded, without the concurrence of the British government ; and should 
 it be necessary at any time, for any special cause, that this force should be 
 increased, the cause shall be fully explained to the British government; 
 and when the especial necessity shall have passed, the regular troops shall 
 be again reduced to the standard specified in the former clause of this 
 article. 
 
 *' Article VIII. The maharajah will surrender to the British go- 
 vernment all the guns, thirty-six in number, which have been pointed 
 against the British troops, and which, having been placed on the right 
 bank of the river Sutledge, were not captured at the battle of Sobraon. 
 
 ** Article IX. The control of the rivers Beas and Sutledge, with the 
 continuations of the latter river, commonly called the Garrah and Pun- 
 jnud, to the confluence of the Indus, at Mithunkote, and the control of 
 the Indus from Mithunkote to the borders of Beloochistan, shall, in respect 
 to tolls and ferries, rest with the British government. The provisions of 
 this article shall not interfere with the passage of boats belonging to the 
 Lahore government, on the said rivers, for the purposes of traffic, or the 
 conveyance of passengers up and down their course. Regarding the 
 ferries between the two countries respectively, at the several ghauts of the 
 said river, it is agreed, that the British government, after defraying all 
 the expenses of management and establishments, shall account to the 
 Lahore government for one-half of the net profits of the ferry collections. 
 The provisions of this article have no reference to the ferries on that part 
 of the river Sutledge which forms the boundary of Buhawalpore and 
 Lahore respectively. 
 
 " Article X. If the British government should, at any time, desire 
 to pass troops through the territories of his highness the maharajah for 
 the protection of the British territories, or those of their allies, the British 
 troops shall, on such special occasions, due notice being given, be allowed 
 to pass through the Lahore territories. In such case the officers of the 
 Lahore state will affc^rd facilities in providing supplies and boats for the 
 passage of the rivers ; and the British government will pay the full price 
 of all such provisions and boats, and will make fair compensation for all 
 private property that may be endamaged. The British government will, 
 moreover, observe all due consideration to the religious feelings of the 
 inhabitants of those tracts through which the army may pass. 
 
1847.] TEEATT OF PEACE. * 617 
 
 ** Article XI. The maharajah engages never to take or retain in his 
 service any British subject, nor the subject of any European or American 
 state, without the consent of the British government. 
 
 " Article XII. In consideration of the services rendered by Rajah 
 Gboolab Singh, of Jummoo, to the Lahore state, towards procuring the 
 restoration of the relations of amity between the Lahore and British 
 governments, tlie maharajah hereby agrees to recognize the independent 
 sovereignty of Rajah Ghoolab Singh in such territories and districts in the 
 hills as may be made over to the said Rajah Ghoolab Singh by separate 
 agreement between himself and the British government, with the depen- 
 dencies thereof which may have been in the rajah's possession since the 
 time of the late Maharajah Khurruk Singh ; and the British government, 
 in consideration of the good conduct of Rajah Ghoolab Singh, also agrees to 
 recognize his independence in such territories, and to admit him to the 
 privileges of a separate treaty with the British government. 
 
 ' Article XIII. In the event of any dispute or difference arising 
 between the Lahore state and Rajah Ghoolab Singh, the same shall be 
 referred to the arbitration of the British government, and by its decision 
 the maharajah engages to abide. 
 
 " Article XIV. The limits of the Lahore territories shall not be at 
 any time changed, without the concurrence of the British government. 
 
 " Article XV. The British government will not exercise any inter- 
 feren(;e in the internal administration of the Lahore states, but in all 
 cases or questions which may be referred to the British government, the 
 governor-general will give the aid of his advice and good offices for the 
 furtherance of the interests of the Lahore government. 
 
 " Article XVI. The subjects of either state shall, on visiting the 
 territories of the other, be on the footing of the subjects of the most 
 favoured nation." 
 
 The terrible Akbar Kliau lias gone to his account, having 
 been poisoned by some of his own people ; others of those 
 murderous Afghan chiefs have fallen in battle, or under the 
 dagger of the assassin. Pierce destructive wars still rage, 
 both in Lower and in Upper Afghanistan, but scarcely a 
 faint echo of them reaches the Indus. 
 
 A^iscoimt Hardinge (his wise government and his noble 
 exploits had gained him the peerage), while encouraging by 
 his example the observance of the Christian religion, not 
 only discountenanced interference with the rites of the 
 natives, but also prohibited government officials from involv- 
 ing themselves directly in schemes of conversion. By all 
 legitimate means, and without interfering with the labour 
 of the missionary, he encouraged general education and the 
 enlightenment of the native mind : the rest he wisely left 
 to God and 'to his appointed time. In October,! 1846, he 
 issued a notification prohibiting Sunday labour among the 
 Christians of India. This will be a salutary check to many 
 who, having little to do during the week, from mere listless- 
 
618 CAPTAIN S. C. MACPHEllSOIT [1847. 
 
 ness and carelessness, were in tlie habit of desecrating the 
 Sabbath, or permitting it to be desecrated by their subordi- 
 nates. The Mussulman and the Hindu, who worship after 
 their own fashion, and who scrupulously observe their own 
 holy days, will have now some evidence that the Christian 
 respects tlie faith he professes. No effort was left untried 
 by his lordship to put down the crimes of infanticide, suttee, 
 and man-stealing. Happily, in the territories of protected 
 chiefs, in central or northern India, several native princes 
 voluntarily came forward and expressed their earnest desire 
 to put an end to these ancient and venerated atrocities. 
 The writer, a distinguished officer, from whom I quote, 
 here adds : " Attention thus excited towards suttee, infanti- 
 cide, and child-stealing, very slight efforts on the part of the 
 government and its officials will surely tend to eradicate the 
 crimes throughout the limits of Hindustan. Some few 
 Hindus may pervert or disregard their own Shasters ; but 
 the more sacred and authoritative of these writings in no 
 way sanction suttee. "We never heard a Hindii pretend to 
 prove that they did, and not many months since a good 
 Brahmin emphatically told the writer of these remarks, that 
 in prohibiting infanticide, we had compensated for permit- 
 ting the crime of cow-kiUing. Be it remerubered that the 
 majority of Hindiis consider a cow's life more sacred than 
 that of a man! " * 
 
 Among the very many able, energetic, and humane officers 
 and administrators, who aided his lordship in carrying out 
 these noble measures, I believe not one was more distin- 
 guished than my friend Captain Samuel Chartres Macpherson, 
 of the Madras army, whose labours among the cruel Khonds 
 of Goomsur and Boad pursued, at first, under every dis- 
 couragement, at the expense of health, and well nigh to the 
 extinction of life ought never to be overlooked by any writer 
 on British India. In the regions which came under Captain 
 Macpherson' s control, the most horrible of human sacrifices 
 prevailed, and to an extent which appears scarcely credible, 
 though thoroughly well attested by the best evidence, and 
 the concurrent testimony of numerous witnesses. The 
 victims were tortured, and subjected to long and excruciat- 
 ing agonies before they were slain. Children or young 
 people were preferred if they could be kidnapped, pur- 
 
 * The article in * Calcutta Review,' previously quoted. 
 
1847.] AKD THE KIIOlfDS. 619 
 
 chased, or obtained in any other way ; but, in many cases, 
 full-grown men and women, and old people, were immolated 
 
 after torture. As many as twenty-five full-grown 
 persons have been sacrificed by the Khonds at a single 
 religious festival. A caterer for these impious rites has 
 been kno^vn to deliver up his own two daughters, for want 
 of purchased offerings ; and in some of the Khond districts, 
 those who could not procure other victims, have given up 
 their old and helpless fathers and mothers to the excru- 
 ciating torture and the most horrible of deaths. By the 
 persevering efforts, the prudent, cautious, patient, and wise 
 measures of Captain Macpherson, under Lord Hardinge 
 and his immediate successor, these revolting rites, if not 
 entirely abolished, were vastly diminished, both in G-oomsur 
 and in Boad.* 
 
 Under Lord Hardinge' s administration, innumerable 
 checks and impediments were removed, and trade was 
 rendered perfectly free throughout British India. Nay, 
 more than this, in almost every native state the worst 
 restrictions were taken off. The octroi or town-duties, not 
 only of such places as Loodiana and Umballa, but of Surat 
 
 where they yielded eleven lacs of rupees per annum 
 were released, to the infinite benefit of trade and of town- 
 dwelling people. During the forty-two months of the noble 
 lord's most noble administration, it is difficult to say, 
 whether he more shone as a warrior and military adminis- 
 trator, or as a civil administrator and statesman. 
 
 Possessed of a fine natural taste and a love of the arts, 
 and having with him in his eldest son an accomplished and 
 enthusiastic amateur artist,t his lordship encouraged the 
 preservation and repair of the magnificent works of Oriental 
 architecture, which too many of his predecessors had entirely 
 neglected and had left to the destruction of time, or of barba- 
 rous hands. Through his good taste and unsparing liberality, 
 the exquisite Taj Mahal, and the fort and the palace at 
 Agra, were judiciously repaired. He gave every possible 
 encouragement to the Archaeological Society of Delhi, insti- 
 tuted chiefly for the purpose of exploring the numerous 
 ruins and antiquities of India. He sanctioned and pro- 
 
 * Capt. Macpherson's account in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society. London, 1842. The article on Lord Hardinge's administra- 
 tion, and three other articles, in the * Calcutta Review.' 
 
 t The Honourable Charles Hardinge. 
 
620 EULOGIUM OF [1847. 
 
 motcd the scheme of Mr. Thomason for forming a College 
 of Instruction of Civil Engineers at Eurki. Much of India 
 had been already accurately surveyed ; but, as sanctioned by 
 this high-minded and large-hearted governor-general, the 
 grand trigonometrical survey is now extending its operations- 
 into Cashmere, and along the banks of the Indus. 
 
 By nothing was his lordship more distinguished than by 
 his equanimity, his amenity, his facility in soothing animo- 
 sities (which are too apt to run high in the hot climate of 
 India), and his tact in the management of men's minds. 
 He may be said to have been on excellent terms with 
 almost every individual with whom he had to transact 
 business. Although he expected every man under him to 
 do his duty, and to do it thoroughly, his disapprobation of 
 neglect or slowness was always expressed in so kindly a 
 manner, that it could seldom give offence. His friendship 
 and patronage were bestowed upon none but men of high 
 merit. Nothing but merit had influence with him. Littler, 
 Currie, Elliot, the three Lawrences, Thoresby, Wheeler, 
 Mackeson, Edwardes, MacGrregor, and a host of others, 
 obtained his protection, and have proved how well they 
 merited it.* 
 
 The year 1847 was one of uninterrupted tranquillity in 
 British India, with one insignificant exception in Scinde. 
 In the Punjaub, in consequence of the intrigues of the ranee 
 to overthrow the regency, it was found expedient to remove 
 that princess, under a military escort, to the fort of Shaik- 
 poor, distant about twenty-five miles from Lahore. 
 
 Lordllardinge's resignation and departure for England 
 were universally regarded as a calamity. But during his stay 
 of forty-two months, he had conferred inestimable benefits 
 on the country. It was one of his ablest ofiicers who said 
 of him, " We bid adieu to his lordship with every hearty 
 |Tood wish. He found India threatened by invasion, 
 and almost bankrupt. He has, in all senses, righted the 
 vessel, restored confidence to our ranks, to our allies, and 
 our dependants ; replenished the public purse, tranquil- 
 lized the frontier, and brought peace and securit}- to the 
 long-distracted Punjaub. He has already been rewarded ; 
 but a viscounty and a pension is a small portion of 
 his recompense. His best reward is in the conviction of 
 
 * * Calcutta Review,* and private information. 
 
1847.] 
 
 VISCOUNT HARBINGE. 
 
 621 
 
 has honestly and bravely 
 behind him more than a 
 
 his own noble heart that he 
 done his duty ; that he leaves 
 hundred millions whom he has largely blessed, by enlight- 
 ened and just measures ; and that returning to his native 
 land, he is regretted by those he leaves behind, and warmly 
 welcomed by men of every shade of opinion, as the pacific 
 warrior, the happy statesman ; the man, who, in reality, 
 brought peace to Asia." * 
 
 * ' Calcutta Review.' 
 
622 EAEL OF DALHOrSIE, GOV.-GENEEAL. [1848. 
 
 CHAPTER XLL 
 
 The successor to tlie governor-generalship was the 
 amiable, accomplished, and able earl of Dalhousie. At the 
 parting dinner given to his lordship bj the Court of Direc- 
 tors, the premier of England, addressing him, expressed 
 his conviction " that he would show, as his immediate 
 predecessor. Viscount Hardinge, had shown, that resolution 
 in administering justice, that forbearance towards all neigh- 
 bouring and foreign powers, that attention to the arts of 
 peace, and that sedulous care for the improvement of the 
 internal condition of India, which are compatible with the 
 utmost spirit, the utmost courage, in repelling any aggression 
 that may be made ; meeting and conquering those who 
 choose to constitute themselves the foes of the British 
 empire in India." 
 
 The earl of Dalhousie took his departure for Calcutta in 
 the month of November. 
 
 His reception in India was most flattering, for the sweet 
 odour of a good name and of an unblemished reputation had 
 preceded him. He indeed possessed many qualities in com- 
 mon with his immediate predecessor. He was as anxious 
 (and he could not be more so) for the preservation of peace 
 as was Lord Hardinge on his arrival in India ; yet he soon 
 found himself involved in war. We were once more chal- 
 lenged to the contest by a fierce and brave foe, whom we 
 thought we had effectually subdued. At Mooltan, the 
 capital of a district lying between the left bank of the 
 Indus and the right bank of the Sutledge, it was found 
 necessary or expedient to substitute Sirdar Khan Singh as 
 governor for Moolraj, who was believed to have shown 
 intentions hostile to the durbar of Lahore and to the 
 British government. It was believed that Moolraj accepted 
 the liberal conditions offered to him, and fuUy acquiesced 
 in this arrangement ; but when Mr. Vans Agnew, a Bengal 
 
1848.] EENEWAL or WAE. 623 
 
 cml servant and assistant to the resident at Lahore, and 
 Lieutenant Anderson, of the Eombay fusiliers, proceeded 
 to Mooltan to complete the arrangement (on the I7th of 
 April), they found discontent and turbulence ; and 
 on the following day both these gentlemen were attacked 
 and desperately wounded. They retired with their weak 
 escort to a small fort outside the town, being accompanied 
 by Sirdar Khan Singh, A fire was opened upon this place 
 of refuge from Mooltan, but owing to the distance, the 
 guns did little mischief. Three days afterwards the Mool- 
 tan troops came out and attacked the fort ; the Sikh 
 garrison within immediately opened the gates, and let in the 
 assailants, and both Mr. Agnew and Lieutenant Anderson 
 were barbarously murdered. 
 
 So soon as intelligence of these events reached Lahore, 
 a body of 3,000 Sikhs, horse and foot, was ordered to 
 march to Mooltan under the command of Eajah Sheer Singh. 
 It fortunately happened that at this juncture Lieutenant 
 Edwardes was engaged upon the Indus with a very small 
 force, settling the country and collecting the land-tax. 
 On learning the aifair at Mooltan, he re-crossed the river 
 into the Deerajat, whence he wrote to the khan of Bhawul- 
 poor to make a demonstration in order to prevent Moolraj 
 from executing any design against him (Lieutenant 
 Edwardes), or against Colonel Cortlandt, who commanded 
 the exposed garrison of Dhera Ismael Khan. The friendly 
 chief instantly prepared to act. A party of 300 horse had 
 been left by Edwardes east of the Indus, to complete the 
 collection of the revenue at the town of Leiah, where they 
 were attacked on the 18th of May by a body of Mooltan 
 horse with ten light field guns. Being completely defeated, 
 the Mooltan cavalry fled, and left all their guns behind 
 them. 
 
 Meanwhile Colonel Cortlandt, with his force of about 
 4,000 men, quitted Dhera Ismael Khan, and proceeded to 
 the southward by the base of the mountains. Being joined 
 on his march by a Beloochee chief with a hundred of his 
 clan, he reduced the fortress of Sunghur, a place to the 
 west of the Indus, the garrison of which retreated upon 
 Mooltan. 
 
 Lieutenant Edwardes having effected a junction with 
 Colonel Cortlandt, a second engagement took place on the 
 20th of May, when the enemy were defeated with great 
 
624 EXPLOITS OF EDWABDES AND COETLANDT. [1848. 
 
 slaughter and with loss of artillery. A considerable portion 
 of the forces serving under Cortlandt and Edwardes were 
 Sikhs ; yet none of them showed any disposition to fra- 
 ternize with the rebels, and all behaved steadily and bravely 
 in battle.* 
 
 On the 10th and 11th of June Lieutenant Edwardes and 
 Colonel Cortlandt re-crossed the Indus to effect a junction 
 with our ally the khan of Bhawulpoor. To prevent this 
 measure, Moolraj passed the Chenab on the 14th, leaving 
 a strong detachment on the other bank, which marched to 
 Khan-ghur, but crossed the following day, in consequence 
 of the rapid advance of our force under Lieutenant 
 Edwardes. On the 16th, Edwardes, who had only cavalry 
 with him, was joined by the artillery and infantry under 
 Colonel Cortlandt, and their camp was formed about a 
 mile from the Chenab, the enemy being encamped on the 
 opposite bank. In the mean time the Bhawulpoor troops 
 had arrived within twelve miles of the Mooltanese, and 
 Edwardes, being unable to procure boats wherewith to cross 
 the river, retired to Gungawallah, opposite to which place 
 the Bhawulpoor force was encamping. During the night 
 about 3,000 of his new levies joined the khan's camp. 
 Early on the 18th of June, Edwardes crossed the Chenab 
 with his infantry, leaving the horse and guns to follow ; 
 and he was attacked by the Mooltan troops before Cort- 
 landt had time to join him with his guns. The action, 
 which commenced shortly after sunrise, lasted full nine 
 hours. At a very critical moment two of Cortlandt' s regi- 
 ments came up with six guns. After an obstinate conflict, 
 the enemy gave way and fled, leaving behind them six pieces 
 of artillery, and all their baggage and stores. 
 
 Moolraj now fell back upon Mooltan, and was closely 
 followed by the British and their allies, who were import- 
 antly reinforced on the 28th of June by a body of troops 
 under the command of Sheikh Imaum-ood-deen. This 
 brought up our number of fighting men to about 18,000, 
 and put an end to the danger in which we had really been 
 at the first surprisal and outbreak. 
 
 On the 1st of July our columns fell upon Moolraj, who 
 
 * Edwardes described our forces as " this brave, but heterogeneous 
 army, composed of every race that peoples the Soolimanee range and 
 Deerajat." See his letter to the resident at Lahore, in the Punjaub Blue- 
 Book. 
 
1848.] SIEGE OF M00LTA2f. 625 
 
 had intrenched his army behind a strong hreast-work at 
 a village near the town of Mooltan ; and, after an engage- 
 ment of six hours' duration, the insurgents were defeated 
 and driven in disorder back into the town. 
 
 Too weak in materiel to undertake the siege of such a 
 fortress as Mooltan, Edwardes encamped his troops in the 
 vicinity of the place, and kept a close watch upon the enemy, 
 until, on the 18tli of August, Greneral Whish arrived from 
 Lahore, with lier Majesty's 10th regiment, a troop of horse- 
 artiUery, the 7th irregular horse, and the 8th and 52nd 
 native infontry. He assumed the command of the besieging 
 forces, and was on the following day joined by a column 
 from Ferozpoor, consisting of her Majesty's 32nd foot, a 
 battering train of thirty heavy guns, a troop of horse-artil- 
 lery, the 11th regular and the 11th irregular cavalry, and the 
 49th, 51st, and 72nd native infantry. By means of this 
 addition, the force assembled round the walls of Mooltan 
 amounted to about 28,000 men, of whom 6,000 were British. 
 
 But troubles now broke out in another quarter. Early 
 in September the Sikh troops in the [Hazarah countr}^ 
 mutinied, and made an attempt to seize the fortress of 
 Attock. Major (now Sir Henry) Lawrence, the assistant 
 at Peshawur, acting with great promptitude and energy, 
 despatched Lieutenant Nicholson with a detachment to take 
 possession of the fort, and this, by means of a forced march, 
 Nicholson was enabled to do. But, in order . that this 
 active officer might be in a condition to hold his ground at 
 Attock, and that Captain Abbott, our political agent in the 
 Hazarah district, might do the same there. Major Lawrence 
 was obliged to weaken Peshawur, by sending out reinforce- 
 ments. In the beginning of November, on the approach of 
 Chuttur Singh, who had headed the revolt in the Hazarah 
 country, Major Lawrence was under the necessity of flying 
 from Peshawur. Accompanied by Mrs. Lawrence and Lieu- 
 tenant Borrie, he retired to Kohat, and there sought the 
 protection of Mohammed Khan. The party, however, were 
 soon given up as prisoners to Chuttur Singh, who treated 
 them with kindness. On the 13th of December, Lawrence 
 was carried to the camp of our ally Slieer Singh, witli the 
 view that, in case of necessity, he might be employed in 
 negotiating a peace with the British. 
 
 G-eneral AYhish fixed on the 12th of September as the 
 day on which to make a general attack upon the outworks of 
 
 2 s 
 
626 DISASTROUS AFFAIR [1848. 
 
 the fortress of Mooltan, A party of the enemy had strongly 
 intrenched themselves in a garden and village near the walls, 
 and a body of our heterogeneous troops, under the command 
 of Brigadier Harvey, marched at daybreak against this post, 
 which, after a severe struggle and much loss on our side, 
 was carried. On the following day the Mooltanese sallied, 
 and made a desperate attack on Edwardes's camp ; but 
 they were repulsed, and our troops carried another important 
 outwork. 
 
 But at this critical juncture a blow was given to our 
 faith in the fidelity of the Sikhs, who had pretended to be 
 most friendly to us ; Sheer Singh went over to the enemy 
 with his 5,000 men ! In consequence of this defection, the 
 siege was raised on the 15th of September, and the army 
 was withdra^vn .to a position several miles distant from 
 Mooltan. It now became tolerably evident that we had no 
 true friends among the Sikhs, and that a new and general 
 war must ensue with that fierce soldiery, who were, in 
 reality, an armed democracy, electing and deposing their 
 own cliiefs, and obeying none who did not give them promise 
 and assurance of high pay, victory, or plunder. 
 
 A large force was soon assembled at Ferozpoor, under 
 the immediate orders of Lord Grough, the commander-in- 
 chief. On the 9th of October, Sheer Singh quitted Mooltan 
 to join Chuttur Singh, and on the 21st of October these two 
 Sikh forces really effected their junction in the neighbour- 
 hood of Wuzeerabad. Between them, the two chiefs had 
 very soon 30,000 men in hand ; and they were evidently 
 determined to try the issue of another great struggle for 
 supremacy in the Punjaub. Eeinforcements were rapidly 
 sent up to the British from the Bombay army. 
 
 About the middle of November our army was assembled 
 at Saharun, and Lord Grough joined there on the 21st of 
 that month. Sheer Singh and the rest of our enemies had 
 stationed themselves at Ramnuggur (in front of which flows 
 the Chenab river, having in its mid-channel a small island), 
 with some 4,000 men and a battery of six guns, and a pro- 
 tecting grove of trees. 
 
 At two o'clock in the morning of the 22nd, orders were 
 issued for a strong force of cavalry and infantry to parade 
 forthwith, silently and in marching order, in front of the 
 camp. The troops moved forward in darkness to Bamnug- 
 gur , and, passing that place, marched towards the left bank 
 
m 
 
 848.] AT EAMXUGGIIR. 627 
 
 of the river, wlien the strength and situation of the enemy 
 were quite apparent. Our horse-artillery pushed on through 
 deep sand, opening their fire upon the enemy ; but they 
 soon found that their six-pounders were ill-matched against 
 the hea\y metal of the Siklis ; and, finally, they were com- 
 pelled to retire, leaving behind them one gun and two 
 ammunition- waggons . 
 
 The enemy now passed over a large body of cavalry, 
 under cover of their guns. Orders were given to our 14tli 
 dragoons, led by Colonel Havelock, and to our 5th light 
 cavalry, to attack this formidable body of Sikh horse, and 
 follow them up to their batteries. The men obeyed with 
 alacrity, and the Sikhs retreated before their charge ; but 
 tlie ground had not been well surveyed, and in descending 
 the bank of a nullah, where they were exposed to a murderous 
 fire, our people suffered great loss. Eeturning, however, 
 they re-formed and charged a second time. The Sikh guns 
 now played upon these brave horsemen with destructive 
 effect, and Colonel Havelock fell during the second charge. 
 Colonel King then again formed the men, and a third time 
 they were led to tlie attack. At this juncture General 
 Cureton rode up with orders from the commander-in-chief 
 that they should retire ; but he had scarcely uttered the 
 words before he was struck by two matchlock-balls, and fell 
 dead by the nullah. Nearly at the same time Captain Fitz- 
 gerald was mortally wounded. At length these two cavalry 
 regiments were withdrawn. 
 
 After a variety of manceuvres, in which Sheer Singh and 
 his officers were thought to have displayed considerable 
 ability as tacticians, the whole Sikh army abandoned their 
 position at Eamnuggur, and marched upon the Jhelum. 
 
 By the 21st of December Greneral Whish, who was renew- 
 ing the siege of Mooltan, was joined by a strong body of 
 Bombay troops. Our force before that place now amounted 
 to 32,000 men, of whom 15,000 were British. We had also 
 150 pieces of artiller}-. By the 27th, the enemy were 
 driven out of the suburbs, and we were enabled to take up 
 a position within 400 yards of the walls. By the 29th, so 
 close had the besiegers arrived to the city walls, that their 
 lieaA y guns were breaching them at a distance of no more 
 than eighty yards. On the morning of the 30th the princi- 
 pal magazine in the fort blew up with a terrific explosion ; for 
 in it was contained nearly all the ammunition which Moolraj 
 2s2 
 
628 EEDUCTION OF MOOLTAIs'. [1849. 
 
 had been five years in collecting. All his principal houses, 
 temples, &c., as well as about 800 men, were blown up -w-itli 
 it ; yet the walls and battlements of the fort were not 
 much injured, and the chieftain did not appear to be dis- 
 heartened by the catastrophe. An officer present says, " He 
 kindly sent us word next day, that he had still enough 
 powder and shot to hold out the siege for twelve months, 
 and that we were to do our w^orst, as he would hold out as 
 long as a stone of his fort would stand. "When we sent in 
 to summon the fort to surrender, he very coolly rammed 
 the letter down his longest gun, and fired it at us." * 
 
 During the night of the 30th, a breach was made by the 
 Delhi gate of the city, and next day another was effected 
 at the Bohur gate. Our cannonade was sustained almost 
 without intermission. On the 31st the Sikhs made a 
 sortie, and fell upon the division under Edwardes and 
 Lieutenant Lake, but they were driven back with great 
 loss. On the 2nd of January the town was stormed and 
 taken by a column of the Bombay army and a Bengal 
 column, the first colours being planted in Mooltan by a 
 serjeant-major of the Company's fusiliers. The citadel, 
 however, still held out, and therein Moolraj had shut 
 himself up with a very considerable force. Against this 
 formidable work regular parallels of approach were made, 
 and mines were sunk, while the walls were incessantly 
 hammered by cannon-shot and shells. On the 18th the 
 counterscarp was blown into the ditch by the explosion of 
 three mines. On the 19th the sap had reached the crest 
 of the glacis, and by the 21st two practicable breaches 
 were made, and orders were issued to the troops to hold 
 themselves in readiness for storming the fort on the mor- 
 row morning. But when that morning came, and the 
 British columns were formed for the assault, the chief sur- 
 rendered at discretion. Moolraj came out mounted on a 
 beautiful Arab steed magnificently caparisoned. He was 
 taken to the general's tent, where he gave up his sword, 
 which is said to have been returned to him. He was 
 placed under a strong guard in a fine country residence, at 
 some distance from the town of Mooltan, a favourite abode 
 of his late father, who had built it. As his partisans in 
 the country were very numerous and much devoted to him, 
 
 * Annual Register, 1848-1849. 
 
1849.] BATTLE or CHILLI AN WALL AH. 629 
 
 it was not considered safe to leave him there long ; and 
 when our army marched up the line of the Chenab to turn 
 off as they approached the road leading to Lahore for the 
 camp of the governor-general, he was conducted with it.* 
 
 At the commencement of the year 1849 the commander- 
 in-chief, now Lord Grough, intrenched himself on the upper 
 Chenab, near to some strong positions occupied by Sheer 
 Singh and his Siklis, who had also intrenched themselves. 
 
 On the 10th of January his lordship learned that the 
 fortress of Attock, which had been long and gallantly de- 
 fended by Major Herbert, had fallen ; and that the Sikhs 
 in his front were receiving reinforcements. He therefore 
 determined to lose no time in attempting the complete 
 overthrow of the Sikh army; and at daylight on the 
 morning of the 12th, he put his columns in motion for 
 Dingee. Again the ground in his front had not been suffi- 
 ciently reconnoitred, and apparently no feelers had been 
 put out. Towards evening he found the enemy dra^n out 
 in battle array ready to receive him. As the day was nearly 
 spent, and as his troops were wearied with their march, 
 his lordship contemplated deferring the combat until the 
 morrow ; but the Sikhs advanced some horse-artillery, and 
 opened a fire on his skirmishers in front ; and this fire 
 being silenced by a few rounds from his heavy guns, 
 these, in turn, were answered by nearly the whole of the 
 enemy's artillery, which was clcso up and in position, 
 although hitherto concealed by thick jungle. It sliould 
 appear from his lordship's own despatch, that he was not at 
 all aware of that proximity until the Sikh fire opened upon 
 him. Except by acting as Lord Hardinge had done at 
 Ferozshuhr, Gough could not now avoid the battle. I come 
 now upon the debatable ground upon which I have (in my 
 preface) declared that I would not tread. There has not 
 yet been time nor a sufficient collection of materials to settle 
 the heated controversy about the affair of Chillianwallah ; the 
 principal actors on the scene are still living among us, and 
 I shrink from giving offence to the feelings of brave men ; 
 and, whatever may have been the errors committed (sup- 
 posing there may have been some), tliere has seldom been 
 a display of more heroical courage on the part of superior 
 British officers. 
 
 * * Annals of India for the Year 1848, by George Buist, LL.D., 
 F.R.S., L. & E., F.G.S., &c.' Bombay, 1849. 
 
630 BATTLE OF GOOJEEAT. [1849. 
 
 The British troops remained masters of the field, but their 
 loss was very heavy ; twenty-six European oificers and 731 
 men killed ; sixty-six officers and 1,446 men wounded. 
 Five stand of colours and four of our guns fell into the 
 hands of the enemy ; and, aided by the darkness of the 
 night, the Sikhs recovered and were enabled to remove the 
 greater part of the guns which we had taken from them 
 during the sanguinary struggle. Moreover, many of our 
 wounded were abandoned on the field, or in the jungle, and 
 were massacred, together with most of our prisoners. 
 
 The carnage of the battle of ChiUianwallah, which was 
 even more terrible on their side than on ours, did not 
 break the spirit of these hard-fighting Sikhs, who were 
 now supported by a body of 1,500 Afghan horse, under 
 Akram Khan, a son of Dost Mohamed Khan. " For the 
 first time," says the noble governor-general, " Sikhs and 
 Afghans were banded together against the British power. 
 It was an occasion which demanded the putting forth of 
 all the means at our disposal, and so conspicuous a mani- 
 festation of the superiority of our armies, as should appal 
 each enemy and dissolve at once their compact, by fatal 
 proof of its futility." * 
 
 This conspicuous manifestation was given on the 21st of 
 February, near the town of Goojerat, where the enemy were 
 posted with 60,000 men and fifty-nine guns. Lord Gough 
 commenced the action with his artillery, and after a sus- 
 tained cannonade of three hours, compelled the Sikhs and 
 Afghans to retire from the positions they had maintained 
 with resolute hardihood. The subsequent advance of the 
 whole British line soon drove them back from every point ; 
 and, retreat being converted into rout, they fled in the 
 utmost disorder, " their ranks broken, their positions car- 
 ried ; their guns, ammunition, camp-equipage, and baggage 
 captured ; their flying masses driven before the victorious 
 pursuers from mid-day to dusk, receiving most severe 
 punishment in their flight." f 
 
 Our loss in killed and wounded was comparatively very 
 small. The noble governor-general said that this action of 
 Goojerat " must ever be regarded as one of the most memo- 
 
 * Letter from the Governor- General to the Secret Committee, in the 
 Punjaub Blue Book, 1847-1849. 
 t Despatch of Lord Gough, in Punjaub Blue Book. 
 
1849.] THE PUNJAUB AI^NEXED. 631 
 
 rable in the annals of British warfare in India ; memorable 
 alike from the greatness of the occasion, and from the bril- 
 liant and decisive issue of the encounter." 
 
 In a few days, Sheer Singh, Chuttur Singh, and the other 
 chief sirdars, came into LordGough's camp and surrendered, 
 and all the Sikh ofEicers and soldiers delivered up their 
 arms. The Afghans fled for their own country, and were 
 hotly pursued by Sir Walter Gilbert, who recovered Attock, 
 crossed the Indus, and drove the enemy towards the Khyber 
 Pass and Cabul. 
 
 The immediate consequence of this war was the annexa- 
 tion of the entire Punjaub to the British empire in India. 
 
 Moolraj, the ex-ruler of Mooltan, was put upon his trial 
 for the murder of Mr. Vans Agnew and Lieut. Anderson, 
 and had sentence of death passed upon him. This, however, 
 was afterwards commuted into imprisonment for life. 
 
 With these recent and most important events I conclude 
 this historical summary and my present narrative. 
 
 The government of the earl now marquis of Dalhousie 
 has been illustrated, like that of Viscount Hardinge, by- 
 great attention to civil affairs, distinguished administrative 
 ability, and an incessant care for the good of the native 
 populations. Under it several reforms, commenced by his 
 predecessor, have been completed ; and the efforts made to 
 check the worst excesses of Hindii idolatry, and to suppress 
 human sacrifices, have been pursued with a calm and noble 
 perseverance. 
 
 I shall have done some good if I draw attention, among 
 general readers, to a vast and most important subject, which 
 has been too much neglected, notwithstanding the unde- 
 niable fact that nearly every Englishman has an immediate 
 interest in our Indian empire. Too many readers have 
 been deterred by the bulk and number of the books written 
 about India, and by the too frequently prolix style of our 
 Anglo-Indian writers. But, as materials, these very books, 
 or many of them, are truly excellent, having been written 
 by men who were themselves actors in the scenes and 
 events they describe, or who passed their lives in the 
 country. To the excellence and authenticity of these ma- 
 terials is to be added the interest of a course of events full 
 of the most startling, exciting, and romantic interest, and of 
 the most varied character. One of the best interests of all, 
 or that which arises out of our nationality, is assuredly" not 
 
632 THE INDIAN SEEVICE. [1849. 
 
 ^vanting : the way iii which our empire has been acquired, 
 enlarged, and maintained, making allowance for every 
 fault, blunder, or even crime, reflects the highest honour 
 on the determination, the policy, and the valour of English- 
 men ; and never, since the days of Clive, down to those af 
 Hardinge, and Gough, and Napier, has a more brilliant 
 valour been displayed in any part of the world by British 
 troops, than in our Indian empire, and the countries which 
 border upon it. Let it never be forgotten, that when our 
 national greatness and our reputation seemed to be on 
 the decline in Eiu-ope, and the glory of our arms was 
 obscured in the West, that reputation and glory, through 
 the genius of Warren Hastings, and the ability and 
 courage of the officers he employed, shone forth, bright 
 as the morning sun, in the East. And let it ever be re- 
 membered, that India is the school which has produced some 
 of our most eminent men, and which principally helped to 
 form the great captain and statesman of the age, the thrice 
 illustrious Wellington. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Abercromby, Gen. Sir Robert, his march 
 on Seringapatam, 201. Is appointed com- 
 mander-in-chief, 209. His settlement of 
 Oude, 217. 
 Ache, count d', his action with Admiral 
 Pococke off Pondicherry, 51. And at 
 Trincomalee, 59. 
 Acts of Parliament, 100, IO6, 372, 515, et 
 
 seq. 
 Aden, 578. 
 
 Afghanistan, its anarchic state, 524, et seq. 
 Proclamation and proceedings of war, 
 533564. 
 
 Afghans, their dominion in India over- 
 turned by Tamerlane, 7. After invasions, 
 218, 250. Company's mission to them, 
 346. Their battles vrith the Sikhs or 
 Seikhs, 5i6, 527. 
 
 Agnew.Mr. and Lieutenant Anderson mur- 
 dered at Mooltan, 623. 
 
 Akhar Khan, Mogul prince, 8. 
 
 Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mohamed, at 
 Jellalabad, 543. His arrival in the capi- 
 tal of Cabul with his warriors, 549. His 
 conferences with the British, 550. His 
 barbarous murder of MacNaghten, 551. 
 Treatment of his English prisoners, 56o 
 063. Flies to the Toba mountains, 
 561. Poisoned, 607. 
 
 Aliverdy Khan, 34, 
 
 Aliwal, "battle of, 605. 
 
 Amboyna, massacre of, 9- Is taken from 
 the Dutch, 362. 
 
 Ameers of Scinde, 512. Their treacherous 
 conduct, 060. Character of their govern- 
 ment, 570. Their subjugation, 565 571. 
 
 Amherst, earl of, appointed governor-gene- 
 ral, 449. Declares war against the Bur- 
 mese, 453. His treaty at Delhi, 506. 
 His resignation, 506. 
 
 Angria pirates, 33. 
 
 Apa Sahcb, rajah of Nagpoor, 399. De- 
 Clares war. 406. Is defeated, 407. His 
 capture and escape, 425. 
 
 Arcot, city of, taken by the French, 20. 
 Capture, and Clive's defence of, 27. 
 
 Arcot, nabob of, J8 20. 
 
 Argaum, battle of, 277- 
 
 Arnee, battle of, 27. 
 
 Arracan, provinces of, ceded to the Com- 
 pany, 495. 
 
 Aseerghur, siege of, 427. 
 
 Ash tee, battle of, 419- 
 
 Asiaye, battle of, 239. 
 
 Auchmuty, Gen. Sir S., commander-in- 
 
 chief at Madras, 361. Commands Java 
 
 expedition, 364. 
 Auckland, Lord, appointed governor-gene- 
 ral, 523. Holds a council at Simla, 530. 
 
 Proclaims the Afghanistan war, 531. 
 
 Returns home and is created an earl, 544. 
 Aurungzebe, 12. His death, 14. 
 Auteuil, M. d', 22. Surrenders at Sering- 
 
 ham, 28. 
 Azim Ooshaun, son of Aurengzebe, 12. 
 
 Succeeds to his father's power in India, 
 
 15. Is slain in battle, 15. 
 Azoff-ul-Uowlah, nabob of Oude, 121. 
 
 Baber, Emperor, 8. 
 
 Bahadur Shah, his conquests, 15. His 
 death, 16. 
 
 Baillie, Col., his defeat, 134. 
 
 Baird, Major-Gen. Sir D., heads storming 
 party at Seringapatam, 232. Proceeds 
 with an Anglo-Indian army to Egypt, 
 244. 
 
 Banda, isles of, annexed, 362. 
 
 Barlow, Sir G., administration of, 318, 335. 
 Governor of Madras, 356. 
 
 Barnes, SirE., commander-in-chief, 508. 
 
 Barrackpoor, mutiny at, 500. 
 
 Barwell, member of council, II9. 
 
 Bassein, treaty of, 267. Reduction of the 
 town, 481. 
 
 Bayley, W.B., provisional governor, 506. 
 
 Begums, the, I67 169. 
 
 Benares, treaty at, 114. Ceded to the Com- 
 pany, 121. insurrections, Idl. Massacre 
 of. 252. 
 
 Bengal, nabob of, wars against, 11, 
 
 Bentinck, Lord William, governor at Ma- 
 dras, 337. His recall, 343. Appointed 
 governor-general, 507. His reforms, 508. 
 His tour through the upper provinces, 
 510. His retirement, 513. 
 
 Berar, rajah of, aids Scindiah, 266. Suc- 
 cumbs to the English, 27s. 
 
 Bernadotte, at Cuddalore, 147, 
 
 Bhurtpoor, Lord Lake's siege of, 311 3l6. 
 Revolutions, 501. Gen. Lord Comber- 
 mere's siege, 503. f 
 
 Bishop", appointment of, in India, 376. 
 
 Bishop's College established, 378. 
 
 Black-hole, at Calcutta, 37. 
 
 Board of Control, formation of, 177, 
 
 Bombay ceded to the Company, 10, Events 
 in that presidency during the Mahratta 
 war, 122, 
 
 Bonaparte, 226, 
 
C34 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Boscawen, Admiral. Ip. 
 
 Bourbon, isle of, reduced, 36/. Restored to 
 France, 368. 
 
 Bowen, Col., his exploits in the Burmese 
 war, 452. 
 
 Braithwaite, Col., his defeat, 138. 
 
 Brin-jarries, or corn- carriers. 282. 
 
 Broadfoot, Major, his death at Ferozshu- 
 hur, 602. 
 
 Brodie, Sergeant, gallantry of, at Vellore, 
 348. 
 
 Brownrigg, Sir Robt., governor of Ceylon, 
 445. 
 
 Bulwunt Singh, child rajah of Bhurtpoor, 
 seized by his cousin Doorjun Sal, 501. 
 
 Bundelkund, reduction of, 284. 
 
 Burgoyne, Col., 105. Urges the select 
 committee on Clive's conduct, 10^. 
 
 Burmese, account of the, 355. Embassies 
 to them, 356. War, 450 ttseq. Treaty of 
 peace, 495. 
 
 Burn, Col., his defence of Delhi, 305. 
 
 Burnes, Sir A., sails up the Indus as far as 
 Lahore his schemes, 511. Mission to 
 Dost Mohammed, 52/. Thwarted in his 
 negotiations, 529. Repairs to Simla, 
 530. His variable opinions, 631. Mur- 
 dered in Cahul, 54/. 
 
 Bussy, M., captures Gingee, 22. Marches 
 to Hyderabad, 23. Successes against 
 Mahrattas, 32. Recalled by Lally from 
 the Deckan. 56. Taken prisoner at Wan- 
 devvash, released on parole, returns to 
 France, and is honourably received, 76. 
 Returns to India, 140. 
 
 Cabul, Sir A. Burnes's mission to, 527. City 
 of, occupied by the British, 543. First 
 evacuation, 651. Destruction of the for- 
 tifications and second evacuation, 564. 
 
 Calcutta, sold to the Company, 12. Town 
 of, built, 12. Taken by Suraj-u-Dowlah, 
 37. Retaken by the English, 3g. 
 
 Calliaud, Captain, relieves Trichinopoly, 
 49. Takes Madura, 50. Recalled to 
 Bengal, 72. 
 
 Campbell, Sir Archibald, expedition to the 
 Irawaddi, 453. His exploits at Ran- 
 goon, 456 et seq. Advance on Ava, 474. 
 Occupies Prome, 483. His conduct of 
 the Burmese war, 490 et seq. 
 
 Campbell, Col., brave conduct of, at Man- 
 galore, 156. 
 
 Candahar, General Nott's defence of, 553. 
 
 Canning, Mr., nominated Governor- Gene- 
 ral, 449. 
 
 Cape of Good Hope, discovery of the route 
 to India round the, 4. 
 
 Carnatic, wars in the, 20, Sufferings of 
 the people from taxation, 219. Con- 
 tinued ill-government, 259. Transfer- 
 ence to the Company, 26I. 
 
 Cavendish, Thomas, 5. 
 
 Ceylon, taken by the English, 138. Dif- 
 ferences abo 't its government, 24ti. Re- 
 volutions and final conquest of, 440 
 et seq. 
 
 Chandernagore, surrender of, 40. 
 
 Chandore, reduction of, 309. 
 
 Charters granted to E.I.C., 6, 10. 12. 
 
 Cheetoo, the Pindarree, 392. His expe- 
 dition, 393 et seq. His pursuit and 
 death, 412, 413. 
 
 Cherry, Mr., British resident at Benares, 
 murder of, 252. 
 
 Chevte Singh, insurrection of, 161. His 
 flight, 166. 
 
 Chillianwallah, battle of, 629. 
 
 China, Chinese expedition in 1808, 369. 
 Report of our victories there, 564. 
 
 Chingliput, surrender of, to Clive, 29. 
 
 Cholera Morbus, I817, 429 et seq. 
 
 Chuttur Singh, makes Major Lawrence 
 prisoner, 625. Surrenders, 631. 
 
 Clavering, Gen., Member of Council, 119. 
 Death of, 125. 
 
 Clive, Robert, Lord, distinction of, at the 
 siege of Devi Cottah, 20. Is promoted, 
 23. Takes Arcot, 24. Gallant defence 
 of that place, 25, 26. Victory at Arnee, 
 27. Takes Covelong, 29. Proceeds to 
 England, 29. Returns to India as- 
 sumes government of Fort St. David, 
 34. Retakes Calcutta, 39. Captures 
 fort and town of Hooghly, beats Suraj- 
 u-Dowlah, takes Chandernagore, 40. 
 Battle of Plassey, 43. Reception at Cal- 
 cutta, 48. Detaches Col. Forde to the 
 Deckan, 60. Marches upon Moorshe- 
 dabad, 65. Quells conspiracy against 
 Meer .Taffier, ^^ receives a present from 
 the Nabob, 65, 66. Proceedings against 
 the Dutch, 69. Tranquillizes the country 
 and leaves for England, 72. His honour- 
 able reception in England, raised to 
 the peerage as Baron Clive of Plassey, 
 73. Assailed by the India- House, over- 
 tures for his instant return to India, 73. 
 At Allahabad, 86. Civil and military 
 reforms, 88, 80. Final departure from 
 India, 91. Assailed in Parliament, 101, 
 107. Defends himself, 102, 108. Par- 
 liamentary proceedings, 108. His death, 
 109. 
 
 Clive, Lord (Earl Powis), governor of 
 Madras, inquiries relative to the Car- 
 natic, 259. 
 
 Combermere, Gen. Lord, besieges Bhurt- 
 poor, 503. His successes, 505. Resigns 
 his command, 508. 
 
 Commerce, regulations, 372, 514, et seq. 
 The Company's trading monopoly 
 abolished, 521. 
 
 Conflans, M., his defeat at Peddapore, 60. 
 Surrenders at Masulipatam, 6I. 
 
 Consolidating bill, 13. 
 
 Coorg, its annexation, 513. 
 
 Coote, Col. Sir Eyre, takes Cutwah, 42. 
 Advises the advance on Plassey, 43. 
 Sent in pursuit of Law, 48. At Cos- 
 simbuzar, 48. Storms fort of Wande- 
 Wdsh, 73. Battle with Lally, takes 
 Arcot, 73, 7'^> Appointed to command 
 in Madras, 135. Operations against 
 Hyder Ali, 136, 137, 144. His death, 
 147. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 635 
 
 Cornwallis, Lord, appointed governor- 
 general, 186. Preparations against 
 Tippoo Saib, 196. His disapprobation 
 of the peace policy, l(j". Retreats from 
 Seringapatara, 202. Reinforced, returns, 
 and compels Tippoo to sue for peace, 
 203, 204. Character of his adminis- 
 tration, 207. Return to, and reception 
 in, England, 208. Re-appointment to 
 the governor-generalship, 31/. His 
 death, 318. 
 
 Coromandel Coast, possession of, by the 
 French, 32. Invasion of, by Hyder 
 Ali, 136. 
 
 Corregaum, battle of, 41 6. 
 
 Cortlandt, Col., operations against Moolraj, 
 623 et seq. 
 
 Cotton, Sir Willoughby, his victory at 
 Kokeen, 4/4 ; fails at Donoopew, 476. 
 
 Covelong, fort of, taken by Clive, 29. 
 
 Covrepauk, battle of, 28. 
 
 Cureton, Gen., his death, 627. 
 
 Dalhousie, earl of, appointed governor-ge- 
 neral, 622. Spirit of his administration, 
 631. 
 
 Dance, Captain, defeats the French fleet 
 under Admiral Linois, 287. 
 
 Davie, Major, his disgraceful defeat, 442. 
 
 Day, Francis, erects Fort St. George at 
 Madras, g. 
 
 Deckan, disputed successions and wars, 
 
 21. Enelish treaty with the nizam of the, 
 212. Rebellion of the nizam's son, 214. 
 French submission, 224. 
 
 Deeg, battle of, 308. Siege of. 311. 
 
 Delhi invaded by Seikhs and by the Per- 
 sians, 16. Lake's march to, 273. Siege 
 of, 305. Our sovereignty acknowledged 
 by the shah, 506. 
 
 Devi Cottah, sege of, 21. Dhoondiah 
 Waugh, the Patan robber, 241. 
 
 Dbuleep Singh makes submission, 6l3. 
 Restored to Lahore, 6l5. 
 
 Dick, Sir Robert, at Sobraon, 609. Falls 
 mortally wounded, 61 1. 
 
 Donoopew, skirmishes at, 478. Capture 
 of, 480. 
 
 Doorjun Sal seizes Bulwunt Singh, 501. 
 Is made prisoner, 505. 
 
 DostMohamed Khan, his fight with Run- 
 jeet Singh, S26. Entreats English aid, 
 627. His flight from his capital, 543. 
 Several battles with the English, sur- 
 renders himself, 545. 
 
 Doveton, General, attacks Nagpoor, 408. 
 
 D'Oyly, Mr. John, his distinguished ser- 
 vice in Ceylon, 445. 
 
 Drury, Aimiral, at Macao, 370. 
 
 Dupleix, M., at Madras, 18. In the Car- 
 natic, 20. Intrigues against Nazir Jung, 
 
 22. Successes in the Deckan, 2/(. In- 
 trigues with native poweis, 31, Recalled 
 to France and dies, 32. 
 
 Dutch settlement, 9. Dutch armament 
 from Batavia, 68. 
 
 East-India Company formed, 6. Charters j 
 
 granted to, 6, 10, 12. Rival Company, 
 13. United East-India Company incor- 
 porated, 13. Rapid rise of power, 17. 
 
 Edwardes, Lieutenant, operations against 
 Moolraj, 623 et seq. Reaches Mooltan, 
 625. 
 
 Eheylapola, his insurrection at Kandy, 
 445. 
 
 Ellenborough, Lord, moves for a select 
 committee, 5l6. Is appointed governor- 
 general, 555. Gives the word, ' For- 
 ward," 557. His instructions to Sir 
 Charles Napier, 565. Proclamation from 
 the palace of Agra, 571. Accompanies 
 Sir Hugh Gough's army, 573. Procla- 
 mation at Gwalior, 575. Recalled, 575. 
 His farewell to India, 576. 
 
 Elphinstone, Honourable Mountstuart, 
 expedition against the Baboos, 235. 
 Embassy to Cabul, 346. Is resident at 
 Poonah, 400 His politic behaviour, 
 401. Attacked by the peishwa, 403. 
 Administration at Poonah, 437. Made 
 governor of Bombay, 436. 
 
 Elphinstone, IMajor-General, incapable of 
 his command in Cabul, 548. gives him- 
 self up to one of the khans, 552. His 
 death, 558. 
 
 Fakeers, 112. 
 
 Fancourt, Colonel, and others massacred at 
 Vellore, 340. 
 
 Fane, Sir Henry, commander-in-chief, 
 disapproves of Afghan war, i33. Resigns 
 his command, 534. 
 
 Ferozepoor, welcome of the army from 
 Afghanistan at, 564. 
 
 Ferozshuhur, battle of, 598. Night bivouac 
 at, 599. 
 
 Financial embarrassments, 104. 
 
 Forde, Colonel, sent by Clive to the Dec- 
 kan, Co. Proceeds to Vizagapatam, en- 
 counters ]\I. Conflans at Peddapore, 60. 
 Captures Masulipatam, 61. Returns to 
 Calcutta, takes Barnagore, and marches 
 upon Chandernagore, 70. Victorious 
 over the Dutch, 71. 
 
 Fort St. David built, 12. Attacked by the 
 French, I9. 
 
 Fort William built, 12. College of, 328. 
 
 Fox's bill, 177. 
 
 Francis, Sir Philip, his appointment as 
 member of council, 119. His conten- 
 tious spirit, 120. Quarrels with Hast- 
 ings, 124. Duel with the governor- 
 general, his return home, 132. His 
 attacks and calumniations of Hastings, 
 173. 
 
 Eraser, General, his gallantry at Deeg, 
 3r8. His death, 309- 
 
 French form factories in India, 11. War 
 against English settlements, 18, 19. 
 Defeated by Clive, 27, 28. Besiege 
 Trichinopoly, 31. Various losses of the, 
 74, 75, 76. Intrigues of the, with Tippoo 
 Saib, 225, 226. French army in Egypt, 
 226, 227. 
 
 Fullerton, Colonel, marches on Seringapa- 
 
636 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 tarn, 150. His success, is ordered to re- 
 turn, 154. Ordered to evacuate, 157- 
 Furruckabad, Holkar's camp surprised 
 near, 30/. 
 
 Gawil-Ghur, siege of, 27". 
 
 Ghuznee, capture of, 541. Retaken by the 
 Afghans, 556. Destruction of the fortifi- 
 cations, 56o. 
 
 Gilbert, Major-General, at Sobraon, 609. 
 Recovers Attock, 631. 
 
 Gillespie, General, puts down mutiny at 
 Vellore, 341. Killed in the Nepaulese 
 campaign, 381. 
 
 Goddard, General, his march from the 
 Jumna to Surat, 127, 129. Successes 
 against the Mahrattas, 130, 131. 
 
 Godwin, Colonel, expedition to IMartaban, 
 467. March up the Irrawaddi, 484. 
 
 Gonds, a wild race, 425. Their subjection, 
 428. 
 
 Goolab Singh, 6l3. 
 
 Gorkhas, disputes with the, 354. 
 
 Gough, Sir Hugh, his victory at Maharaj- 
 poor, 573. And at Punniar, 574. At 
 Ferozshuhur, 699 et secj. At Sobraen, 
 61)7. At Saharun, 626. At Chillianwal- 
 lah, 629. 
 
 Grant, Honourable Charles, appointed to 
 the Board of Control, 5 17. Moves for a 
 select committee on Indian affairs, 518. 
 
 Griffin, Admiral, arrives at Fort St. David 
 with an English squadron, 19. 
 
 Gwalior taken by Popham, 131. Entered 
 by Sir Hugh Gough's army, 574. 
 
 Haliburton, Lieutenant, 30. 
 
 Harcourt, Colonel, conquers Cuttack, 285. 
 
 Hardinge, Sir Henry, governor- general, 
 576. His previous character, 577. Aden 
 papers, civil and military reforms, 578, 
 579. Preparations on the frontiers, 586. 
 At Umballa, his despatch to the India- 
 house, 587- Oflxirs his services to Sir 
 Hugh Gough, 596. His heroic conduct 
 at Ferozshuhur, 599 et seg. His care 
 of the wounded, 602. Treaty of peace 
 with the Punjaub, 6l5 et seq. View of 
 his administration, 61 7, Resigns, 620. 
 
 Harris, General, marches against Tippoo 
 Saib, battle at Mallavelly, 230. Takes 
 Seringapatam, 231. 
 
 Hastinge, Warren, resident at Moorsheda- 
 bad, 63. Appointed governor- general, 
 110. His reforms, 111. Transactions 
 with the Mogul, 112. Visits Oude, ar- 
 rangements with the nabob, 1 1 3. Admi- 
 nistration at Calcutta, 115. Contentions 
 with members of council, 120. Fights 
 a duel with Sir Philip Francis, 132. 
 Proceedings to obtain money, 160. 
 Flight from Benares, l64. Treaty with 
 Asoph-ul-Dowlah, I68. Quits India, 170. 
 Reception in England, 173. His trial, 
 174. Death and character, 175, 176. 
 
 Hastings, marquis of, appointed governor- 
 general, 379. Financial difficulties of 
 the government, 387. Resolves on v?ar 
 
 with tlie Pindarrees, 392. Takes the field 
 in person, 409. Events of his adminis- 
 tration, 439. Resigns, 449. 
 
 Havelock, Colonel, death of, 627. 
 
 Heber, Bishop, 377, 378. 
 
 Herat, siege of, 529. 
 
 Hindus, ancient, 2. Under Aurengzebe's 
 rule, 15. 
 
 Hislop's, Sir Thomas, attack on Talnere, 
 421. 
 
 Holkar, the Mahratta chief, his threatening 
 posture, 291. Strength of his army, 293. 
 Cruelties to the English, 293. Pursues 
 Colonel Monson, 301. Surprised bv Lord 
 Lake, 306. Pursued, 319. Treaty with 
 Lord Lake, 323, 324. His death, 411. 
 
 Holwell, Mr., imprisoned in Black Hole, 
 37. Takes charge of Fort William with 
 the militia, yn. 
 
 Hook, Blajor, services in Ceylon, 446. 
 
 Hughes, Sir Edward, operations of his 
 fleet, 136, 138,141. Battles with Suffrein, 
 142, 144, 147. 
 
 Hyder Ali, his rise and dominion, 92. 
 Wars with the English, 94. Rushes on 
 Madras, treaty with him sicned, 96. 
 Invades Coromandel, 133. Wars and 
 defeats, 136, 137. His death, 145. 
 
 Hyphasis, Lord Lake on the, 321. 
 
 Impey, Sir Elijah, II9. His assistance to 
 Hastings at a critical period, l63. His 
 triumphant defence, 174. 
 
 India, ancient accounts of, 2, 3, 4. First 
 English voyage to, 5. 
 
 Isle of France, capture of the, 368. 
 
 Jauts, war with the, 502. 
 
 Java, capture of, 365. Restored to the 
 Dutch, 439. 
 
 Jehanghire, 9. 
 
 Jehan Shah, 9. 
 
 Jellalabad, defence of, by General Sale, 5C3, 
 554. Successful sallies, 558. Relief of, 
 by General Pollock, 558. 
 
 Jeswunt Rao Lar aids Apa Saheb, surren- 
 ders, 427. 
 
 Jypoor protected by the Company, 395. 
 
 Kandy, kingdom of, 440. Wars and revo- 
 lutions, 442, 445. Conquest of, 447. 
 
 Karrack, island of, occupied by the British, 
 532. 
 
 Keane, Sir John, in command of the Af- 
 ghan expedition, 534. (Conducts army to 
 Cabul, 543. Returns to England and is 
 received with honour, 544. 
 
 Kemmendine, battles at, 459, 469, et seq. 
 
 Kokeen, defeat of the Burmese at, 474. 
 
 Kussoor taken by the British, 6l2. 
 
 Labourdonnais takes Madras, quarrels 
 with Dupleix, 18. 
 
 Lahore garrisoned, 6l4. 
 
 Lake, Lord, his march upon Delhi, 2/2. 
 Defeats Bourquien and the French, 
 enters Delhi, 273. Battle of Laswarree, 
 275. Correspondence wich Holkar, 292. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 637 
 
 Operations against Holkar, 295. Dread- 
 ful march to Cawnpore, 296. Re-advance 
 against Holkar, 304. Surprises Holkar, 
 306. Besieges Deeg and Bhurtpoor, 311. 
 Subdues Runjeet Singh, 3l6. Pursues 
 Holkar, 31 9. Famous march to the Hy- 
 phasis, 321. Treats with Holkar, 322. 
 Returns to Delhi, 324. 
 
 Lai Singh commands Sikhs at Moodkee, 
 593. At Ferozshuhur, 600. 
 
 Ijally, Count, arrives as French governor- 
 general, 50. Successes at Cuddalore and 
 Fort St. David, 51. Ill-treatment of the 
 natives, 53. Storms Tanjore, and is 
 beaten back, 54, 55. Excursion to Arcot, 
 55. Besieges Madras, 56. Raises the 
 siege, 57. Surprises and takes Conjeve- 
 ram, attacks fort of Wandewash but is 
 repulsed, retreats to hill fortress of 
 Gingee, to Pondicherry, "3. Uncondi- 
 tional surrender to Col. Coote, returns 
 to France, is thrown into the Bastile, 
 76. Broustht to trial and beheaded, 77. 
 
 Lancaster, expeditions to India, 5, 6. 
 
 Laswarree, battle of, 2/5. 
 
 Laurence, Major, joins Nazir Jung, 21. Is 
 deceived and returns to Madras, 22. 
 Marches to Trichinopoly, 28. Stands a 
 siege there, 31. Defends Madras, 56. 
 Takes fort of Conjeveram, 53. 
 
 Law, M., aids Suraj-u-Uowlah at Plassey, 
 43. Chased from Bahar by Col. Coote, 
 48. Besieges Patna, 79. His curious 
 surrender to Major Carnac and Captain 
 Knox, 80. 
 
 Lawrence, Major, made prisoner by Chut- 
 tur Singh, 625. 
 
 Legislation for government of India, 177. 
 
 Leslie, Col., his indecision, 127. 
 
 Linois, Admiral, defeated by a fleet of In- 
 diamen, 287. 
 
 Littler, Sir J., marchesto join commander- 
 in-chief, 597. At Ferozshuhur, 598. 
 
 Macao, expedition to, 369. 
 
 Macartney, Lord, governor of Madras, 137. 
 
 Macdowall, Major-Gen. Hay, commander- 
 in-chief at Madras, 357. Disputes with 
 the civil powers, 359. Perishes at sea, 
 360. 
 
 Macedonian invasion, 2. 
 
 Mac Naghten, Sir William, British envoy 
 at Cabul, accepts surrender of Dost Mo- 
 hammed Khan, 545. Ineffective nego- 
 tiations with the Afghans, 550. His bar- 
 barous murder, 551. 
 
 Macpherson, Mr., acting governor-general, 
 182. Events during his administration, 
 183185. 
 
 Macpherson. Captain S. C, among the 
 Khonds, 6I8. 
 
 Madras town and fort commenced, 9. Ca- 
 pitulates to the French, 18. Besieged by 
 Lally. 55. Improper condition of the 
 presidency when Hyder Ali invades it, 
 133. Madras cavalry, I37. Disputes 
 between civil and military authorities at, 
 J57. 
 
 I\Iaha Bandoola marches into Arracan, 452. 
 His operations and defeat, 46o. Com- 
 mands the Burmese, 468. Terrible de- 
 feat of, 473479. His death, 480. 
 
 Maharajpoor, battle of, 574. 
 
 Mahomed Esof, 30. 
 
 Mahomedan empires, 7. 
 
 Mahidpoor, battle of, 411. 
 
 Mahrattas assist Clive, 26. Defeated by 
 Bussy, 32. Wars with the English, 94. 
 Against Hyder Ali, 97. Wars in Bom- 
 bay and Oude, 122. Treaty with Lord 
 Cornwallis, 196. Invasion of the Dec- 
 kan, 212. Renewed warfare, 267 e< /. 
 327, 400. Are subdued, 429. Their tur- 
 bulence, 573. 
 
 Maitland, Sir Thomas, governor of Ceylon, 
 444. 
 
 Malcolm, Sir John, and the Persian em- 
 bassy, 351. Pursues Cheetoo, 412. His 
 meeting with Bajee.Rao, 422. : Treaty 
 with Bajee Rao, 423. His wise rule in 
 the state of Holkar, 433. 
 ] Mallavelly, battle of, 230. 
 i Malwa, settlement of, 432. 
 
 Mangalore, siege of, 155. 
 
 Martaban, conquest of, 467. 
 
 Medows, Gen., marches against Tippoo, 
 197. His successes, 198. 
 
 Meerab Khan, of Khelat, 537. His for- 
 tress stormed and himself slain, 546. 
 
 Meer Jaffier Khan plots with the English, 
 41. Is made nabob of Bengal, 45. His 
 treaty with the English, 46. Native con- 
 spiracy against him, 63. Gratitude to 
 Clive, ^jealousy of the English, 66. In- 
 trigues with the Dutch, 67. His death, 
 86. 
 
 Meer Khan attacks Captain Smith, near 
 Kooch, 298. Flies to Holkar's assist- 
 ance, 311. Is pursued by Smith and 
 defeated, 313. Ravages committed by 
 him, 345. 
 
 Melloone. battle of, 491. 
 
 Menzies, Major, killed at Bhurtpoor, 314. 
 
 Mewattee tribes, 294. 
 
 Middleton, Dr., 377, 378. 
 
 Minto, Lord, appointed governor-general, 
 344. His administration, 344 et seq. 
 Proceeds to Madras to quell disturbances 
 there, 36o. Returns to England, 371. 
 
 Missionary enterprises, 373 et seq. 
 
 IMogul emperors, 7,8. War against, 10, 11. 
 Conflicts between them, 16. Decline 
 of, 17. 
 
 Mohammed Ali, of Arcot, 20. His fears of 
 the French, 23. 
 
 Mohammed Shah, 16. His distressed 
 state, 17. 
 
 Moluccas, 9. 
 
 Monro, Major, defeats Sujah Dowlah, 85. 
 
 Monson, Mr., member of council, II9. 
 His death. 124. 
 
 Monson, Col., his disastrous retreat, 300. 
 Bravery at Deeg, 308. At Bhurtpoor, 
 314. 
 
 Moodkee, battle of, 593 et seq. 
 
 Moolraj, imputed treachery of, 623. Sur- 
 
638 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 renders, 628. His trial for the murder 
 of Mr, Agnew and Lieutenant Anderson, 
 632. 
 
 Mooltan, murder of Apnew and Anderson 
 at, 623. Siege of, 625. Reduced, 628. 
 
 Mornington, Earl of (Marquis Wellesley), 
 his education, 222. Appointment as 
 governor-general, 222. His arrival in 
 Madras, negotiates with native powers, 
 with the nizam of the Deckan, 223. 
 Intakes war vith Tippoo Saib, 228. 
 Pleads for the Companj''s government in 
 Ceylon, 246 248. Returns to England, 
 326. Account of his administration, 
 328. Attempted impeachment and 
 triumph, 334, 
 
 Morrison, Gen., expedition to Arracan, 
 498. 
 
 Mukwanpoor, battle of, 383, 
 
 Munro, Col., his report on "the Tent 
 Contract," 357. Placed under arrest, 
 set at liberty, 358, 
 
 Mysore, war with the English, 136, 159, 
 Army of, J 89. Dismemberment of Tip- 
 poo Saib's empire, 235, Revival of the 
 ancient Hindu dynasty, 236. 
 
 Nadir Shah invades India, l6, 
 
 Nagas, a robber tribe, 299. 
 
 Nagpoor, Apa Saheb, installed as rajah of, 
 395, Battle of, 407. Annexation of, 
 429. 
 
 Napier, Gen, Sir Charles, his instructions 
 from governor- general, 565. Organi- 
 zation of his forces, 565. Crosses the 
 Indus, advances to Meeanee, 567. 
 Battle of Meeanee, 567570. Battle of 
 Dubba, 571. On the Sutledge, 606. 
 
 Nazir Jung, marches against the Carnatic, 
 21, Is murdered, 23. 
 
 Nepaul in I8O6, 354. War, 380. Treaty 
 ratified, 384. 
 
 Nicholson, Captain, invading force under, 
 10. 
 
 Nicholson, Captain P., with other officers, 
 killed at Ferozshuhur, 602. 
 
 Norford. Captain, death at Deeg, 309. 
 
 North, Hon. Mr., governor of Ceylon, 440 
 et seq. 
 
 Nott, Gen., his gallantry at Candahar, 
 653. His constancy, 557. Victorious 
 march on and destruction of Ghuznee, 
 560, Victory over 12,000 Afghans, 564, 
 
 Nuncomar's execution, 124. 
 
 Ochterlony, Sir David, his defence of 
 Delhi, 305. At Nepaul, 381, Is recom- 
 pensed, 386, Remarkably distinguished, 
 438. Marches on Bhurtpoor, 501, His 
 death, 502, 
 
 Omdut-ul-Omrah, 219, His treachery 
 towards the English, 259. His death, 
 260, 
 
 Omichund, his bargain, 41, Is undeceived, 
 46, His death, 46, 
 
 Oude, Hastings's arrangements with the 
 nabob of, 1 13, Disturbances and revo- 
 
 lutions in, 216, It' disaffected state, 
 250, Cession to the Company, 257. 
 
 Pagahm-mew. battle of, 494. 
 
 Paget, Sir Euvard, quells the mutinous 
 sepoys at Barrackpoor, 500, 
 
 Paniput, 320. 
 
 Patans, betray Nazir Jung, 23, Treachery 
 against the French, 23, 
 
 Patna, English residents at, massacred, 77' 
 
 Paull, Mr,, attempts to obtain impeachment 
 of the Marquis Wellesley, 333. 
 
 Peishwa of the Mahrattas, his treaty 
 with the English, 266, His dissimu- 
 lation, treats again, 400, 402, Renews 
 war, 403, Flight from Poonah, 405 et 
 seq. Treats with Sir J. Malcolm, 422, 
 Surrenders, 423. 
 
 Perron, M., assists the Mahrattas, 265. 
 Returns to Lucknow, 272. 
 
 Persia, invades Hindustan, 16. Embassy 
 to the court of, 251. Sir J. Malcolm's 
 embassy. 351 , Invasion of Herat by, 528, 
 
 Pigot, Lord, account of his government at 
 Madras, 99, 
 
 Pindarrees, war against the, 390, Con- 
 clusion of the war, 429, 
 
 Pitt's bill, 179. 
 
 Plassey, battle of, 43, 
 
 Pococke, Admiral, off Pondicherry, action 
 with Count d!Ache, 51 ; another action 
 at Trincomalee, 59, 
 
 Pollock, General, his advance on Jellala- 
 bad, 553, Rebeves the town, 558. 
 
 Pondicherry, French factory at, IJ. Be- 
 sieged by the English, 19. Surrender of 
 the town, 76. Restoration to the 
 French, 77. 
 
 Poonah and its peishwa, 388, Political 
 troubles, 400 et seq. 
 
 Popham, Captain, takes Gwalior, 131, At 
 Chunar, l65. 
 
 Portuguese settlements, 5. Intrigues 
 against English, 8. 
 
 Powell, Col,, subdues Bundelkund, 284. 
 
 Prome, occupied, 483. 
 
 Punjaub war, 625 et seq. Annexed, 631, 
 
 Raffles, Sir Stamford, his plan for British 
 supremacy in the Indian archipelago, 
 364, Appointed lieutenant-governor of 
 Java, 367. At Singapore, 439. 
 
 Ragoba, the Mahratta chief, 123. Assisted 
 by Hastings, 125. Delivered up as host- 
 age, 128. Escapes from prison, 130. 
 
 Rajah Saheb, invests Arcot, 25. His sud- 
 den flight, 27. 
 
 Ramnuggur, disaster at, 627. 
 
 Rangoon captured, 454. Sickness of troops 
 there, 460. 
 
 Raymond, M., in the Deckan, 215. 
 
 Regulating Act, IO6. 
 
 Rohilcund invaded, 116. 
 
 Roe, Sir Thomas, embassy of, 8. 
 
 Rumbold, Sir Thomas, governor of Ma- 
 dras, fi9- 
 
 Runjeet Singh, rajah of Bhurtpoor, attacked, 
 311. Capitulates, 31 6. Treaty with, 351 . 
 
INDEX. 
 
 639 
 
 lunjei't Singh, of Lahore, meets grovernor- 
 general at Roiper, 511. His death, 
 643. 
 
 lunjoor Singh, commands Sikhs atAliwal, 
 605. 
 
 aadut Ali, his death, 38/. 
 t. Htleua, 10. 
 
 iaUbut Jung, 31. Is ungrateful to the 
 Frenrh ; cedes provinces to Bussy, 32. 
 ale, J^Iajor, success at Kemmendine, 4/0. 
 Occupies Basse n, 482. Brigadier Sale 
 at the stormin;,' of Ghuznee, 542. At 
 Jellalabad, 553, His death, 595. 
 alsette taken by the Company, 123. 
 arawaddy, prince of, commands the Bur- 
 mese, 464. 
 
 attara. rajah instituted, 419. 
 icinde. treaty with, 350. Ameers of Scinde, 
 their treacherous behaviour, Scindian 
 war proclaimed, 565. Character of the 
 g-overnment of the ameers, 570. Sir 
 Ch arles Napier appointed governor of the 
 province, 671. 
 
 eindi ah, the Mahratta chief, his prepara- 
 tion^s for war, 266. Defeated at Assaye, 
 271. And at Delhi, 2/2. Signs treaty of 
 peac 1, 279. Other treaties, 3! 9, 324. 
 
 I His duplicity, 410. 
 
 [iikhs o:* Scikhs, invade Delhi, 16. Embassy 
 toth<,346. Their disordered state, 5S I. 
 Murders and revolutions, 582, 583. The 
 " Punches," 584. Their defeat at Mood- 
 kee, 595. 
 
 IJepoys, details relating to, 29, 30. 
 
 Seringapatam threatened by Fullarton, 150. 
 First siege by Cornwallis, 204. Second 
 siege ly General Harris, 231. 
 
 Shah J um, grant to, 87. His degraded 
 cond ion as mogul, 112. In the Rohilla 
 war, .LI7. Welcomes Lord Lake at Delhi, 
 273. 
 
 Shapuree, island of, taken, 450. 
 
 Shere Singh deserts our army, 626. Sur- 
 renders to the British, 631. " 
 
 Shore, Sir John, appointed governor-gene- 
 ral, 209. His pacific policy, 211. De- 
 poses Vizier Ali, and raises Saadut Ali to 
 the throne of Oude, 2 17. Character of 
 his administration, 219. His resigna- 
 tion, 220. 
 
 Shujah-ul-Mulk, king of Cabul, 346. 
 
 Siam, embassy to, 439. King of, his con- 
 duct during the Burmese war, 466. 
 
 Simla, council at, 530. Lord Ellenborough, 
 proclamation at, 564. 
 
 Singapoor, rise of, 439. 
 
 Smith, Gen., pursues Meer Khan, 313. 
 Follows the peishwa, 418. 
 
 Snv.th, Sir Henry, at battle of Moodkee, 
 At Ferozshuhur, 598. March to 
 .anah, 6U4. Leads at Aliwal, 6u5. 
 1, battle of, 606 et seq. 
 t. Major, killed, 602. 
 , battle of, 420. 
 . Captain, his death, 426. 
 
 .-)ca( . y, Brigadier, leads infantry at So- 
 braon, 6O8. 
 
 Staunton, Captain, and other oflBcers, their 
 courage at Corregaum, 41 7. 
 
 Stuart, General, commands at Madras, 145, 
 Superseded, 148. 
 
 Suffrein, admiral of the French fleet, 140. 
 Fights with Hughes, 142, 144, I47. 
 
 Sujah-Dowlah, nabob of Oude, conspires 
 against Meer Jaffier, 63. Is made vizier 
 to Shah Alum, '8. Defeated at Buxar, 
 85. And at Corah, 86. Treaty with the 
 English, 86. His death, 121. 
 
 Sujah, Shah, his triumphant entrance into 
 Cabul, 543. Maintains himself in the 
 Balla Hissar, 552. His death by as- 
 sassination, 559. 
 
 Suraj-u-Dowlah, succeeds his grandfather, 
 Aliverdy Khan, 34. Threatens the En- 
 glish at Calcutta, 34. Takes Cossimbu- 
 zar, 35. Takes Calcutta, 37. Is beaten 
 by Clive, and implores for peace, 40. 
 Defeated at Plassey, 44. Flight from 
 Bloorshedabad, 45. His capture and 
 death, 46. 
 
 Surat, factory at, 7. Seized by the Jfogul, 
 11. Blisgovernmentof the Nabob there, 
 263. The Company assumes the govern- 
 ment, present condition of, 263. 
 
 Sutledge, the, crossed by our troops, 61O. 
 
 Suttee abolished, 510. 
 
 Tanjore, war with, 19. Conquered, 98. 
 The Company obtains sovereign rule 
 there, 262. 
 
 Tej Singh, reinforces Sikhs at Ferozshuhur, 
 600. 
 
 Templeton, Lieutenant, killed at Bhurt- 
 poor, 314. 
 
 Tent contract, 357. 
 
 Thackwell, Sir J., at Sobraon, 610. 
 
 Thomas, Geo., the Irish rajah, 320. 
 
 Timour's conquests, 7. 
 
 Tinnevelly, spread of Christianity there, 
 375. 
 
 Tippoo Saib attacks Madras, is defeated 
 by Colonel Smith, 95. Actions on the 
 Coromandel coast, 136, 142. Succeeds 
 his father Hyder, 145. Siege of Man- 
 galore, 155. Makes peace, 158. Renewal 
 of war, 188. Description of his forces, 
 189. His character, 190. Invades Tra- 
 vancore, 193. Besieged in Seringapatam, 
 204. Accepts conditions of tne Com- 
 pany, 205. His sons restored to him, 
 220. His ill-will to the Englis-h, 220. 
 His preparations for a new war, treaty 
 with the French, 225. Defeated at Mal- 
 lavelly, 230. Retreats, and is besieged 
 in Seringapatam, 231. His death, 231. 
 Burial, 232. Some details of his habits, 
 233, 234. Dismemberment of his empire, 
 236. His sons, 236. Happy results to 
 the Company of Tippoo's last war, 238, 
 240. 
 
 Todd, Captain, murdered by Holkar, 293. 
 
 Travancore invaded by Tippoo, 193. 
 
 Treaty at Moorshedabad, 45. 
 
 Trichinopoly besieged by Chunda Saheb, 
 
G40 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 23. Relieved by Lawrence, 28. Besieged 
 by the French, 31. 
 Trimbukjee murders the Shastri, 388. His 
 imprisonment and escape, 389- His cap- 
 ture, 424. 
 
 Umballa, 587. 
 
 Upton, Colonel, at Poonah, 123. 
 
 Vansittart, Governor, 78. 
 
 Vellore, mutiny at, 337. 
 
 Vizier Ali, 251. His flight, 253. Invades 
 Oude, flies to the rajah of Jypoor, 
 is delivered up, imprisoned at Vellore, 
 there dies, 256. 
 
 Waldemar, Prince, at Ferozshuhur, 603. 
 Walker, Colonel, operations against the 
 
 Pindarrees, 39/. 
 Wallace, Colonel, takes Chandore, 310. 
 Walsh, Captain, attacked by Meer Khan, 
 
 312. 
 Watson, Admiral, attacks Angria pirates, 
 
 33. Sails to Calcutta, 39. Seizes Chan- 
 
 dernagore with Clive, 40. His death, 47. 
 Wellesley, Colonel Arthur, commands the 
 
 nizam's force, joins Harris at Vellore, 
 
 230. At the siege of Seringapatam, 231. 
 
 Is commandant of the town, establishes 
 
 order and confidence, 234, 235. C. - 
 paign against Dhoondiah VVaugh and hig 
 marauders, 241, 243. Removed from 
 Mysore to act in Ceylon, returns .^ 
 Bombay, 244. To Mysore, 249. Mo 
 to Seringapatam, 268. Battle of A^ 
 269. Argaum, 276. Besieges G 
 Ghur, 277. His marches, 279. Hi^ 
 of draught cattle, 281. And of brinj:. 
 282. Review of his operations in 1 
 288. The duke of Wellington m , 
 vote of thanks .to Lord EUenborough iu 
 the House of Lords, 571. 
 
 Wellesley, Honourable Henry, concludec 
 a treaty at Lucknow with the king < 
 Oude, 257. Takes charge of the pr- j 
 vinces ceded, 258. 
 
 Wheeler, Mr., member of council, 125. 
 
 Whish, General, at siege of Mooltan, ; ids, 
 
 Wilson, Commodore, defeats Dutch l^q^a 
 dron in the Hooghly, 71- 
 
 Yandaboo, treaty of peace signed at, '^''' 
 
 Zada Shah, his advance on Benga 1 
 His letter to Clive, 64. His retre a 
 Assumes title of " King of the w 
 78. 
 
 Zemaun Shah, 218, 250, 350. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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